grace are understood as having only limited application and not in general, while the preference is given to the idea of ​​ attaining of the intellect to the divine in the general case of knowing.
The arguments for the negative position are considered in their turn. They do not break the Bonaventure's conviction that God does participate in all our knowledge and that the latter is ultimately based on the illumination, but they oblige him to explain the complications and restate his positive position carefully in the Conclusion :
For knowledge with certitude, even in the state of wayfarers, the intellect must attain to the eternal reasons as that reason which regulates and motivates. It is not the sole principle of knowledge, nor is it attained in its clarity; but together with the proper created reason it is known obscurely and as in a mirror.
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Bonaventure clarifies this conclusion explicitly on the next four pages, but I would
emphasize a few important points:
1. In the case of certain knowledge the mind must be regulated by unchangeable and eternal rules which operate not by means of habit of the mind but by means of themselves as realities which are above the mind in the eternal truth (p.133).
2. For certain knowledge, the eternal reason is necessary involved as a regulative and motivating principle, but certainly not as the sole principle nor in its full clarity (134).
3. But along with the created reason, it is continued by us in part as is fitting in this life.
4. A creature is related to God as a vestige (as to its principle), as an image (as to its object), and as a likeness (as to an infused gift) (p.135).
Bonaventure proclaims divine cooperation "In any work accomplished by a creature":
as far as it is a vestige. . . as the creative principle
as far as it is a likeness. . . In a manner of an infused gift
as far as it is an image. . . as the moving cause (136)
The difficulties with the opposition are resolved in the following paragraph:
Since certain knowledge pertains to the rational spirit in as far as it is an image of God, it is in this sort of knowledge that the soul attains to the eternal reasons. But because it is never fully conformed to God in this life, it does not attain to the reasons clearly, fully, and distinctly, but only to a greater or lesser degree according to the degree of its conformity to God. . . . . it always attains to the reasons in some way (136).
So the mysterious existence of certainty in our seemingly contingent minds is explained
with this doctrine of light. The fact that we can doubt sometimes even the very existence
of God and his light is explained by the lesser degree of conformity of the image to the
exemplar. The latter is due to the deformity of gift and glory and could be mended. The
observable fact that we do learn from the world of sense is also explained:
Since the soul is not an image in its entirety, together with these eternal reasons it attains to the likeness of things abstracted from the sense image. These are proper and distinct principles of knowledge, and without them the light of the eternal reason is insufficient of itself to produce knowledge as long as the soul is in this wayfaring state. br/>
But at the same time mysterious cases of knowledge by saints an prophets which
seem to break the rule are also explained in the following lines:
. . . unless perhaps because of a special revelation, it transcends this state. This happens in the case of those who are drawn up into ecstasy and in the case of the revelations of certain prophets (p.136).
We can see that the theory does explain natural kinds of knowledge as well as the
supernatural ones and gives it a real metaphysical perspective. Aristotle's knowledge and Plato's wisdom find their reconciliation, and the teachings of the Fathers are paid homage, the theology is confirmed by the philosophy. Doesn't it look like an ideal picture? To me it is very attractive, and it gives me a great pleasure to continue the investigation of the theory, going through more and more details. So let us also look at the Itineraruim . p> As we have seen in the On the Reduction of Arts to Theology and the Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ , there are various kinds of knowledge and the knowledge of the eternal reasons or the divine mind is the highest of them all. While all of them naturally desirable to the human beings - as Aristotle writes in his Metaphysics : "All men by nature desire to know." (I: 1) - the knowl...
