tic, and the existence of the spiritual light, bliss and the visions beyond physical senses is an immediate reality for him; also he is a scholar. Therefore, he attempts to synthesize different theoretical views into one consistent theory, which would account for the empirical, speculative and spiritual knowledge, and would be consistent with the Revelation of the Holy Scripture and Bonaventure's favorite thinker St. Augustine, "the wisest of them all ".
II
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How do we know? Plato used to say that there is knowledge and beliefs or opinions, and there are lovers of knowledge, or wisdom philosophers , and lovers of opinions philodoxers . The beliefs (opinions) could be beautiful but not true, while
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* Possibly Plotinus, Porphyry, Augustine or some medieval writers before Bonaventure. p> knowledge is always true. While certain beliefs when tested could collapse, the truth is resilient to any tests whether empirical or speculative (logical). Of course, Bonaventure is a believer, but he also thinks that he can show for something more then just a belief. For Bonaventure the question: "How do we know that something is true with certitude? "- is important. He thinks about this kind of knowledge of anything as of illumined by light. p> When the intellect knows something with certainty, it is because it is enlightened from above. He writes in his On the Reduction of Arts to Theology :
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the God of Lights , writes James. . . of the source of all illumination; but at the same time. . . there are many lights which flow generously from that fontal source of light. br/>В
Then pointing out the essentially internal nature of illumination of all knowledge he categorizes the varieties of such illumination:
Even though every illumination of knowledge is internal, still we can reasonably distinguish what can be called an exterior light of mechanical art; an inferior light, or the light of sense perception; an interior light of philosophical knowledge; and a superior light or the light of grace and of Sacred Scripture. The first light illumines with respect to the forms of artifacts ; the second with respect to natural forms ; the third, with respect to intellectual truth ; the forth and last with respect to saving truth . (P.37)
In other words, God of Lights gives knowledge to His creatures and directly inspires different kinds of pursuits of knowledge (arts) according to different aspects of that part of human nature, which is currently under investigation, and this is always for the sake of that creature. p> The creature is always enlightened directly from the Creator but in different applications of that One Light and normally follows the lead acquiring various kinds of useful knowledge co-operating in that intended enlightenment in all different spheres of its life. This theory truly reduces all kinds of knowledge to theology but in a meaningful and consistent way. p> Whatever is our knowledge we can always associate it with light, because we observe it empirically or intellectually. Even perfect spiritual knowledge is called beatific vision . Observing we see by light in all cases, that is why it is proper to relate all our knowledge to light. This approach is universal, and may be even more universal than some Bonaventurians would like to admit. In one of the ancient Upanishads of India it is described in the form of a dialog between a teacher and a student:
How do you see at the daytime?
- I see by the light of the sun.
And when it is night?
- By the light of the moon.
And when there is no moon?
- Then by the light of a candle.
And when there is no sun, moon or candle?
- Then, teacher, I somehow see by the light within.
In the Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ (q. 4, p. 115-117) Bonaventure quotes from St. Augustine On the Teacher :
In every instance where we understand something, we are listening not to someone who utters external words, but to that truth which guides us from the mind itself (1). br/>
The City of God:
Those whom we rightly prefer to all others have said that the very God by whom all things were made is the light of our minds by which we learn all things (4). br/>
On the Trinity:
When our soul so pleases us that we prefer it to all corporeal light, it is not the soul itself that pleases us but that art by which it was created. For a created thing is worthy of approval in reference to that source w...
