Bonaventure
For him, all knowledge was a ladder, and every rung led the mind a step closer to God.
A Franciscan who taught at Paris alongside Aquinas and later led his order, Bonaventure held that reason and love are not rivals but partners on a single road. His Journey of the Mind to God maps the soul's ascent from the traces of the divine in the natural world, through the image of God within the mind, to a union that finally outruns thought altogether. Where his contemporaries leaned on Aristotle, he kept faith with Augustine and the older mystical tradition, insisting that the point of understanding is not to possess truth but to be drawn toward its source.
Places
Ideas
Words
“Ask grace, not instruction; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not diligence in reading.”
Works
Life & Moments
Born in Bagnoregio
Born in a hill town of central Italy, he entered the Franciscan order and studied at Paris.
Teaching at Paris
Taught alongside Aquinas at Paris, holding that reason and love are partners on a single road to God.
Minister General of the Franciscans
Elected to lead his order, he balanced its governance with the contemplative ascent of the mind toward God.
The Journey of the Mind to God
Mapped the soul's ascent from traces of the divine in nature to a union that outruns thought altogether.
Influence
Influenced by
- Augustine
Bonaventure kept faith with Augustine and the mystical tradition where his contemporaries leaned on Aristotle.
- Hugh of Saint Victor
Bonaventure drew on the Victorine account of the mind's stages of ascent and names Hugh among the authorities standing behind his own map of the soul's journey into God.
