Works of St. Bonaventure: On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology

by Bonaventure, Zachary Hayes (Editor)

In his treatise, De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam, a work of remarkable brevity and originality of expression, St. Bonaventure deals with the relation of the finite to the infinite, of the natural to the supernatural in a way which well establishes his preeminence as a mystic, a philosopher, and a theologian. This translation and commentary brings to the modern day reader an appreciation of the return of all created things to God.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Medieval, Religion, Education, Art, Catholic

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Bonaventure (b. 1221 as John of Fidanza) was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher, the eighth Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor. He was a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonized on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor" (Latin: "Doctor Seraphicus"). Many writings believed in the Middle Ages to be his are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventura.

Reviews

[Taylor]

Wow, I need time to digest this. But that was fascinating and incredibly helpful.

[Dominic Muresan]

A small booklet regarding the relevance of all knowledge to the revealed knowledge of God. All learning is supposed to lead our minds towards God and help on our path to sanctification, thus, that means they all have something in common with Theology - with the doctrine of God. Bonaventure, in his distinct style of giving you something really easy to think through and read and then, Bam!, some delicate philosophical language which forces you to go back and read the commentary - which I found pretty useful as succint as it is.

9.5/10

[Pater Edmund]

Wow. This is really good. Bonaventure makes Hugh of St Victor's Disdascalicon look like rough notes for this polished masterpiece.

[Scott Bielinski]

The future of evangelical theological retrieval requires adding Bonaventure and Hugh of St. Victor to the mix. His argument in this book has a lot of natural overlap with Bavinck and how Bavinck thinks about the relationship between God, fields of knowledge, and the human.

"And this is the fruit of all sciences, that in all, faith may be strengthened, God may be honored, character may be formed, and consolation may be derived from union of the Spouse with the beloved, a union which takes place through charity: a charity in which the whole purpose of sacred Scripture, and thus of every illumination descending from above, comes to rest - a charity without which all knowledge is vain because no one comes to the Son except through the Holy Spirit who teaches us all the truth, who is blessed forever. Amen." (61)

[Lancelot Schaubert]

I knew this would be good and quick, I did not know that it would be so fundamental to a thesis I've been mulling over for the past decade:

If we consider the production, we shall see that the work of art proceeds from the artisan according to a similitude that exists in the mind. The artisan studies this pattern or model carefully before producing the artifact and then produces the object as planned. Moreover the artisan produces an external work bearing the closest possible resemblance to the interior exemplar. And if it were possible to produce an effect which could know and love the artisan, the artisan would certainly do this. And if that effect could know its maker, this would be by means of the similitude according to which it came from the hands of the artisan. And if the eyes of its understanding were so darkened that it could not be elevated above itself in order to come to a knowledge of its maker, it would be necessary for the similitude according to which the effect was produced to lower itself to that sort of nature which the effect could grasp and know.

You'll see more from me on this, but he's basically predicting all of metafiction, pulling from Boethius and Synesius of Cyrene. It's an incredible observation about the nature of imagination and of creative works in general, something it seems like the whole of my life has culminated towards:

The proper reconciliation of theology and literature, the pulpit and the poem, the thinker and the thespian. It's a clean read, swift, well translated, easy to understand, and worth having on your shelf if you're an artist or a thinker.

[LMS]

Michael Scott: “there are four kinds of business: tourism, food service, railroads, and sales. And hospitals-slash-manufacturing. And air travel.”

Bonaventure: “there are seven mechanical arts. Weaving, armor-making, agriculture, and hunting. And navigation-slash-medicine. And drama.”

[George]

A beautiful and important expression of medieval understanding of the integration of all forms of knowledge. It it well explained by the editor and the text itself, although very brief, is wonderfully profound.

[Kyle Rapinchuk]

Bonaventure's work is a thoughtful exposition of how the arts relate to theology. Bonaventure's main contention is that all knowledge flows out from God and has as its end humanity's union with God. This work has profound implications for education that our modern educational outlook has overlooked. As Christians, if our ultimate purpose is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever, and in so doing be brought into union with God, and if all knowledge emanates from God as its source, then all learning must be done with a recognition that our goal in education, as in all things, is union with God. Commenting on Bonaventure's work, Zachary Hayes writes in the introduction, "Learning, therefore, is an important element in the spiritual journey, at least for certain people; though not necessarily for all. But even for those whose way to God includes the discipline of the intellectual life, the goal of intellectual culture is not knowledge for the sake of knowledge" (9). I look forward to considering this topic further in future posts on a classical Christian website I co-founded, www.theclassicalthistle.com.

[Rey Carlo Sajulan]

This has confirmed and affirmed for me something that I had personally believed and thought of all along. It is indeed also a very pleasant surprise since this book has helped a lot with my ongoing thesis for my licentiate in Philosophy. Indeed, Bonaventure is a very profound thinker!

[Alex]

This is not a difficult work at all. However, no word is wasted so it requires careful and attentive reading. A careful and attentive reader will be greatly rewarded by the reflections of Bonaventure. As I was reading I kept thinking "Bonaventure did 'trisperpectivalism' before it was cool and he did better than both Frame and Poythress."

If I could summarize the work in a sentence - all knowledge and arts contain echoes of the Trinity and there are echoes of the Trinity in all knowledge and arts.

In other words, life only makes sense if it was created by the Triune God who is gives many gifts. I thoroughly enjoyed this work. My only quibble as a protestant was the tidbit of Marian devotion that was presented in his arguments. It didn't really add to anything Bonaventure was saying from my vantage point.

[Jack W.]

This book needs to be deeply read and considered by proponents of the classical education movement. Bonaventure reveals a beautiful and abiding vision of the unity of education, nay, knowledge itself. He has a number of fascinating overlaps with James Jordan, though he is very wed to the medieval platonic tradition. His use of the six days of creation was also significant and a little unexpected. I would highly recommend for anyone considering what it means to learn and know and love and act as a Christian.

[Caleb Harris]

Not going to lie: I really didn't care for this work--either for Bonaventure's approach, language, or contribution, or for this particular edition, which removes the original Latin text to the end of the book away from the English translation. Maybe I'm just missing something major with the virtues of Bonaventure's approach, but to me it just seemed an exercise in the fanciful medieval hermeneutics of free-association--an approach I'm even less a fan of after reading this book.

[Faith Key]

4.2 ?

"And this is the fruit of all sciences, that in all, faith may be strengthened, God may be honored, character may be formed, and consolation may be derived from union of the Spouse with the beloved, a union which takes place through charity...a charity without which all knowledge is vain."

the man reallly loved lists. this had me then lost me then had me again (x5). i found the commentary excellent as well despite being as long as the book itself

[aaliyah]

quite beautiful! easy to grasp and a quick read :)

[João Cirilo]

Li os comentários da edição americana e o texto de S. Boaventura em português.

Obra fantástica.

[Stuart]

Van Til would be proud.

With an astounding synthesis of Christology, Trinitarian theology, and an exemplaristic metaphysic, St. Bonaventure whips through an argument so tight and so packed, that it will take at least two more readings to even begin understanding the breadth of his project. He shows succinctly how the manifold wisdom of God is found in all forms of human knowledge, and that it all is traceable (reducible) back to the "Father of Lights."

This is a veritable gold mine of wisdom contained in just a 26 paragraph argument. The commentary provided by Zachary Hayes is excellent. It gives the new reader everything needed to understand Bonaventure's logic. This little work has been a springboard for me to more reading on Bonaventure's, metaphysics, Christology, and the Trinity.

It is not difficult to understand, even for the non-philosopher/theologian. Highly recommended to get one's head on straight regarding the relationship of Christ to all human endeavors.

[Jeremy]

Dense, but short. The first 34 pages are commentary, and the rest of the book is parallel Latin and English, so the actual Bonaventure text is only 13 pages. The main point, as you can deduce from the title, is that everything in life has its source in God. God is the Father of lights, and from Him emanates all things. Bonaventure's task, then, is to trace various disciplines back to the source, for our end/purpose/goal in life is to come into union with our Creator.

[Daniel Mcclain]

a must for anyone wanting to understand the medieval approach to education, and especially the paradigmatic Bonaventurian approach.

[Emerson John Tiu Ng]

...Theology of St. Bonaventure... everybody will return back to the origin... God is the source of light...

[Davis Smith]

Really excellent, and should be much better known. There are few richer and more exemplary summations of the medieval world picture.