Arguments Of Bonaventure

Cullen, Christopher. Bonaventure. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

This book made by Cullen is so crucial in this research for it offers a bird’s eye view of Bonaventure’s writings and thoughts. Aside from that, it also serves as a great introduction for some scholars or interested in mediaeval thinking especially that of Bonaventure’s. The author attempted to analyze Bonaventure’s thought by following the philosopher’s own discussion of sciences and presented Bonaventure’s perspective on the ways where philosophy and theology come together. There are some scholars who do not consider Bonaventure and other medieval thinkers as not classified philosophers. However, Cullen presented some arguments of Bonaventure that attests the
Bonaventure’s different senses of the term. First, wisdom in both subjective and objective sense. This refers to a quality of mind in the human subject as well as to an object of the mind which brings the subjective quality upon sufficient familiarity. Second, it is also applied in a less-common sense that refers to the cognition of the things. It is where Bonaventure distinguishes wisdom from science, that is the cognition of created things. Third, wisdom is used in a proper sense. It is the cognition of God according to piety. It is a cognition of God as worshipped in faith, hope, and love. Lastly, wisdom in a stricter sense, refers to the mind’s ecstatic union with God. This sense was very evident on the way the Seraphic Doctor devoted his life and work as wisdom directed to the final end. Bonaventure associates wisdom with one of its principal effects, a peace born of ecstatic going out of the self into the loving union with God. It is in this sense that wisdom becomes a “Christian Wisdom” for man’s going out of the self signifies a realization that it is only Christ who makes possible this ascent of the mind into
For St. Bonaventure, philosophy should not be pursued for its own sake but this must be of service to theology which is the end of every knowledge as explained on his work “On the Reduction of Arts to Theology”. This book will be of great help in the research, since it provides a bird’s eye view of the philosophy of St. Bonaventure. The researcher will benefit from this book since the author discussed wisdom and the connection of philosophy and theology which is also central to Bonaventure’s Itinerarium that the researcher would use as a basis. However, this research aims to delve more on establishing the virtue of prudence in explaining a particular ethical dimension in St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium and that differentiate from the