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CHAPTER III

Itinerarium Mentis in Deum

In studying the coincidence of opposites in Bonaventure's thought, two paths are open to us. We can do a thorough analysis of those texts in which the coincidence of opposites is most evident, for example, in the last three chapters of the Itinerarium and in the first of the Collationes in Hexaemeron.¹²⁴ Or we can study Bonaventure's thought systematically, treating in succession the Trinity, God and the world, and Christology. The first approach has the advantage of marshaling the most persuasive evidence to convince the reader of the main thesis of this book, for in these texts the coincidence of opposites is quite apparent. In them Bonaventure presents the basic Christian mysteries from the standpoint of the coincidence of opposites, by way of the rhetorical structure of the passages, the logic of the thought and the use of powerful symbols. Furthermore, in these two texts the coincidence of opposites is applied not to isolated or minor points, but to the major areas of Christian belief: to the Trinity, the divine nature, God and creation, Christ and redemption. The coincidence of opposites not only operates in each era, but functions as the overall logic, binding together the various areas into a single unified whole. In both of these texts, then, we get a condensed but panoramic view of Bonaventure's thought, revealing the coincidence of opposites as the all-pervasive logic of his system.

The organic nature of these texts presents a problem. If we anchor ourselves here, where the coincidence of opposites is clearest, how can we do an extended systematic analysis of each area of Bonaventure's thought? How can we range over the entire body of his texts, drawing together the complex details of his vision? The very organic structure of the key passages militates against this. For it makes it difficult to assimilate a large body of material which has been divided into separate units by extended analysis. If, however, we took the second approach, we could avoid this problem. We would simply give a systematic exposition of Bonaventure's major doctrines, through texts drawn from all parts of his writing, and then interpret these doctrines according to the coincidence of opposites. While allowing us to be more analytic, this approach has the disadvantage of cutting apart elements that are united in Bonaventure's system. Besides, it weakens the case for this book's thesis, since it highlights my personal interpretation rather than Bonaventure's own textual evidence.

To resolve this dilemma, I will take both approaches, hoping to reap the benefits of both while using each to compensate for the limitations of the other. I will begin with a study of Chapters Five through Seven of the Itinerarium, where we will see Bonaventure analyze the divine nature, God and the world, the Trinity, Christ and the spiritual ascent according to the coincidence of opposites. This will provide us with firm textual evidence for the thesis of this book and also allow us to see at the very outset, in a condensed synthetic form, how the coincidence of opposites operates in the major areas of Bonaventure's thought. Then in the next chapter, we will embark on a systematic approach, studying Bonaventure's doctrine of the Trinity and the relation of God to the world. Here we will draw from a wide range of texts, some of which reflect the coincidence of opposites, while others simply present a position which can be interpreted in that way. In the following chapter (Chapter Five) I will explore the second key text, the first lecture of the Collectiones in Hexaemeron, which contains a study of Christ through the coincidence of opposites. In this text the two approaches coincide, since Bonaventure studies in a systematic fashion various aspects of the mystery of Christ; and with Christ as a focal point he views the coincidence of opposites in the major areas of his system.

These two approaches to the coincidence of opposites in Bonaventure are themselves related as opposites. For one deals with a maximum: the vast amount of texts in Bonaventure's corpus, for example, the Commentary on the Sentences, the Breviloquium, the disputed questions, the collationes, and the other works in the ten volumes of the Quaracchi edition. The other deals with a minimum: two relatively brief passages in which the coincidence of opposites is sharply presented. I believe that this minimum coincides with the maximum. These passages are so concentrated and touch such depth that they manifest the basic structure of Bonaventure's total system. Each is a microcosm in which we can view the macrocosm of Bonaventure's vision. His texts can be interpreted in this way precisely because the coincidence of opposites at the base of his thought shines in his rhetoric. He has a tendency to express his entire vision in a rhetorical form that is microcosmic/macrocosmic.¹²⁵ In a short treatise, a single lecture, a chapter, even at times in a paragraph, he expresses his entire vision, not by a comprehensive listing of details, but by penetrating to the point where opposites come together. This is the case in the two key passages under study; they are microcosms through which all of his texts can be interpreted. This is especially the case in the second passage, in which Bonaventure focuses on Christ as the coincidence of opposites. As center of the universe, the medium of all benefits, and the vehicle of our spiritual transformation, Christ becomes, as it were, the center of a circle through which pass all lines connecting points situated on the circumference as opposites. For Bonaventure Christ is the microcosm of the universe. Because this passage deals with Christ the microcosm, it becomes a microcosm itself in which his entire thought is reflected and through which his many texts can be interpreted.

Setting of "Itinerarium"

The Itinerarium ushers in the second period of Bonaventure's writing career. He tells us that he received the idea for the piece while at La Verna in 1259, meditating on Francis' reception of the stigmata.¹²⁶ It is not clear whether he wrote the text during his stay there or shortly after. Having been elected Minister General two and a half years before, Bonaventure was required to leave his academic career at the University of Paris. This brought to a close the first period of his writing, which consisted chiefly of treatises composed in the scholastic mode: the Commentary on the Sentences, commentaries on Scripture, disputed questions, and the Breviloquium. The Itinerarium is a transitional piece, marking not only a passage into the mystical and spiritual writings of the second period, but a pivotal point in his personal life and in his entire writing career. He was profoundly moved by the religious experience and intellectual insight he had at La Verna and which provided the wellspring of the treatise. Some new integration took place in his person, on the spiritual and intellectual levels, which was reflected in the text of the Itinerarium and in his subsequent writings.

From this time on the spiritual dimension is more prominent. Not only does he write explicitly mystical treatises, but spirituality is more integrally fused with his theology and philosophy. Mystical images abound, becoming the vehicle to express theological and philosophical concepts. This new spiritual dimension is distinctly Franciscan, with a sharp focus on the suffering of Christ. The latent Christocentricity in Bonaventure's thought begins to emerge in the Itinerarium and to take its place along with the Trinitarian theology of the previous period. La Verna integrates the theology of the Greek Fathers with the Christocentricity of Francis, the scholasticism of Paris with the spirit of Assisi. Lying as it does geographically between Paris and Assisi, La Verna became for Bonaventure the point of confluence between the two major currents in his life, drawing together the Neo-Platonic theology, cast in a scholastic form at Paris, with the spiritual world of Assisi, with the compelling personality of Francis and his single-minded devotion to Christ.

The text of the Itinerarium is remarkably dense, compact and integral. It is brief, only about thirty-five pages, yet it condenses an entire world view elaborately explicated. It is a microcosm of medieval culture, reflecting not only Bonaventure's vision but the wide spectrum of medieval learning and experience. Its literary genre defies classification. Commentators have tried to designate it as a mystical or theological treatise; yet the extensive philosophical stratum of the work prevents such a simple classification.¹²⁷ It is a mystical, a theological, and a philosophical work; but it is also more, because it integrates these levels into a single whole. Through the centuries the Itinerarium has been Bonaventure's most popular and widely read work. In some respects it is the most representative, although the Collationes in Hexaemeron, which resembles the Itinerarium in its integral structure, is longer, more elaborate, and represents the most mature articulation of Bonaventure's vision.

In the prologue to the Itinerarium, Bonaventure describes the setting in which he conceived the treatise. He says that he went to La Verna "thirty-three years after the death of the Saint [Francis], about the time of his passing," that is, his death.¹²⁸ Since Francis died on October 4, 1226, the year would be 1259 and the time would be late September or early October. The purpose of his visit, he says, was to gain peace: "I withdrew to Mount La Verna as to a place of quiet, there to satisfy the yearning of my soul for peace."¹²⁹ The peace which he sought was the deep spiritual peace preached by Jesus and Francis: "This is the peace which our Lord Jesus Christ preached to us and which he gave to us. This message of peace our father Francis ever repeated, announcing peace at the beginning and at the end of every sermon, making every greeting a wish for peace, every prayer a sigh for ecstatic peace, like a citizen of that Jerusalem about which the Man of Peace, who was peaceable with those that hated peace, exhorts us concerning it: 'Pray ye for the things that are to the peace of Jerusalem.' "¹³⁰

Following Francis, Bonaventure desired to gain this peace: "Inspired by the example of our blessed father, Francis, I sought after this peace with yearning soul - sinner that I am and all unworthy, yet seventh successor as Minister to all the brethren in the place of the blessed father after his death."¹³¹ In referring to himself as General and successor to Francis, Bonaventure seems to be expressing his weariness from the burdens of his office and the heavy responsibility he felt in leading the Order in the spirit of Francis. At this point he had been Minister General for more than two years. During this time he had found himself in the role of peacemaker in the center of crises and controversies. He had to balance factions and develop a policy that would assure the peaceful and organic growth of the Order. His very election as General had grown out of the struggle with the Spirituals, who were arming themselves with the heretical thought of Joachim of Fiore. While attempting to keep peace within the Order, Bonaventure had to preside over the trial of his predecessor John of Parma. In the midst of severity on one side and laxity on the other, he had to maintain a policy - in such matters as poverty and studies - that would be faithful to the original ideals of Francis and yet allow for development. Even before his election, his life had been caught up in turmoil at the University of Paris, where the controversy between the secular masters and the mendicants had threatened his status as a professor. Just as these problems were being resolved, he was thrust into another group of problems as General. So for the last several years, his life had been continually caught up in tensions and struggles. And he must have been weary of the countless administrative details that were suddenly thrust upon one whose previous life had been devoted to intellectual pursuits. No wonder that Bonaventure "sought after this peace with yearning soul."¹³²

However, there may have been a deeper reason. He may have felt a need to return to his Franciscan sources by making a pilgrimage to one of the most sacred Franciscan shrines. What better place than La Verna, the very spot where Francis received the climactic grace of his life, the vision of the six-winged Seraph and the marks of the stigmata! Here on this sacred mountain, where Francis' way of life was crowned by final divine approval, perhaps Bonaventure could contact the roots of his Franciscan-ism, both for himself personally and for his role as General. Perhaps he would discover the primordial roots that would unite on a deeper level in his personal life his intellectual past at the University with the spirituality of Francis. Here, too, he might touch that primitive wellspring of Francis' spirit that would enable him as General to guide the Order faithfully in its ongoing development. In the vision of the Seraph, Bonaventure found the peace he was seeking - a peace that was not static, but a creative integration of opposites that led to new productivity in his life and in his work for the Order and the Church.

Mount La Verna and the Stigmata

La Verna is indeed a holy mountain. Even to this day it stands stark and wild, rising out of the valley in a single mass, topped by a wall of gray stone jutting out of the forest that blankets its sides. It is situated in Tuscany about thirty miles north of Arezzo and about fifty miles southeast of Florence, near the town of Bibbiena. From its summit, which rises 4280 feet above sea level, one enjoys a panoramic view of the Tuscan landscape. Although the countryside reflects the soft beauty of Tuscany, La Verna itself conveys a numinous quality - an otherworldly atmosphere that evokes awe. One feels that this is indeed a spot where God has broken into the world. In view of its physical grandeur and sacred atmosphere, it rightly takes its place among other holy mountains of the Judeo-Christian tradition: such as Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, and the mountain above Subiaco containing Benedict's cave.

This mountain was given to Francis as a gift by Count Orlando dei Cattani, of the castle of Chiusi in Casentino. In 1213 Francis and Brother Leo attended a festival to celebrate the knighthood of one of the Counts of Montefeltro. On this occasion Francis preached a sermon and greatly attracted Count Orlando, who went to him privately for spiritual advice. Knowing of Francis' love of nature and desire to spend time in wild, secluded settings, the Count offered him the mountain of La Verna as a gift. According to the following account from The Considerations on the Holy Stigmata, Orlando said to Francis:

"Brother Francis, I have a mountain in Tuscany which is very solitary and wild and perfectly suited for someone who wants to do реnаnсе in a place far from people or who wants to live a solitary life. It is called Mount Alverna. If that mountain should please you and your companions, I would gladly give it to you for the salvation of my soul.' Now St. Francis had a most intense desire to find some solitary place where he could conveniently devote himself to contemplation. So when he heard this offer, he first praised God who provides for His little sheep, and then he thanked Count Orlando, saying: 'Sire, when you go home, I will send two of my companions to you, and you can show them that mountain. And if it seems suitable for prayer and penance, I very gladly accept your charitable offer."¹³³

A few months later two companions of Francis, with an escort from Count Orlando's castle, climbed La Verna, built some small cells there and in the name of Francis took possession of the mountain. In 1224 Francis spent several weeks at La Verna with some of his companions, fasting and praying in preparation for the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, September 29. Sometime around the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, he received the vision of the six-winged Seraph in the form of the crucified, which left in his body the marks of the stigmata. The following account is from Bonaventure's biography the Legenda major:

On a certain morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, while he was praying on the mountain side, he saw a Seraph, with six wings that were fiery and shining, descend from the height of heaven. And when in swift flight the Seraph had reached a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the figure of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fixed to a cross. Two wings were lifted above his head, two were extended in flight and two covered his entire body . .

The vision vanished, leaving in the heart of the saint a wonderful ardor and no less wonderful imprint of the marks in his flesh. For immediately in his hands and feet there began to appear the marks of the nails, just as he had seen them but a little before in the vision of the man crucified. His hands and feet seemed to have been pierced through the center by nails. The heads of the nails were round and black; and the points were oblong, twisted and almost bent back so that they broke through and protruded from the flesh. His right side also, as if pierced by a lance, was covered with a red wound from which flowed his sacred blood, moistening his habit and trousers.¹³⁴

Thirty-five years later Bonaventure meditated on this vision at La Verna. A short distance from the site of the vision, a small chapel, the Oratory of St. Bonaventure, marks the traditional spot where the Minister General retired to meditate and where he received the inspiration for the Itinerarium. "Moved by a divine impulse," Bonaventure writes, "I withdrew to Mount La Verna as to a place of quiet, there to satisfy the yearning of my soul for peace. While I abode there, pondering on certain spiritual ascents to God, there occurred to me, among other things, that miracle which in this very place had happened to the blessed Francis - the vision he received of the winged Seraph in the form of the crucified."¹³⁵ While meditating on the vision, Bonaventure had the seminal insight that would unfold in the writing of the Itinerarium: the six wings of the Seraph symbolized the six stages of the mind's ascent into God. Actually as Bonaventure described it, the insight had two points: (1) the vision expressed the goal of the spiritual ascent, namely the mystical ecstasy given to Francis; and (2) it symbolized the stages of the journey by which the mind reaches that goal. This twofold aspect of the insight is, I believe, highly significant and will be studied in some depth when in a later chapter I treat the six-winged Seraph as a mandala symbol.¹³⁶ Bonaventure described his insight as follows: "As I reflected on this marvel, it immediately seemed to me that this vision suggested the uplifting of Saint Francis in contemplation and that it pointed out the way by which that state of contemplation can be reached."¹³⁷

Structure of "Itinerarium"

The vision of the six-winged Seraph in the form of the crucified provides the structural design of the Itinerarium. As Bonaventure says: "The figure of the six wings of the Seraph, therefore, brings to mind the six steps of illumination which begin with creatures and lead up to God."¹³⁸ Bonaventure first treats the wings as pairs and sees them symbolizing three stages: the lower pair symbolizes the material world; the middle pair, the soul; and the upper pair, the consideration of God himself. Bonaventure's journey, then, is also an ascent leading from the lowest to the highest, from the material world to God. After the ascent through the three levels, the soul reaches the stage of mystical ecstasy, symbolized by the vision as a whole. The Seraph, then, is not a static symbol, but the symbol of a journey which is also an ascent. The title of the piece, Itinerarium mentis in De\tm (The Itinerary of the Mind into God) indicates this. In the Latin of Bonaventure's era the term itinerarium signified a number of things related to a journey: in general, it meant what pertains to a journey; more specifically, it meant a plan or a description of a journey; in ecclesiastical terminology it meant a prayer for a safe journey, or it indicated a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, either the pilgrimage itself or a description of the pilgrimage.¹³⁹ In the title, Bonaventure apparently intended to convey all of these meanings, since in various ways they are reflected in the treatise.

Although Bonaventure merely mentions in passing the classical mystical symbol of the ascent of the holy mountain,¹⁴⁰ it is suggested by his focusing on Mount La Verna, on Francis' vision on the mountain and his own ascent of the mountain in order to achieve peace. He also makes brief mention of the symbol of the ladder, with specific reference to Jacob's ladder, viewing all of creation as a ladder on which we can climb to God.¹⁴¹ In the middle of the Itinerarium Bonaventure employs the symbol of the tabernacle to represent the journey within the depths of the soul. Step by step he leads the reader into the various precincts of the tabernacle, entering ever more deeply into the sacred areas until he arrives at the Holy of Holies.¹⁴² In a manner quite typical of his style, Bonaventure uses a number of distinct symbols, each expressing a different facet of meaning but each blending into the others and supporting the others. Thus the six-winged Seraph, the mountain, the ladder, and the tabernacle, each in its own way expresses the motif of the journey, or pilgrimage, of the soul into God.

Bonaventure's plan of the journey contains three major stages: the material world, the soul, and the consideration of God. He further divides each of these into two, making a total of six, thus corresponding to the original consideration of the six wings of the Seraph. This division, then, becomes the outline of the whole treatise and provides the topics of each chapter. Thus Chapter One deals with the material world as seen exteriorly; Chapter Two, with the material world as received into our senses; Chapter Three deals with the soul in its faculties of memory, intellect, and will; Chapter Four, with the soul as reformed by grace; Chapter Five treats the consideration of God as Being; and Chapter Six, the consideration of God as Good. This leads to the seventh and final chapter, which treats the end of the journey, the summit of the ascent. Here one enters into God (in Deum) in the ecstasy of mystical union.

This is not merely a journey into the future with our gaze fixed on a distant goal. Rather we see the goal present at each stage of the way; we gaze at the landscape around us, meditating on God's reflection there as we progress towards the goal. In fact, it is precisely by seeing the reflection of God at each stage that we advance towards union with him. The chief symbol which Bonaventure uses to express God's presence in the universe is the mirror: all of creation is a mirror in which God is reflected. Our meditation on this mirror (speculum) is a speculation (speculatio) , or a gazing into the speculum¹⁴³ Thus the Itinerarium provides a method of meditation to cultivate the distinctive Franciscan religious experience of the presence of God in creation. To revert to the image I used in the previous chapter, the Itinerarium presents a sustained meditation on the reflection of God in the universe, like the reflection of light through the stained glass windows of a Gothic cathedral.¹⁴⁴ This meditation takes us through the philosophical and theological levels of Bonaventure's thought: from the epistemology of illumination, to the metaphysics of exemplarism and ultimately to the doctrines of the Trinity and Christocentricity, which provide the two structural poles of the treatise. It is especially in these two latter doctrines that the coincidence of opposites appears.

Stages of the Journey

Although the coincidence of opposites comes to the fore only in the last three chapters, it is prepared for in the prologue when Bonaventure introduces the image of Christ crucified drawn from Francis' vision. In the Itinerarium the Christ image rises to a new prominence in Bonaventure's thought. Emerging as the focal point of the entire treatise, it continues to be a dominant image in his later writings, undergoing an evolution towards the elaborated Christocentricity which we described above.¹⁴⁵ Immediately after sketching the symbolism of the six wings of the Seraph, Bonaventure states: "The road to this peace is through nothing else than a most ardent love of the crucified, the love which so transformed Paul into Christ when he was rapt to the third heaven that he declared: 'With Christ I am nailed to the Cross. It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.' "¹⁴⁶ This love, he continues, so absorbed Francis that it shone through his flesh in the stigmata. Bonaventure then begins to blend symbols: Christ crucified is the door through which we enter; he is the lamb in whose blood we must be washed. "That is to say, no one can enter by contemplation into the heavenly Jerusalem unless he enters through the blood of the lamb as through a door."¹⁴⁷ Having established the centrality of Christ in the prologue, Bonaventure will return to this theme at key points in the treatise, especially in Chapters Six and Seven, where he deals with Christ as the mystery of the coincidence of opposites, who having passed from death to life can lead us to pass over into the mystical joy of the final stage of the ascent.

With Christ as the road and the door, Bonaventure begins the ascent through the six stages symbolized by the six wings of the Seraph. The first stage deals with the reflection of God in the material world. Bonaventure says that he is beginning at the lowest rung of the ladder of creatures: "Let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, setting the whole visible world before us as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the Supreme Creative Artist."¹⁴⁸ Meditating on various aspects of material creatures, he sees them as vestiges of the Trinity. In reflecting the power, wisdom, and goodness of the divinity, they point to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The metaphysical and theological roots of the vestige doctrine are not developed here, but are treated later in the Itinerarium and at length elsewhere in his writings.¹⁴⁹ Here in the first stage of the ascent, Bonaventure meditates on material things in their weight, number, and measure; their mode, species, and order; their substance, power, and activity; their origin, development, and end.¹⁵⁰ From various aspects of visible creation, he rises to the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, "in so far as he is existing, living, intelligent, purely spiritual, incorruptible, and immutable."¹⁵¹ The chapter reaches its climax in a panoramic view of material creation seen from seven perspectives - origin, greatness, multitude, beauty, plenitude, activity, and order. For example, he considers the greatness of things "looking* at their vast extension, latitude and profundity, at the immense power extending itself in the diffusion of light, and the efficiency of their inner uninterrupted and diffusive operation, as manifest in the action of fire."¹⁵² Seen in this panoramic sweep, the greatness of things "clearly portrays the immensity of the power, wisdom and goodness of the Triune God, who, uncircumscribed, exists in all things by his power, presence and essence."¹⁵³

In the second stage of the ascent, Bonaventure meditates on the process of sensation. "It should be noted that this world, which is called the macrocosm, enters our soul, the microcosm, through the portals of the five senses in so far as sense objects are apprehended, enjoyed and judged."¹⁵⁴ According to Bonaventure's theory of sensation, a similitude of the object is generated in the medium and then impressed on the organ. Through this impression we are led back to the starting point, the sense object to be known. Bonaventure sees in this process a reflection of the Trinity. "If, therefore, all knowable things must generate a likeness of themselves, they manifestly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the Son, eternally emanating from God the Father."¹⁵⁵ Drawing from Augustine, Bonaventure meditates on various kinds of numbers - such as are found in sounds, in gesturing and dancing - as these lead us to God. At this point he sums up the first two stages of the ascent by stating that the contemplative man can rise from material creatures to God, "for creatures are shadows, echoes, and pictures" of the eternal Source and Light.¹⁵⁶ Although Bonaventure does not develop these stages according to the coincidence of opposites, it is implicit in the doctrine of exemplarism that underlies these two chapters. The coincidence of opposites between God and creatures will emerge into self-consciousness in Chapter Five.

Turning from the material world and sensation, Bonaventure penetrates within himself to explore the image of God in the soul. "Enter into yourself," he says, bidding us follow the path that Augustine had charted.¹⁵⁷ In the depths of the soul's faculties - in the memory, intellect, and will - he finds a reflection of God. The memory here is taken in the Platonic sense of the depths of the soul where the eternal truths reside and in the mystical sense of the ground of the soul which reflects the presence of God. When we know a first principle, we seem to grasp it in our memory since we see it as eternally true, as if we always knew it and are now remembering it. When our intellect knows truth, it does so in the light of the eternal Truth; and when our will desires or judges something as good, it does so in the light of the absolute Good. "See, therefore," Bonaventure says, "how close the soul is to God, and how, through their activity, the memory leads us to Eternity, the intelligence to Truth and the elective faculty to the highest Good."¹⁵⁸ If we consider the relation of these faculties to one another, we will see that they reflect the Trinity. "For from the memory comes forth the intelligence as its offspring; . . . from the memory and the intelligence is breathed forth love, as the bond of both."¹⁵⁹ Thus when the soul meditates upon itself in this way, it rises as if through a mirror to the reflection of the divine processions; to the Father generating the Word and with the Word spirating the Spirit, who is Love breathed forth.

In the fourth stage, Bonaventure deals with the restoration of the fallen image through Christ. It is strange, he observes, that given the fact that God is so close to the soul, so few are concerned with perceiving God within themselves. Distracted by cares, clouded by sense images, drawn away by concupiscence, the soul cannot reenter into itself as image of God. It lies fallen, immersed in the things of sense, in need of someone to lift it up so that it can see its true self as image of God, with the eternal Truth shining within itself. Christ has come and lifted up the soul, restoring the fallen image. Eternal Truth itself took on human form in Christ and became "a ladder restoring the first ladder that had been broken in Adam."¹⁶⁰ In this chapter the image of Christ emerges again with the same prominence it had in the prologue. The entire chapter is focused on Christ's work of redemption, viewed not as satisfying for sin but as restoring the image of God. In this Bonaventure is echoing not the Anselmian satisfaction tradition, but the Greek Fathers' notion of the restoration of the image in man through Christ the Image of the Father. Through Christ, Bonaventure says, the image of our soul is "clothed over with the three theological virtues, by which the soul is purified, enlightened and perfected."¹⁶¹ Through Christ the spiritual senses are restored so that like the bride in the Canticle of Canticles, the soul can respond to her beloved. At this stage the study of Sacred Scripture is especially helpful, just as philosophy was in the previous stage; for Scripture is concerned chiefly with Christ's work of restoration. It is concerned principally with charity, with the two commandments: love of God and love of our neighbor. At this point Bonaventure begins to view Christ as a coincidence of opposites, in a manner which will emerge more sharply in the following chapters. Speaking of the two commandments of love, Bonaventure says:

These two are signified by the one Spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ, who is at one and the same time our Neighbor and our God, our Brother and our Lord, our King and our Friend, Word incarnate and uncreated Word, our Maker and our Re-maker, 'the Alpha and the Omega', who is also the supreme Hierarch, who purifies, enlightens, and perfects his spouse, that is, the whole Church and every sanctified soul.¹⁶²

Coincidence of Opposites

Having meditated on the reflection of God in the material world and within the soul, Bonaventure now turns to God himself. In Chapter Five he considers God as Being and in Chapter Six, God as Good; this leads to the passage into mystical ecstasy in Chapter Seven. In these last three chapters the coincidence of opposites clearly emerges, having been foreshadowed by the brief reference to Christ quoted above. The last three chapters form a single literary unit, bound together by a common symbolism and by the rhetorical and logical structure of the coincidence of opposites. In Chapter Five Bonaventure bids the reader to gaze in wonder upon the coincidence of opposites in the divine nature; and in Chapter Six he directs us to contemplate the coincidence of opposites in the Trinity. He then bids us look at Christ. If we have been struck by the opposites in the divine nature, we will be stunned by Christ, in whom the first principle is united to the last, God with man, the eternal with time. If we have been struck by the coincidence of unity and plurality in the Trinity, we will be amazed at Christ, in whom personal unity coexists with a trinity of substances and a duality of natures. When we gaze upon Christ, the highest and the lowest, the Alpha and the Omega, we will celebrate our Pasch with him and make our Passover into mystical elevation. In the beginning of the seventh chapter, Bonaventure describes how with Christ crucified we pass from death to life, how our understanding is put at rest and our affection passes over entirely into God. With its Christological focal point, then, the coincidence of opposites provides a multidimensional structure for the last three chapters of the Itinerarium. It sets up a rhetorical structure, which becomes a dialectical method of arriving at metaphysical understanding, which in turn becomes a technique of negative theology to achieve a transition to a mystical elevation.

The symbol that binds together the last three chapters is that of the tabernacle or temple.¹⁶³ This is one of the three major symbols of the Itinerarium. The symbol of the journey, implied in the title, acts as a generic or overarching symbol which has two specifications: first there is the six-winged Seraph in the form of the crucified, which Bonaventure develops in Chapter One and which is the chief symbol of the first part of the Itinerarium. Balancing this as the chief image of the second part is the symbol of the tabernacle or temple, which he introduces in Chapter Three and which he develops at length in Chapters Five and Six. He draws his description of the tabernacle from Exodus¹⁶⁴ and follows the tradition of the New Testament and of Christian mystical writers of seeing the temple as symbol of the soul.¹⁶⁵ Just as God is present in the temple, so he is present in the soul. As we enter more deeply into ourselves, we penetrate ultimately into the Holy of Holies, where we gaze upon the divine light shining in our souls and contemplate Christ, who is the Mercy-Seat situated at the center of the Holy of Holies over the Ark.

The symbol of the Seraph and that of the temple are related as opposites. The first is external and implies height, for the Seraph appears as an image external to St. Francis, in an outdoor setting, on the top of a mountain. The second is interior and connotes depth, for Bonaventure brings us within the temple, even to its innermost chamber. Yet both symbols converge in Christ. For the Seraph is in the form of the crucified, and at the innermost center of the temple we encounter Christ as the Mercy-Seat. Thus through the symbols of the Itinerarium Bonaventure implies that Christ effects the coincidence of the external and the internal, the highest and the deepest.¹⁶⁶

We will now embark upon a more detailed analysis of the symbol of the temple as providing the image context for the coincidence of opposites in Chapters Five through Seven. After taking the reader on a journey through the sense world, Bonaventure bids him enter within himself - into the tabernacle or temple.¹⁶⁷ In turning into ourselves, we leave the outer area, the court or atrium - that is, the world of sense - and enter within the tabernacle - that is, into our own minds. The tabernacle is divided into two sections: the anterior chamber or the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies. The anterior chamber is separated from the Holy of Holies by a veil, before which is placed the candelabra. The anterior section symbolizes our mind and the candelabra the divine illumination shining in the soul. Behind the veil is the innermost part of the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark of the Covenant, above which are two Cherubim, each facing the Mercy-Seat, which is placed above the Ark. The Holy of Holies symbolizes the presence of God in the depth of the soul; the Cherubim symbolize two basic attitudes of contemplating God; and the Mercy-Seat symbolizes Christ.¹⁶⁸

First Cherub: Being

As symbols the Cherubim play a central role in setting up the rhetorical structure of the passage. Bonaventure describes their meaning as follows:

By these Cherubim we understand the two kinds or degrees of contemplating the invisible and eternal things of God: the first considers the essential attributes of God; the second, the proper attributes of the persons.'¹⁶⁹

The Cherubim, then, become the symbols for the fifth and sixth levels of contemplation in the Itinerarium:¹⁷⁰ the fifth considering God as Being and Unity, the sixth as Goodness and Trinity. Bonaventure describes the point of view symbolized by the first Cherub as follows: "The first method fixes the soul's gaze primarily and principally on Being Itself, declaring that the first name of God is 'He Who is.' "¹⁷¹ This is grounded in the Old Testament and in God's revelation of himself to Moses as "I am Who am." It looks chiefly to the unity of the divine essence. Hence John Damascene, following Moses, says that He who is is the first name of God.¹⁷² Bonaventure entitles his fifth chapter: "The Consideration of the Divine Unity through its Primary Name which is Being."¹⁷³

Bonaventure guides us in how to take the attitude of the first Cherub and so to contemplate God in the unity of his essence. First we are led through a dialectic of being and non-being. Echoing Anselm's ontological argument,¹⁷⁴ Bonaventure states that being itself is so certain that it cannot be thought not to be. Being and non-being are related as absolute opposites. They are in full flight from each other. Complete nothingness contains nothing of being, and being itself contains nothing of non-being. Although opposites, they coincide, since non-being is the privation of being. Non-being can be grasped only through being; being in potency can be grasped only through being in act. What first comes into the intellect, then, is being as pure act - unlimited, unmixed with potency - and this is the divine being.¹⁷⁵

Paradoxically, there is a coincidence of opposites in human blindness. In the darkness of the human situation, we mistake being for non-being and non-being for being. When we look at the highest being, we think we are seeing nothing. Accustomed to particulars and universals, we do not see the being that is beyond all categories. We are like the bat in the sunlight. Conditioned to the darkness of being and the phantasms of material things, we seem to be seeing nothing when we gaze on the light of being itself. We do "not understand that this very darkness is the supreme illumination of our mind, just as when the eye sees pure light, it seems to be seeing nothing."¹⁷⁶

From the darkness of the human situation, Bonaventure turns to the pure light of being itself. Having grasped being itself as pure act, he proceeds to derive its attributes. By negating all forms of non-being, he deduces that being itself must be first, eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect, and supremely

one.¹⁷⁷ A further study of the attributes indicates that they embody a coincidence of opposites:

You have here something to lift you up in admiration. For being itself is both the first and last; it is eternal and yet most present; it is most simple and the greatest; it is most actual and most changeless; it is most perfect and immense; it is supremely one and yet omnifarious.¹⁷⁸

These are opposites, it is true, and strike us with wonder; yet more striking still is the fact that each opposite is derived from the other:

Admiring all these things with a pure mind, you will be flooded with a still greater light when you behold further that pure being is precisely the last because it is the first. For since it is first, it does all things for itself, and thus the first being is of necessity the ultimate end, the beginning and the consummation, 'the Alpha and the Omega'.¹⁷⁹

This pattern of the derivation of one opposite from another is carried through the entire set. Being itself is most present precisely because it is eternal. As eternal, it has neither past nor future, but only present being. And it is greatest precisely because it is most simple. As the most simple, it has the greatest concentration of power; hence it is the greatest. Further, it is most changeless precisely because it is most actual. As pure actuality, it cannot acquire anything new or lose anything it already has. Because it is most perfect, it is immense, or without measure. Since it has all perfections, it is beyond encompassing because one can think of nothing better, nobler, of higher dignity beyond it, and consequently of nothing greater. Finally, it is omnifarious, or possessing all aspects of the multiplicity, precisely because it is one. For the one is the all-embracing principle of the multitude, the efficient, exemplary, and final cause of all things.¹⁸⁰

Throughout his contemplation of God as being, Bonaventure's thought has moved along two axes: one axis running between polar attributes within the divinity, the other running between God and the world. In concluding the fifth chapter of the Itinerarium, Bonaventure describes the coincidence of opposites between God and the world.¹⁸¹ If we were to use the categories of immanence and transcendence, we could express Bonaventure's coincidence principle in the following formula: The greater the transcendence, the greater the immanence. This principle is expressed by Bonaventure by means of a set of graphic images. Precisely because God is eternal, Bonaventure says, he is the center and circumference of all time, encompassing all duration and existing at its very center. Precisely because he is most simple and the greatest, he is wholly outside all things. Hence he is "an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."¹⁸² Further, precisely because God is most perfect and beyond measure, he "is within all things without being contained by them, outside all things without being excluded, above all things without being aloof, below all things without being dependent."¹⁸³

Second Cherub: the Trinity

Having viewed God in the unity of his nature, Bonaventure turns to the opposite and views God in the plurality of persons in the Trinity. Through the image of the two Cherubim - placed opposite each other, facing each other and turned to the Mercy-Seat - Bonaventure graphically portrays the coincidence of opposites of unity and plurality in God. It is true that there is a coincidence of unity and plurality in the axis that runs between God and the world; but within the Godhead itself, unity and plurality coincide in a more profound and mysterious way in the Trinitarian unity of one nature in a plurality of persons.

From the standpoint of this second Cherub, we are to gaze upon God as the Good. While the first Cherub is associated with the Old Testament, with Moses and the revelation of God as Being, the second is associated with the New Testament, the revelation of the Trinity and Christ's statement to the rich young man that only God is good.¹⁸⁴ While John Damascene, following Moses, says that He who is is God's primary name, Dionysius, following Christ, says that God's primary name is Good.¹⁸⁵

In Chapter Six Bonaventure derives the Trinitarian processions from a consideration of the Good. Beginning again with the Anselmian principle of the Proslogion,¹⁸⁶ Bonaventure states that what is absolutely the best cannot be thought not to be, since it is better to be than not to be. Bonaventure then unites this Anselmian principle with the Pseudo-Dionysian axiom that the Good is self-diffusive.¹⁸⁷ Hence the highest good is most self-diffusive. From this Bonaventure shows how the supreme self-diffusiveness of the divinity requires the procession of the Son and the Holy Spirit.¹⁸⁸ Bonaventure's logic is simple and direct; it moves in a straight line from the fecundity of the divinity, from what Bonaventure calls elsewhere the fontalis plenitudo.¹⁸⁹ From this supreme fecundity comes the supreme communication, from which follows supreme sharing and intimacy:

By reason of their supreme goodness, the three persons must necessarily have supreme communicability; by reason of that, supreme consubstantiality; and by reason of supreme consubstantiality, they must have supreme conformability. Then by reason of all these, they must have supreme coequality, and hence supreme coeternity. Finally, from all the foregoing taken together, they must have supreme mutual intimacy, by which one person is necessarily in the other by reason of their supreme interpenetration, and one acts with the other in absolute indivision of the substance, power, and activity of the Most Blessed Trinity itself.¹⁹⁰

At first glance, it might seem that Bonaventure's straight-line logic has avoided the coincidence of opposites in the Trinity. But such is not the case. Bonaventure warns the reader not to think that he has actually grasped the incomprehensible. For in these six characteristics, there is a coincidence of opposites that can lead us to a state of stunned admiration. For side by side in the Trinity are supreme communicability with individuality of persons, supreme consubstantiality with plurality of hypostases, supreme similarity with distinct personality, supreme equality with ordered procession, supreme coeternity with emanation, supreme mutual intimacy with a sending forth.¹⁹¹

Christ: Coincidence of Opposites

Having described the attitudes of the two Cherubim, Bonaventure now bids us to observe that the Cherubim face each other, with their faces turned to the Mercy-Seat.¹⁹² This symbolizes that we must admire the characteristics of the divine essence and the persons not only in themselves, but also in comparison with Christ; for Christ embodies an extraordinary coincidence of opposites.

If you are the first Cherub and wonder at the coincidence of opposites in the divine nature, turn towards the Mercy-Seat, Bonaventure says, and stand in amazement.¹⁹³ Bonaventure here sets up a point for point parallel between the coincidence of opposites in the divine nature and the more striking expression in Christ. If we were amazed that the divine being is the first and the last, we will be amazed that in Christ the first principle is joined to the last. "God is joined with man, who was formed on the sixth day" of creation.¹⁹⁴ If we were amazed that divine being is eternal and most present, we will be more amazed at Christ; for in him "the eternal is joined with time-bound man, born of the Virgin in the fullness of time."¹⁹⁵ If we wondered at the divine being as the most simple and the greatest, then we will wonder at Christ, in whom the most simple is joined with the most composite. If we wondered at the divine being as the most actual and never moved, then we will be amazed at Christ, the most actual, who nevertheless underwent supreme suffering and died. If we wondered at the divine being as most perfect and beyond measure, we will be amazed at Christ, who though most perfect and beyond measure, is joined with the least and insignificant. If we wondered at the divine being as both supremely one and yet encompassing all things, we will be amazed at Christ; for the supremely one that encompasses all things is "joined to an individual that is composite and distinct from others, that is to say, to the man Jesus Christ."¹⁹⁶

If as the second Cherub we wondered that in the Trinity there is a coincidence of unity and plurality, we will be amazed at Christ. Bonaventure does not draw a one-to-one correspondence between the list of opposites in the Trinity and those in Christ. After listing the opposites of unity and plurality in the Trinity, he bids the reader:

. . . face toward the Mercy-Seat and be amazed that in Christ a personal unity coexists with a trinity of substances and a duality of natures; that an entire accord coexists with a plurality of wills; that a mutual predication of God and man coexists with a differentiation of eminence; that co-exaltation over all things coexists with a differentiation of dignities; and finally that co-domination coexists with a plurality of powers.¹⁹⁷

Christ, as coincidence of opposites, serves as our means of passing over from intellectual contemplation to mystical ecstasy.¹⁹⁸ First we see Christ as both the image of the invisible God and the model of our own humanity. By identifying ourselves with him as man, we see our humanity wonderfully exalted. In Christ we see united "the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the center, 'the Alpha and the Omega,' the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature, that is, 'the book written within and without.' "¹⁹⁹ In Christ we arrive at a perfect reality.

As the mind gazes upon Christ, the mediator of God and man, it must transcend not only this visible world, but even itself. Christ, in whom is embodied the coincidence of opposites, becomes the way and the door for our passage.²⁰⁰ At this point, Bonaventure introduces another type of coincidence of opposites: the passage from opposite to opposite - from death to life, from earth to heaven, from intellectual contemplation to mystical elevation. Bonaventure evokes the entire Paschal mystery by seeing Christ as the one who dies and rises to draw us beyond sin, beyond the limits of the world, beyond ourselves into mystical union with God. Our instrument for making the passage is the cross.

He who turns his full countenance toward this Mercy-Seat and with faith, hope, and love, devotion, admiration, joy, appreciation, praise and rejoicing, beholds Christ hanging on the cross, such a one celebrates the Pasch, that is, the Passover, with him. Thus, using the rod of the cross, he may pass over the Red Sea, going from Egypt into the desert, where it is given to him to taste the hidden manna; he may rest with Christ in the tomb, as one dead to the outer world, but experiencing, nevertheless, as far as is possible in this present state as wayfarer, what was said on the cross to the thief who was hanging there with Christ: "This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise."²⁰¹

In making this passover, we abandon all intellectual activity, go beyond opposites, beyond being and nonbeing to the shining ray of divine darkness. Quoting the Pseudo-Dionysius, Bonaventure says:

... let yourself be brought back, in so far as it is possible, to unity with him who is above all essence and all knowledge. And transcending yourself and all things, ascend to the super-essential gleam of the divine darkness by an incommensurable and absolute transport of a pure mind.²⁰²

By entering into the Paschal mystery and by contemplating the marvelous coincidence of opposites in Christ, we reach the point where all opposites disappear; for we have ceased to think in concepts or to engage in intellectual contemplation. Rather, with Christ we have entered into an affective union with the Father:

Let us, then, die and enter into this darkness. Let us silence all our care, our desires, and our imaginings. With Christ crucified, let us pass 'out of this world to the Father,' so that, when the Father is shown to us, we may say with Philip: 'It is enough for us.'²⁰³

On the one hand, the mystical level is a negation of the opposites, for here all opposites coincide and find their reconciliation. Yet on the other hand, the soul itself is not absorbed into the divinity. In Bonaventure's thought the soul remains an image; it retains its identity and its otherness. It is united to God as lover to the Beloved, and hence as opposite to opposite. It is precisely Christ as eternal Word that grounds the individuality of the human soul and supports its autonomy even in the consuming fires of the divine union.

Metaphysical and Theological Roots

The coincidence of opposites in these three chapters of the Itinerarium leads us to make a systematic study of the coincidence of opposites throughout Bonaventure's thought. This passage prompts us to make a reductio, tracing the lines of his thought back to their underlying metaphysical and theological principles. Taking this approach, we come to the two roots of Bonaventure's logical and rhetorical interest in the coincidence of opposites: the dynamic Trinity and the mystery of Christ the center. These are bound together by two principles: (1) expressionism in his Trinitarian theology; and (2) exemplarism in his doctrine of creation.

Bonaventure's doctrine of opposites is rooted in his Trinitarian theology and precisely in his doctrine of the Son as expressive Image of the Father. In his boundless fecundity the Father generates the Son as the expression of himself.²⁰⁴ In this expressionism there are the two opposites - the Father and his Image - and their coincidence precisely in imaging. Hence at the very base of Bonaventure's thought, in the inner life of the mystery of the Trinity, there is an archetype for all of the opposites within the created universe.

It is on this expressionism that Bonaventure's exemplarism is based. For in generating the Son, the Father produces in the Son the exemplar and pattern of all that can be created. Hence the Son is his Art through which he creates the universe, and the universe is by its very nature a theophany. As vestige, image, similitude of God, it reflects God. It has two modes of otherness: first, it participates in the positive otherness of autonomy of the Image of the Father; and as a creature it is caught up in the otherness of non-being. These two modes of otherness coincide in man in a striking way. On the one hand, he shares in the divine imaging of the Son and, on the other, in the darkness of non-being.

The coincidence of nothingness and absoluteness in man is well illustrated in Bonaventure's epistemology of illumination.²⁰⁵

The created things we know are changeable and our minds are fallible. Yet we do have certain knowledge which is unchangeable and infallible. What makes this possible is the fact that our minds are grounded in the Verbum increatum. In our certain knowledge we are illumined and supported by the eternal Word, who grounds us in his unchangeableness and infallibility. In even our most casual judgments of first principles, our changeable mind coincides with the unchangeable Mind that is the cause of all things.

Because exemplarism and illumination involve a coincidence of opposites, the first four chapters of the Itinerarium can be reread from the standpoint of the coincidence of opposites. Through illumination in the image and exemplarism in the vestige, God and the universe are related as a coincidence of opposites. On the basis of these principles studied systematically, we can apply to the first four chapters the insight of the fifth, that God is "wholly within all things and wholly outside them."²⁰⁶

It is in Christ that the exemplaristic principle of creation coincides with the expressionistic principle of the Trinity. As limited, the universe cannot fully express its divine exemplar. But the Exemplar himself enters time and history in the most intimate personal union with human nature, the minor mundus. In so doing, he raises the macrocosm of the universe to approximate, insofar as it can, the fullness of imaging and expressionism that is realized in the consubstantial generation of the Son from the Father.

These principles of expressionism and exemplarism we will study systematically as the basis of Bonaventure's doctrine of the coincidence of opposites. In the following chapter, we will see them within the doctrine of the Trinity and in relation to creation. In the subsequent chapter we will see them at work in the mystery of Christ the center. Thus we will see that the concentrated passage in the Itinerarium presenting the coincidence of opposites is, in fact, a microcosm revealing the structure of Bonaventure's thought as a whole.

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