Saturday, June 30, 2018

Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Diverse Complementarity of the Catholic Church


One of the most beautiful aspects of the unity of the Catholic Faith is its astounding inclusiveness, richness, and diversity. There is ample room within the protection of the maternal bosom of Mother Church for innumerable coexistent and complementary rays of the One Truth to shine forth in a plethora of dazzling and enlightening colors. The Saints of the Church, like different facets of one scintillating diamond of truth and goodness, manifest her beautifully diverse unity in their distinct responses to God as they experience and know him.
One can find an excellent example of diverse unity during what have become known as the Middle ages of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church enjoyed two prominent avenues of theological thought contemporary to this period (yet both enduring in force to this day), which may, at the outset, appear to be mutually opposed: Scholasticism and Mysticism.
Scholasticism rudimentarily explained is rooted in the intellectual pursuit of God. That is to say, the proponent of this Scholastic approach first raises his or her mind to touch God through the aspiration of the soul’s divinely endowed powers of reason and intellect, grasping these in assent to God’s revelation in the Holy Faith. Scholasticism insists that the powers of reason and intellect can never contradict the revelations given by God; for both divine revelation (given in the Sacred Body of Church Tradition) and what can be known about God through the light of humanity’s natural powers both derive from the same God, who is synonymous with the very Truth which he obliges each person of faith to accept. The true Scholastic in his intellectual ascent to God, does not disdain or reject the aspirations of prayerful devotion in the heart to God, but enjoys prayerful encounter with God as following upon his knowledge of God. By beginning in the mind’s ascent to God through the natural powers of reason and intellect, derived from God’s Merciful Love and taken in the light of Holy Faith, the Scholastic finds his heart elevated to intimate encounter with God’s heart. Thus, it is faith and reason working hand in hand, the one never superceding  the other, which are the the beginning of the Scholastic approach to God (the end of course being the greater glory of God).
The Mystic’s approach to God, may be said to be quite different, in its form if not in its final aim. Mysticism, in its purest and truest sense, is never opposed to what springs from the human intellect; the mystic does not reject deeper knowledge of God, nor does he necessarily disdain using his God-given powers of reason to promote a better understanding of him. The difference is in the beginning point from which each (Scholasticism and Mysticism) start. As has been established, Scholasticism begins with the human reason and intellect within the light of Holy Faith, by raising first the mind, thereby to raise the heart also, to touch God’s heart. The Mystic would take this in the reverse, raising the heart first in prayerful devotion which subordinates (with a holy abandonment and entrustment to God) one’s ability to know through reason. The mystic chooses to dive first into the mystery of intimate encounter with God through the raising of the heart in simple, trusting, confident, faith in God, yet without in any way renouncing or relinquishing the powers of his mind; he would be grateful for these powers as purposeful gifts from God’s Providential Love. Still, it is by beginning with the raising of the heart in child-like faith, that the Mystic comes to possess a deeper knowledge of God, taking the investigative powers of reason and intellect as necessary and good but decidedly second. In this way, Mysticism aspires (and attains to) the same aim as Scholasticism: the greater glory of God.
There are two men (now declared Saints) who lived contemporarily to each-other during the Middle Ages, and who may be taken as noteworthy case-studies of the differences and parallels inherent in each of the aforementioned approaches to God; their names are St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. These two men are sometimes studied as though one must choose one or the other as the correct one between them, however they are properly understood as opposite sides of the same coin.
Thomas Aquinas was a member of the Order of Preachers, otherwise known as the Dominican Order, which was begun in the Middle Ages originally in order to squelch the spread of heresy, especially the Albigensian heresy, within Christendom. It was an order which had, as its principle forum, the battlefield of the mind and which took up, as its banner, reason in union with Holy Faith in order to defend the Catholic Church against intellectually based attacks. It is no surprise, then, that Thomas Aquinas was a decided proponent of the Scholastic approach to God. He believed in the merit of Greek philosophers (Aristotle in particular) and married the pronounced distinctiveness of logical Aristotelian reasoning to the study of the divine. His efforts in the defense and advancement of the Holy Catholic Faith are as gargantuan as they are lasting, providing a firm foundation for theological scholars which has not been shaken to this day.

Bonaventure was a member of the Franciscan order, which also sought to counteract heresy, but went about achieving this aim primarily through the exemplary witness of their way of life. The Franciscans (a mendicant order of friars devoted to voluntary poverty in imitation of the Gospel ideal) were an effective antidote to certain growing heretical movements within the Church of the Middle Ages (the Waldensians and the Humilitati) whose attractiveness and force lay in their mutual emphasis on extreme poverty, intended as a reproach to the avaricious corruption evident within the Church. With the clearly rising tide of Scholasticism, Bonaventure sought to reaffirm the prominence of prayerful ‘Mystical’ devotion to God through contemplative meditation culminating in union with God, thus gaining deeper knowledge of God through direct encounter. Thus for Bonaventure, knowledge was the fruit of love. For him, prayerful meditation, immersed in the Holy Spirit, enlightened the mind and lit the heart aflame so that the soul would most surely pierce the mysteries of God. ^1^ 

Thus already one may discern the initial differences between the approaches of the two orders and the two friars described: one taught principally through intellectual defense, the other proved the worth and weight of belief through direct, ‘wordless’ exhortation of example. One ascended to God by utilizing the good of the reason and intellect first, thus arriving at encounter with God in the heart. The other immersed the heart in encounter with God through prayer, thus arriving at the true knowledge of the reality of God.
So the distinctions have been duly established but what do these men (and their philosophies) share in common? There is a traditional heart-warming story about Aquinas and Bonaventure which is illustrative of the relationship between these two men and may lend insight into their apparently disguised similarities of heart. It is said that both Aquinas and Bonaventure were asked by Pope Urban IV to write a hymn in honor of the Eucharist on the occasion of his institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is on this occasion that Aquinas, having been asked to read his rendering first, presented to the Pope and Bonaventure, that incredibly beautiful and lucid hymn which Catholics still sing parts of in honor of the Eucharist: “Tantum Ergo” or “O Salutaris Hostia.” Upon hearing the composition of Aquinas, Bonaventure humbly ripped up his own work in deference to his brother in Christ. 

Here one sees first the love and respect which Bonaventure had for Aquinas. There was no trace of antipathy on his part toward St Thomas for having surpassed himself in crafting so eloquent a testament to the magnificence of the Eucharist. Further, he did not disdain Thomas’ use of the intellect to achieve so noble an aim. The fact is that, for all their differences, they did attain to the same aim. Bonaventure proves this by his humble deference to the gifts he saw in his brother, so that God would be better glorified. Thomas and Bonaventure both sought the glory of God above all else, including their own honor in this world; and each of them respected and rejoiced in the fruits of the gifts God had given to the other. One may begin to see that intense love of God is the common theme among these two holy men and this love extends also to bind (inextricably) their two approaches to God. ^2^
Pope Benedict XVI, in one of his general audiences, added his own insights on the likenesses between the two Saints, however he did so by first seemingly solidifying their unlikeness to each-other. The Pope said that Aquinas and Bonaventure each had (at least nominally) different understandings of the final end of man. Aquinas, would have said that the final end of man is to ‘see God’. Bonaventure, on the other hand, would have said that the final end of man is to ‘love God’. What the Pope concluded is that the two ends espoused by the Saints: ‘to see God’ and ‘to love God’ are ultimately the same thing. If one truly sees God, it must be, as the Scripture says, that he or she is already good (“pure of heart”) or else the vision of God would be obscured. Contrariwise, to love God, is synonymous to seeing and knowing him as he really is because it is impossible to love what is not known. ^3^
All the marvelous Saints, and all the wondrous fruits of God’s gifts evident in them, together attest to the infinitely diverse, yet profoundly simple nature of God. Those of God’s children who are still journeying through this mortal life would be wise to trek along the well-trod way of the Saints of God, taking the wisdom they offered in variegated ways as a pledge of the blessed life to come. It is perhaps fitting to end with a thought from the teaching of the Catholic Church in the Catechism on man’s ultimate goal-the end of all the beautiful and rich diversity within the Church: 
"God draws close to man. He calls him to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. … In his Son and through him, he invited men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.” ^4^



^1^ Vidmar, John, The Catholic Church Through the Ages (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2014), 143-147.
^3^ Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, part 2 (17 March, 2010)
^4^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1.

Image Credits:

https://www.tfpstudentaction.org/resources/forgotten-truths/what-saint-thomas-aquinas-says-about-mohammed-and-islam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure

http://www.catholickingdom.com/People/Dominique/Archive/inline/FF_17.html

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