Lateran IV: Theology and Care of Souls ed. by Clare Monagle, and Neslihan Şenocak (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Lateran IV: Theology and Care of Souls ed. by Clare Monagle, and Neslihan Şenocak
• Constant J. Mews

Monagle, Clare, and Neslihan Şenocak, eds, Lateran IV: Theology and Care of Souls ( Disputatio, 34), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023; hardback; pp. 219; 3 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €75.00; ISBN 9782503596808.

This volume, edited by two scholars interested in the interaction between theology and pastoral care, provides a helpful collection of perspectives both on the Fourth Lateran Council and the dynamic pope who drove its agenda. The Council was only one of several transformative happenings taking place in that year. Yet, as the editors describe in the 'Introduction', the Fourth Lateran Council would wield an immense impact over every dimension of Christian life in the Latin West. In the 'Introduction', Clare Monagle and Neslihan Şenocak also offer a cogent survey of the range of perspectives that have been taken on the Council. In one way, the Council can be seen as marking the apogee of papal ambition to reform pastoral care within the Church. Yet they also observe its concern to reinforce the power and privileges of the clergy within the Church, as well as their right to teach. The various chapters in this volume tend to position themselves somewhere along this spectrum between the poles of authority and reform. They combine to reinforce a message about the importance of this Council in defining both orthodoxy and the direction of pastoral care.

Monagle tackles the tension between these two perspectives in a paper boldly exploring the tension between theology and pastoral care in the official edicts of Lateran IV. The Council was unlike any that preceded it in singling out a single theologian, namely Peter Lombard, as the voice of orthodoxy, defending him against criticisms of his theology that had been made over two decades earlier by Joachim of Fiore. This was a decision with immense consequences for the future of theology; its effect was to marginalise those who sympathised with Joachite criticism of the rising tide of academic theology. Monagle argues that its deeper concern was to define the discourse of orthodoxy within an institution [End Page 329] in which competing perspectives were perceived as potentially undermining the authority of the Church. Her focus on the definition of orthodoxy is complemented by that of Marcia Colish, who seeks to unpack the intellectual tradition that underpinned the official vindication of Lombard's Trinitarian orthodoxy against the criticisms made by Joachim. Her sympathies are with the admirers rather than the critics of Lombard, whom she accuses of misreading his text. The most valuable part of her contribution is to unpack the debt of the official defence of Lombard's theology to the teaching of Stephen Langton about terms applied to God. Pope Innocent III appointed Langton to the cardinalate in 1206. His interest in distinguishing between signification and supposition provided a much more effective way of discussing theological terms than anything offered by Prepositinus of Cremona, chancellor of the emerging University of Paris in the years 1206–09. In this perspective, Lateran IV deserves attention as providing an authoritative justification for orthodoxy against incorrect arguments rather than against critics from outside the Parisian schools.

Juanita Feros Ruys offers a less traditional angle on the Council by picking up a small, but significant, detail, namely about the devil and other demons rather than the devil and his demons. She argues that while it was a long-established tradition to imagine the devil as in charge of his demons, the Council introduced a subtly different perspective that might have been influenced by Alan of Lille writing against heresy. She offers a close reading of Alan's demonology as that of a community rather than a hierarchy of demons. By contrast, William of Auvergne would reinstate a more traditional demonic hierarchy. While the implications of the Council's terminology are not fully laid out, its terminology perhaps reflects a more astute awareness of the great diversity of challenges then facing the Church.

Şenocak's paper, on the pastor as teacher, argues that Lateran IV produced a new model of pastoral care, in which emphasis was increasingly centred on the role of pastors as teachers...