The Journey of the Mind to God

The book has the form of a philosophical-mystical literature. The language is metaphorical and allegorical. For instance, he uses the imagery of the Seraph, a biblical six-winged creature, which wings represents the six steps that the mind has to travel to reach God. Still, he makes an allegorical statement, "creatures of this visible world signify the invisible things of God (II.12). The book is an articulated way of integrating the spirituality of the monastic life and the scholasticism of his time. Yet, Bonaventura was against the equating of Aristotle's philosophy with Christian's authorities, a common practice among the scholars of his time, although, he was not against the use of Aristotle, for he himself uses it. For instance, one obvious idiosyncratic Aristotelian usage is his statement that the power to ascend to God is already "implanted within us by nature" (I.6), and the emphasis on moderation (or the mean) as better than the extremes (II.5). Likewise, he uses Aristotle's 'trinitarian' view of the soul as the paradigm for his argumentation of the three steps of the soul's contemplation. For Bonaventura, divine revelation, not human reason, is the highest way to achieve the correct understanding of God. God is to be revealed, not reasoned. Indeed, contemplation is the word that better can express his thought, as he says, "man was created fit for the quiet of contemplation." (I.7). Therefore, even the material world is not a hindrance to attain the soul's greatest desire, i.e., to contemplate God. He says, "The material universe itself is a ladder by which we may ascend to God." (I.2). But, interestingly, Christ is also called "our ladder" (I.3). Thus, he clearly shows that any God/World antagonistic dualism is not acceptable. Bonaventura's emphasis on revelation does not mean that he had not made use of reason; note the way he reasons the three-motif throughout the book. Besides reason, Bonaventura relies mainly on Scripture, Church tradition, and experience. One of Bonaventura's intentions is to demonstrate that spirituality can be possible without the excess of the so called "Spirituals", or "Zelanti", but also without the mitigations and innovations desired by the "Relaxti", the two factions within the Franciscan Order. The obsessive analysis based on numbers, which pervades the entire work and on which Bonaventura develops his argumentation, is due to his assumption that "number is the principal exemplar in the mind of the Creator." (II.10). Presupposition that is actually borrowed from the Roman philosopher Boethius, and also exposed in the teachings of Aristotle who used mathematics to illustrate his idea of the mean. Founded on that premise, Bonaventura evolves his book in an 'arithmetical manner'. Therefore, there are "three steps" or the "triple way of seeing" (I.3), which is expanded into six (I.5). There is also a "sevenfold distinction" (II.10). There are five senses (IV.3). There are "nine degree of orders", w

In this short book Bonaventure traces out the spiritual ascent which leads to the vision of God, dividing the journey into six stages. The first step after accepting Christ is to turn to God, completely. "Divine help", writes Bonaventure, "comes to those who seek it from their hearts humbly and devoutly; and this means to sigh for it in this vale of tears, aided only by fervent prayer. Thus prayer is the mother and source of ascent in God". The importance of prayer lies in that it opens the doors to grace, without which the ascent cannot be completed. Apart from prayer and humility before God, Bonaventure also exhorts the aspirant to live a holy life. For sin deforms nature, and becomes an obstacle on the way. The next stage is reflection. Apart from contemplating scripture, Bonaventure adjures the way-farer to reflect over what is outside of himself, namely the world of the senses. Being an image of God, its contemplation is support to reaching the end of the journey; for in the world "there are traces", writes Bonaventure, "in which we can see the reflection of our God". But God is not only found outside, he is also found within, and his traces can be seen in the natural powers He has bestowed upon humans. Memory is one such example. Through reflection over what is within the soul rises closer to God. Since nothing is greater than the human mind except its Creator, the mind yearns for its Source, longing for its Origin. If the individual receives grace, he will see the affinity to what is inside of him to what is above, ie. God. However reflection is not the highest state. The mind does not simply wish to know, but also to see; vision is the culmination of the ascent. Bonaventure elaborates upon this theme in the last chapter. The mystical vision requires an abandoning of all formal attachments. Because the peak-mystical experience is a "union" with the One, every things that binds, attaches, and separates must be removed. Reflection, which is the activity of the intelligence, must also halt, for ideas are delimited and cannot comprehend nor enclose the Infinite. Furthermore, reflection is itself a distraction from the experience. The peak-experience is supra-intellectual. Its founational elements: "grace", "desire", and "the cry of prayer" are the first steps of the journey without which the end cannot be reached. Bonaventure contends that ultimately the peak-experience is inexpressible, which "no man knoweth but he that received it". But what he does say is that it is an experience of superluminous darkness. Mystics throughout the ages have described their encounters with "the One" in terms of an encounter with either complete light or darkness. Interestingly, Plotinus, whom Bonaventure considered to have never completed the journey, claimed to have undergone the peak mystical experience through which he too was witness to the Divine Light.