Semiotic Theory and Sacramentality in Hugh of Saint Victor

Ruben Angelici is a graduate of the University of Cambridge. He is a priest in England and holds degrees and expertise in theology, philosophy, biology, and music. He is a member of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Theologische Mediävistik, and has been a sessional lecturer in Theology and Church History at University of Manchester, Nazarene Theological College, UK. His areas of academic interests include philosophical and sacramental theology, scholastic theology and philosophy (particularly the XII century and the school of Saint Victor), the Nouvelle Théologie, semiotics, post-structuralism, and the philosophy of language. This is his second book on Victorine, philosophical theology.

• Introduction1 Pedagogy, Lectio, and Vera Philosophia2 The Signification of The Sign: Creation And Incarnation 3 The Christ-Centred Opus Restaurationis4 The Berengarian Controversy and Sign-Theory5 The Realist Character of Hugh of Saint Victor’s Mystical Sacramentality6 Sacramentality, Signification, and PoiesisConclusion

‘In this ground-breaking and beautifully-wrought study of the semeiopoietics of Hugh of St Victor (1096-1141), Ruben Angelici offers a detailed exposition of his ontological, cosmic and sacramental theory of signification which anticipates and criticises in advance contemporary theories of the sign. Angelici shows Hugh’s true radicalism in building a theory of post-Fallen meaning, rooted in the embodied salvific semeiopoiesis of Christ.’ – Catherine Pickstock, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK‘Hugh of St Victor was one of the most formidable intellectual presences in the exceptionally creative theological world of the twelfth century, but he has all too often been misread and used to support views which he did not hold. Angelici’s excellent discussion convincingly shows how he weaves together themes from Dionysius and Augustine to create a new theory of signs, and so the beginnings of a fresh approach to language - an approach that foreshadows some of what Aquinas says on the subject.Hugh’s theology of the sacraments and the sacramentality of the whole creation is the basis for a distinctive understand of the literal sense of the Bible and also for a unique interest in the ‘intelligence’ that is involved in physical work as well as traditional intellectual labour. Angelici establishes Hugh’s importance not only for the Middle Ages but for a number of contemporary theological discussions. This is a comprehensive, original and engaging study of a thinker whose stature is more fully recognised now than it has been for a long time.’ – Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, UK, and Archbishop Emeritus of Canterbury