Common Ground of Philosophy and Theology in Bonaventure's View

THE TRADITION OF PLATONIC THOUGHT is characterized by the identity of the principles of being and knowledge: what is first in the order of being, is also first in the order of knowledge. Whereas in Plato himself, this absolute first is the idea of the Good, those who follow in his footsteps have often bestowed this double priority on divine being. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (ca. 1217 to 15 July 1274), the Franciscan friar born as Giovanni di Fidanza, also stands in this Platonic tradition. His thirteenth-century doctrine of God as first known (Deus primum cognitum), the subject of the present study, criticizes any created principle that is accepted as the final foundation of knowledge in favor of divine being as first known. However, as this introduction seeks to point out, Bonaventure also changed the 'beginning with the absolute': he is the first to conceive it as first known in the context of a transcendental, first philosophy, in which esse (or ens) divinum - and its unity, truth and goodness - is presupposed to knowledge of everything else.

Product details

• Authors: Suzanne Metselaar
• Publisher: Ingspark
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 11.09.2023
• EAN: 9781835206966
• ISBN: 978-1-83520-696-6
• No. of pages: 290
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 16 mm
• Weight: 424 g
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works