The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore

Although Joachim of Fiore created a rather intriguing theology of history along with a primitive theory of hermeneutics, his importance for the historian of philosophy is most likely to be in his reaction to the trinitarian doctrine of Peter Lombard and in his influence on Bonaventura. Joachim invokes what he calls a spiritualis intellectus against the teaching of Peter Lombard. This spiritualis intellectus "includes both the preparation of arduous study and the experience of mystical illumination. It includes, thirdly, the phase of close intellectual work which follows the illumination, in which the ‘given’ clues are used to organize the gathered material into patterns which now emerge from within". This spiritualis intellectus, obviously mystical, is quite eschatological and numerological. Two, three, five, seven and twelve figure prominently and often in Joachim’s account of the panoply of history. The specific account of Joachim’s reasons for his opposition to Peter Lombard is quite interesting and, historically, very important. In this passage Joachim is linked with the anti-dialectical tradition which, led by St. Bernard of Clervaux, [[sic]] found scholastic theology to be static, dry and alien to spiritual experience. Scholastic theologians are following nothing but the carnalis intellectus.