‘Un instant’ is not ‘no instant’: Philosophy at the service of critical editing in a sermon by St. Vincent Ferrer

Abstract

In the sermons of the preacher Saint Vincent Ferrer we often find references to theological questions related to some problem of natural philosophy. It is important to analyse in detail the philosophical background of these questions in order to be able to edit the text of the reportationes correctly. In this study a specific case is analysed in which earlier editions of a sermon introduce a reading that turns out to be erroneous in a passage concerning the instantaneous action of grace on the contrite sinner. The treatment in Aristotle's Physics of the problem of the instantaneous change between two contradictory states, taken up by scholastic theologians, allows us to understand the Vincentian passage and to restore the original text of the sermon.