Bonaventures the Souls Journey to God - Term Paper Example

? Bonaventure’s The Soul’s Journey to God is a detailed account of how we travel toward our union with God. Bonaventure describes six different degrees, referred to by Bonaventure as the “six steps of illumination” that make up the path toward union with God. Bonaventure is an inspirational writer, who was influenced himself by Saint Augustine. This can be seen in the ongoing metaphor of Light. Bonaventure makes the point throughout the text that you can be aware of the light of Christ, and that is what compels you to turn toward his Grace. The path detailed in The Soul’s Journey to God is a path to ecstasy, to truly knowing the Creator. Bonaventure describes this path as, “the road by which this rapture is reached” (54). This is a path that no believer can pass through alone. It is only through Christ that we can attain ecstasy. “There is no other path but through the burning love of the Crucified” (54). So one must both desire to be close to God, have faith and love, and also realize that you cannot do it yourself. You must have the help of Christ to attain your goal. We attain the first degree through “an outcry of prayer” and “the flash of insight” (55). Both of these must come through Christ. Bonaventure issues an invitation: “I invite the reader to the groans of prayer through Christ crucified.” But the first step is purification of the spirit. Bonaventure admonishes that you must first exercise your conscience and experience remorse. But again, one must begin with Christ. “We cannot rise above ourselves unless a Higher Power lifts us up” (59). This process involves a three-prong process, which according to Bonaventure, mirrors the three days in the wilderness described in Exodus. He also compares it to the three periods of light in a day: evening, morning, and noon. He also relates it to the threefold essence of Christ. This three-prong process begins with the material. The second prong is about the spirit. And the third prong is the mind. These are much like the three essences of God, which are material, temporal, and exterior. In order to know God, you must pass through his essences. Since God had a literal Hand in creating all things in the physical world, you can find Him in all physical things. Therefore, all physical things on the Earth can point you toward God. Thus, the three-prongs of understanding and readying yourself for an encounter with God begin with the material, move toward the spirit, and then lastly through the mind. Bonaventure explains that any of these prongs can be doubled, which is why he has broken the process into six steps. Bonaventure explains the correlation to the creation of the universe. God took six days to create the world and then took the seventh day to rest. Our world is a minute version. As Bonaventure explains, “so the smaller world of man is led in a most orderly fashion by six successive stages of illumination to the quiet of contemplation” (61). This also corresponds to the six stages of the powers of the soul. Bonaventure explains that we ascend through these stages: “sense, imagination, reason, understanding, intelligence, and the summit of the mind…we have these implanted in us by nature, deformed by sin, and reformed by grace. They must be cleansed by justice” (62). Returning to this quiet of contemplation is akin to returning to our original state of being. We were created as perfect for the quiet of contemplation. However, when Adam and Eve turned away from their original intention, mankind was also turned from our perfect state of being, designed for the quiet of contemplation. Our next phase after examining the material is to look into our spirit and see where we can find God. God’s image is not only spiritual, but everlasting. We must see how our interior reflects God, who created us all. Bonaventure uses the metaphor of a mirror. You are both looking for God in a mirror and through a mirror. Bonaventure explains that ascendancy to God requires the avoidance of sin, “which deforms our nature” (63). The only path to avoid sin is through prayer, as man is not capable of resisting temptation one hundred percent of the time on his own. Prayer is the foundation of everything else. There is no hope of ecstasy without it. “We must first pray, then live holy lives, and thirdly concentrate our attention upon the reflections of truth” (63). Matter of fact, this is less of a “step,” which almost implies something you can move through and finish, and more of a constant practice throughout the experience and throughout your lifetime. Bonaventure spends a lot of time on prayer, which should underscore its importance. The first degree is again to seek out God in the material world. This involves contemplation of the presence of God within every living thing. “From these visible things, therefore, one rises to consider the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as existing, living, intelligent, purely spiritual, incorruptible, and unchangeable” (64-65). The recognition of God in all things “proclaims the divine power that produces all things from nothing” (65). To contemplate the material world and consider its beauty, its function, its order, and its sheer genius is to begin to realize the true greatness of God. There is so much wonder in the world and we tend to take it all for granted. “Whoever, therefore, is not enlightened by such splendor of created things is blind” (67). Bonaventure explains that we must use our God-given talents, skills, and senses to led us toward God. “Man therefore, who is called the microcosm, has five senses like five gates, through which acquaintance with [cognitio] all things, which are in the sensible world, enters into his soul” (68). Man must employ all of his focus, skill, and knowledge toward following the path toward enlightenment and ecstasy. Bonaventure then points out that some material things simply exist, others exist and live, and still others exist, live, and think. Thus, there is a hierarchy in the world of the material. The second degree is becoming aware of your senses and how the material world is revealed to you. In other words, how do your God-given senses to experience the physical world around you? Many times, Bonaventure points out, our experience of the physical world provides us with pleasure. The beauty of a natural wonder, for example, is pleasurable and enjoyable. He also points out the hierarchy in pleasure. We savor the taste of one meal more and enjoy it more because it is superior in flavor than another meal. In other words, it is through this hierarchy and comparison that true pleasure and enjoyment come about. In order to enjoy a thing of beauty of a thing of little beauty, on some level my mind is aware that a standard of beauty exists. Now that we have contemplated the external world and our relationship with it, we can turn to our internal world. The third degree is the process by which we design a vision of God for ourselves. Fashioning a vision of God for ourselves helps us see God as a real entity. Bonaventure explains the significance of this step: “For if an image is an expressed likeness, when our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God by nature, our humanity so wonderfully exalted…” (108). This makes God more concrete to us and by having to create a vision of God within ourselves, we are forced to spend time in contemplation of God’s true nature in order to form a likeness and expression of God. This is another step that cannot happen without spiritual assistance. Man cannot enter into the knowledge of God without help from the Almighty. It is only through Christ that entry is gained. This is also about seeing God within yourself. There is no physical representation of God, but He dwells within each of us. If we can fashion a likeness of God within ourselves, then we are identifying the traits and essence of ourselves that is Christlike. We arrive at recognizing God within ourselves through our memory, our intellect, and our choice. The fourth degree has us reflecting on our soul. It is a contemplation of sin, which can only happen through Christ. Bonaventure discusses our inclination to think about base things rather to think about higher things. In this way, our minds are “disordered.” It is only through Christ that we can find order. This is because the mind has “fallen down” (87), much in the way Adam and Eve turned away from their created purpose of “the quiet of contemplation.” Once the soul is restored through Christ, who is the doorway leading to ecstasy, rejoicing is in order. Bonaventure points out that as amazing as God is in all of His wonder, so few people actually turn to toward him. The fifth degree involves our reflection upon the utter perfection of God. Only after we have restored our soul can be begin to think about God as a being. We can begin to examine and contemplate the utter perfection of God as a being. Bonaventure points out that there are really two ways one can consider God. You can think about His existence or you can think about His goodness. Being is something that we cannot really understand as not actually existing. Bonaventure explains it this way: “Being itself is so certain in itself that it cannot be thought not to be” (96). He uses the logic that you cannot contemplate something not existing unless you have considered it to exist. God is not only the first and the Creator of all things, but He exists both in all things and separately from all things. Bonaventure then discusses the concept of God as good. He explains that God is good, which is “self-diffusive” (108). In other words, He gives of Himself to others. In fact, Bonaventure points out that God is “a being than which none greater can be thought” (102). In other words, God’s goodness is beyond any goodness we know here on the Earthly plane. His goodness is ultimate and first goodness. Bonaventure makes the argument that this goodness is necessary for God to be God. In fact, because of the necessity of this goodness, God must be responsible for more than just the creation. After all, the creation happened and then it was over. Yet God is good, which is in the present tense. Bonaventure raises the idea of thee Trinity as a means for God to demonstrate ongoing and infinite goodness. Bonaventure then connects the dots for his readers. Just as God is both in all things, but also separate from all things, so is Christ fully God and also fully human simultaneously. To fully understand this, the believer must accept that God is so infinite that He is beyond full understanding. We cannot truly grasp his full essence. The final degree of our journey is about meditation, which allows us to fall into the perfection and enlightenment of our mind. Because our minds cannot grasp the true essence of God because He is beyond our understanding, Bonaventure explains that we must “pass over” our own minds and intellect in order to grasp the final step and reach illumination. “In this passing over, if it is to be perfect all intellectual activities must be left behind and the height of our affection must be totally transferred and transformed into God” (113). Once you leave your intellect at the door, you are ready to experience love. This is like Bonaventure’s metaphor of light. If you look directly into the sun, what will happen? You will go blind. This is not due to an absence of light, but an abundance. Too much light overwhelms the senses. God is light. So to look upon Him is to overwhelm the senses and the intellect. Bonaventure explains God’s light as “superluminous darkness” (115). Although total union with God is not a possibility in this life, this phase is as close as any mortal can hope for. But it can only happen once we are free of all knowing. And we can only attain being free of all knowing through the steps prior to this one. And all of those things can only happen through the assistance of Christ. Bonaventure explains that it is not through learning and scholarship that one will attain union with God. But it is through emotion, specifically love that we unite with God. Bonaventure has provided a metaphor of a cycle. You must have faith to desire to get closer to God, and it is through faith that you will attain the closeness you seek. Bonaventure makes the point throughout his discourse that it is only through God that anything exists. Everything exists as a result of God and, thus, God is reflected in all things in some way. Because everything came from God, everything that exists is drawn to return to God. Although humans have less being than God, they can get closer to God through meditation and prayer. Bonaventure’s discourse on attaining a higher appreciation, understanding, and union with God is a detailed examination of how we can come to know the Almighty more intimately. It is also a recognition that we are capable of none of this without His assistance. It is through faith, love, and Grace that we come to ecstasy and illumination. Bonaventure has described what a beautiful thing this is, an understanding, which is critical to desiring the experience for yourself. Bonaventure’s account of the spiritual and mental journey to God is inspirational and thought-provoking. Works Cited Bonaventure, Saint and Ewart H. Cousins. Bonaventure. Mahwah, NJ: Barbini Pecse & Noble, Inc., 1978. Read More