'But if you wish to know how these things come about ask grace not instruction, desire not understanding, the groaning of prayer not diligent reading, the Spouse not the teacher, God not man, darkness not clarity, not light but the fire that totally enflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections. This fire is God and his furnace is in Jerusalem...' --Bonaventure, 1217-1274

“Simply Bonaventure may very well become the standard English introduction to Bonaventure’s thought for college and graduate school teachers and students.” Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM Professor of Church History Franciscan School of Theology Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, California. Simply Bonaventure provides an introduction to the life, thought and writings of the medieval Franciscan, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. The majority of the work is devoted to Bonaventure’s theology, which is summarized according to his own metaphysical scheme of origin (God), purpose (creation), and destiny (goal of creation). His trinitarian, Christocentric theology is highly relevant to a global world and to the postmodern Christian experience. Sr. Delio’s work is the first to provide a comprehensive view of Bonaventure’s theology, together with an introduction to his life and writings, and to place his theology in dialogue with contemporary human experience. “With this book Ilia Delio has provided a long needed introduction to Bonaventure’s thought. But she has done more than merely open the door to Bonaventure’s world. Because of the depth of her own mature scholarly and spiritual insight, her book can enrich not only beginners but seasoned Bonaventure scholars as well.” Ewert Cousins Editor and Translator of the Bonaventure volume in The Classics of Western Spirituality “Ilia Delio's work combines the adroit use of primary sources, the best of critical commentaries on Bonaventure's thought, and contemporary questions to take the reader on an exciting journey into the heart of one of the medieval period's most dynamic Franciscan thinkers.” Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. “This fine book is deeply rooted in the very best scholarship yet presented in a gentle spirit and un-intimidating style. Those who study it carefully will gain not only a renewed appreciation of a truly great theologian and saint, but also an admiration for the loving way in which Delio has treated his spiritual vision. I strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in the very best spiritual writing.” John F. Haught Professor of Theology Georgetown University

The authors of the standard approach to Bonaventure’s aesthetics established the broad themes that continue to inform the current interpretation of his philosophy, theology, and mysticism of beauty: his definition of beauty and its status as a transcendental of being, his description of the aesthetic experience, and the role of that experience in the soul’s ascent into God. Nevertheless, they also introduced a series of pointed questions that the current literature has not adequately resolved. In Bonaventure’s Aesthetics: The Delight of the Soul in Its Ascent into God, Thomas J. McKenna provides a comprehensive analysis of Bonaventure’s aesthetics, the first to appear since Balthasar’s Herrlichkeit, and argues for a resolution to these questions in the context of his principal aesthetic text, the Itinerarium mentis in Deum.

The Hackett edition of this classic of medieval philosophy and mysticism--a plan of pilgrimage for the learned Franciscan wishing to reach the apex of the mystical experience--combines the highly regarded Boehner translation with a new introduction by Stephen Brown focusing on St. Francis as a model of the contemplative life, the meaning of the Itinerarium, its place in Bonaventure's mystical theology, and the plan of the work. Boehner's Latin Notes, as well as Latin texts from other works of Bonaventure included in the Franciscan Institute Edition, are rendered here in English, making this the edition of choice for the beginning student.

Although Bonaventurian scholarship has seen a great expansion in the past forty years, there remains no English volume that provides a general yet detailed study of Bonaventure for scholars. The Companion to Bonaventure provides an invaluable guide to understanding him. Together the essays deliver a critical overview of the current research, the major themes in Bonaventure’s life and writings, and how they are being reinterpreted at the start of the twenty-first century. As a great 13th century scholastic luminary, Bonaventure exists as a vital contributor to the early Franciscan movement that swept across the theological and spiritual landscape of the High Middle Ages. The paradoxical simplicity and complexity of Bonaventure’s synthesis has made, and will continue to provide, a profound contributions to Franciscan and Christian reflection. This Companion will help in understanding why this is the case. Contributors include: Joshua Benson, Jacques Bougerol, Ilia Delio, Christopher Cullen, Jared Goff, Jay M. Hammond, Zachary Hayes, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, Kevin L. Hughes, Timothy J. Johnson, David Keck, Gregory LaNave, Pietro Maranesi, Dominic V. Monti, and Marianne Schlosser.

The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical objections to proofs of God's existence rely upon an attenuated and impoverished conception of reason which theologians of all monotheistic traditions might wish to reject. Denys Turner proposes that on a broader and deeper conception of it, human rationality is open to the 'sacramental shape' of creation as such and in its exercise of rational proof of God it in some way participates in that sacramentality of all things.

Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism explores two influential intellectual and religious leaders in Christianity and Buddhism, Bonaventure (c. 1217–74) and Chinul (1158–1210), a Franciscan theologian and a Korean Zen master respectively, with respect to their lifelong endeavors to integrate the intellectual and spiritual life so as to achieve the religious aims of their respective religious traditions. It also investigates an associated tension between different modes of discourse relating to the divine or the ultimate—positive (cataphatic) discourse and negative (apophatic) discourse. Both of these modes of discourse are closely related to different ways of understanding the immanence and transcendence of the divine or the ultimate. Through close studies of Bonaventure and Chinul, the book presents a unique dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism and between West and East.

Tanner offers not a repetition of doctrines but a creative synthesis of key Christian principles - especially the transcendence and gift-giving of God - and contemporary experience. What emerges is a profound yet precise vision of creation, God's life, and our participation in it. While consonant with traditional teachings, Tanner's dynamic speculative theology is universal in its range, mystical in its outlines, and deeply ethical in its relations with all God's gifted creatures. Jesus, Humanity, and the Trinity not only takes stock of Christian belief in a time of tumultuous intellectual and cultural change. It also finds in that ferment a life-giving meaning and mission for Christian life.

Providing a fresh evaluation of Alberti’s text On Painting (1435), along with comparisons to various works of Nicholas Cusanus - particularly his Vision of God (1450) - this study reveals a shared epistemology of vision. And, the author argues, it is one that reflects a more deeply Christian Neoplatonic ideal than is typically accorded Alberti. Whether regarding his purpose in teaching the use of a geometric single point perspective system, or more broadly in rendering forms naturalistically, the emphasis leans toward the ideal of Renaissance art as highly rational. There remains the impression that the principle aim of the painter is to create objective, even illusionistic images. A close reading of Alberti’s text, however, including some adjustments in translation, points rather towards an emphasis on discerning the spiritual in the material. Alberti’s use of the tropes Minerva and Narcissus, for example, indicates the opposing characteristics of wisdom and sense certainty that function dialectically to foster the traditional importance of seeing with the eye of the intellect rather than merely with physical eyes. In this sense these figures also set the context for his, and, as the author explains, Brunelleschi’s earlier invention of this perspective system that posits not so much an objective seeing as an opposition of finite and infinite seeing, which, moreover, approximates Cusanus’s famous notion of a coincidence of opposites. Together with Alberti’s and Cusanus’s ideals of vision, extensive analysis of art works discloses a ubiquitous commitment to stimulating an intellectual perception of divine, essential, and unseen realities that enliven the visible material world.