Bonaventure's Christocentric Epistemology: Christ's Human Knowledge as the Epitome of Illumination in De scientia Christi

Bonaventure’s Christocentric Epistemology: Christ’s Human Knowledge as the Epitome of Illumination in De scientia Christi Bonaventure’s theory of illumination is deeply connected to the mystery of the Incarnate Word. One of his key illuminationist texts is his investigation of Christ’s divine and human knowledge in the Quaestiones disputatae de scientia Christi, the first disputation which Bonaventure held as a new master at the University of Paris in 1254. The relationship between illumination and Christ’s knowledge in this work yields interesting insights into the way in which the mystery of Christ completes and explicates Bonaventure’s illuminationist epistemology: in its intimate union with the Word, Christ’s human soul exemplifies human knowledge at the height of its perfection. At the same time, this soul’s cognitive perfection only makes sense in the context of certain illuminationist epistemological principles. Bonaventure’s  Bonaventure, Quaestiones Disputatae de scientia Christi [hereafter De sc. Chr.], Quaracchi 5:1-198. All English translations, unless otherwise noted, are from Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ, introduction and translation Zachary Hayes. Works of Saint Bonaventure IV (Saint Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1992) [this edition hereafter “Hayes”].  Andreas Speer, “The Certainty and Scope of Knowledge: Bonaventure’s Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 3 (1993): 38. Ignatius Brady dates the work instead to the spring of 1256 and identifies it as the first work in which Bonaventure “weld[ed] his previous thinking [on illumination] into a coherent whole” (“St. Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Illumination: Reactions Medieval and Modern,” in Bonaventure and Aquinas: Enduring Philosophers, ed. Robert W. Shahan and Francis J. Kovach [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976], 58-59). Other key texts of Bonaventure’s doctrine of illumination are the later sermon De Christo unico magistro, Quaracchi 5:567-74, which expounds the doctrine in greater detail; the Itinerarium mentis Deum, Quaracchi 5:295-313, which discusses the mystical ascent of wisdom; and In II. Sent., d. 24, part 1, a. 2, qq. 1-4, Quaracchi 5:554-571, which elucidates Bonaventure’s understanding of agent intellect. 63 Franciscan Studies 65 (2007) 04.Scarpelli.indd 63 12/5/07 17:32:55 Therese Scarpelli 64 illumination theory and his doctrine of Christ’s knowledge are thus mutually dependent and indeed inseparable. Although Christ’s knowledge and illuminationism each are common themes for Bonaventurean scholarship, the mutual interdependence of these two themes, which are significantly juxtaposed in De scientia Christi, is rarely addressed. Yet an investigation of this interdependence can be very fruitful for the study of each theme. With respect to Christology, it shows Christ’s universal, yet not unlimited, human knowledge to be the logical conclusion of Bonaventure’s ordinary illuminationist principles when applied to human nature hypostatically united with the Word. Moreover, when the Christological questions of De scientia Christi are read within the context of the illuminationism in q. 4, it becomes possible to identify the virtue of wisdom, together with its special form of “influence,” as an integral part of Bonaventure’s illumination theory which implements the natural principles of illumination on the supernatural level. Such an inquiry highlights the way in which the Christian philosopher Bonaventure blends a judicious distinction between natural and supernatural knowledge with the unmistakable Christological orientation which suffuses his whole theory of human cognition. Before addressing the Christological aspects of Bonaventure’s illuminationism , I will first briefly discuss the epistemology which Bonaventure advances in De scientia Christi. I will then explore the ways in which his theory of illumination makes possible his analysis of Christ’s knowledge and vice versa. The last section will conclude with a discussion of the relationship between the mystery of the Word and human knowledge in general . This inquiry will be limited to qq. 4-7 of De scientia Christi, although I will mention certain key principles from qq. 1-3 as they relate to concepts in the last four questions.  For instance, in Marrone’s important work on illumination, the Christological implications receive only a scant paragraph of attention: see Steven P. Marrone, The Light of Thy Countenance: Science and Knowledge of God in the Thirteenth Century, vol. 1, A Doctrine of...