PHIL 795 Bonaventure and His Sources
This course will focus on Augustinian themes in the thought of St. Bonaventure (1217-1274) and his Franciscan predecessors and contemporaries. Chief among the themes singled out for treatment and examination are the following: the intellectual journey of the human person back to God, the existence and nature of God, the divine ideas, the notion of creation, the human person as an imago Dei and microcosm of the world order, the role of sense and intellect within human knowledge, the doctrine of illumination, elements of moral psychology, and the return of all knowledge by tracing it to its source in God. After surveying the necessary background in St. Augustine and St. Anselm, we shall read Bonaventure's De reductione artium ad theologiam, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, and selections from his Commentarius in libros Sententiarium provided in English translation. In addition, the same themes will be considered in other Franciscan authors of the period. Although reading knowledge of Latin is not required for this course, it is desirable and recommended.