Friday, April 25, 2008

Why Bonaventure Rocks!

"But if you wish to know how things come about, desire not understanding: ask for grace instead of instruction, the groaning of prayer not reading, the Spouse not the teacher, God not man, darkness not clarity, not light but fire"

St. Bonaventure, The Soul's Journey to God

2 comments:

Robyn said...

Wonderful.

"Not light but fire..." Yes.

Thank you for the reminder.

Alexander Martin said...

In my student days I wrote a paper or two about Bonaventure's theology of light. He distinguishes between lux and lumen. What the distinction is, I no longer remember. I passed pleasant hours in the Pontifical Institute Library in Toronto reading Bonaventure and others. At the time, there was a manuscript of Thomas Aquinas on display, a piece in his own handwriting.