Joseph Palatty
Our journey in search of the treasures of the history of philosophy reaches at the phase of Franciscan Scholastics, especially Bonaventure.
He was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher. He is known as the “Seraphic Doctor.” Seraph is one of the angels present at God’s throne who constantly praise Him. The prophet Isaiah (Read Isaiah 6:1-7) writes that the seraphim have six wings; one of them touched Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal. I believe the name means burning ones. This title emphasises the importance of the teachings of St Bonaventure. Many writings believed in the middle Ages to be his are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventure.
In Genesis 1:27, we read, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them.” This scriptural passage does not mean that God is in human form, but rather, that humans are in the image of God in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature. Bonaventure says “All things are imitations of divine being.” According to him, the object of philosophy is exemplarism. Exemplarism is the property that things have to being images of God. The object of philosophy is not the being of things considered in itself, but the being of things considered in relation to God, in being’s imitation of divine being. All things are imitations of God, but in different grades. What we have to do is to realize this divine element in us and to live in conformity to this divine nature within us.
The end of human life is God. Each and every event of human life is a progressive ascent toward God. St Augustine says, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its
rest in thee.” We are created unto God simply means our life is a movement towards God.
Bonaventure teaches the stages of the soul’s spiritual ascent to God as follows.
1. Knowledge of the vestiges of the Trinity in the sensible world.
2. Knowledge of the image of the Trinity in our soul, first in the natural potency of the soul and later in the supernatural potencies conferred by Grace.
3. Direct knowledge of God, first as Being and then as Goodness, which is spread and articulated in the Trinity.
At this point, the soul must abandon all intellectual operations and give God all its affection. In this stage much importance should be given to piety, interior joy, the divine gift, the Holy Spirit, the creative essence, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
