St. Bonaventure

       In philosophy, there are various ways of categorizing philosophical subdisciplines and areas, for instance, the four major historical eras, namely; ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary philosophy. Focusing on the medieval philosophy, it refers to dominant philosophical or theological thought from the 5th to the 15th centuries C.E. It is characterized halfway by the way toward rediscovering the ancient culture created in Greece and Rome in the classical period, and mostly by the need to deliver theological problems and to incorporate sacred doctrine with common learning. The issues discussed all through this period are the purpose of theology and methaphysics, the existence of God, the relation of faith to reason, and the complication of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation.

       One of the notable thinkers of the era, St. Bonaventure appears here, not as an imperfect follower of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, but as a genius who can elaborate a complete and consistent philosophic-theological system within the Augustinian and Franciscan traditions. St. Bonaventure, born as Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian medieval Franciscan theologian and philosopher. He is otherwise called as the “Seraphic Doctor.” He was canonised by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pop Sixtus V. After his significant contributions led to a union of the Greek and Latin churches, Bonaventure died suddenly and in suspicious circumstances. The 1913 release of the Catholic Encyclopedia has citations that propose he was poisoned, however, no specification is made of this in the 2003 second edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. The main surviving relic of the saint is the arm and hand with which he composed his Commentary on the Sentences, which is presently conserved at Bagnoregio, in the parish church of St. Nicholas.

       Like all the colossal scholastic doctors, Bonaventure begins with the discourse of the relations among reason and faith. All the sciences are yet the handmaids of religious philosophy; reason can find a portion of the ethical realities that shape the preparation of the Christian system, however, others can just get and apprehend through divine illumination. To acquire this illumination, the soul must employ the proper means, which are prayer, the exercise of the virtues, whereby it is rendered fit to acknowledge the perfect light, and reflection that may rise even to a good relationship with God. The incomparable end of life is such union, union in contemplation or intellect and in extraordinary absorbing love; yet it can't be completely reached in this life, and remains as a hope for what's to come.

       Bonaventure, like Aquinas and other noticeable thirteenth-century philosophers and theologians, believed that it is conceivable to prove the existence of God and the eternality of the soul. He offers a several arguments for the existence of God, including adaptations of St. Anselm's ontological argument and Augustine's contention from unceasing certainties. His primary argument for the immortality of the soul claims to people's common desire for perfect happiness, and is reminiscent of C. S. Lewis's argument from desire. As opposed to Aquinas, Bonaventure did not believe that philosophy was a self-ruling pupil that could be pursued successfully independently of theology. Any philosopher will undoubtedly fall into genuine blunder, he believed, who does not have the light of faith.

       Bonaventure’s philosophy about the existence of God is something that I also believe. As a Christian, I believe that He is real despite of the fact that we can’t see Him. However, we can still feel his presence and unconditional love for us. If there are such things as love at first sight, so does the love without sight. Other people might say, “How can you believe and love someone you haven’t seen yet?” One good example of this is a mother’s unquestionable love for her child even though she hasn’t seen her baby yet. As a support, according to Augustine, “There must be some even greater being that is the eternal source of the reality of these things, and that, of course, must be God.”

       In conclusion, philosophical reason has neither its root nor its end in the natural universe, yet it must, as reason, overcome certain facts which as systematized, form the very substance of philosophy. The first, the most urgent, is the existence of God; and it is maybe likewise the easiest to seize, for it is in itself very evident, but this is only if it presents itself in such a pretense, to the point that nothing hinders us from seeing it.