BONAVENTURE PONDERING WITH AUGUSTINE: DE CIVITATE DEI 11.2 AND THE MAKING OF THE ITINERARIUM MENTIS IN DEUM

Abstract

This article presents Augustine's De civitate Dei 11.2 as a valuable but overlooked source of influence on Bonaventure's making of the Itinerarium mentis in Deum. First, a detailed exposition analyzes the structure and content of Augustine's compact mystical treatise on the “ascent of the mind to God” located at the turning points of his magnum opus. Second, a study of the prologue of the Itinerarium mentis in Deum demonstrates how this passage informed Bonaventure's conception of his unique project. Third, the article offers support for his explicit reception of De civitate Dei — and Book 11 in particular — through an annotated summary of Bonaventure's references to the work in his earlier and later written corpus. Initial findings present how Anonymi Contra philosophos appears to have functioned as a privileged point for reception of De civitate Dei 11.2 among the early Franciscans scholastics from Alexander of Hales to Bonaventure and Matthew of Aquasparta. The present research also offers a fresh case study through which to modify the central claims of Lydia Schumacher's scholarship on the Bonaventurean use of Augustine and the nature of early Franciscan theology. The closing section explores some of the possible influences shaping this approach. Finally, this article invites medievalists to expand their expectations of how De civitate Dei 11 may have communicated Augustine's thought through diverse forms of Franciscan reception and wide-ranging applications beyond the academy.