Logy In General
CHAPTER TWO
BONAVENTURE'S TRINITARIAN
THEOLOGY IN GENERAL
"The created world is like a book which reflects, represents, and describes the creative trinity..." Brevil. 2,
12 (V, 230).
I. THE TRINITY IN THE BONAVENTUREAN SYSTEM
One cannot read the works of Bonaventure for long without sensing that the mystery of the trinity pervades the whole of his vision of reality. It is a fundamental structural component of his thought both in its broader vision and in its smaller units, and even conditions the choice of language and phraseology.
As a convincingly articulated wisdom-theology, Bonaventure's thought is concerned not with knowledge for its own sake, but with saving knowledge. "Now this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the only true God, and him whom You have sent,
Jesus Christ."! To know God in a saving way is to know Him as He truly is; and He most truly is in the way He has revealed
Himself to be in the New Testament, above all in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore a truly saving knowledge of God is to be found at the level of trinitarian theology. The first principle sought by philosophy is identical, in the final analysis, with the trinitarian
God of the New Testament revelation. If all finite reality emanates from the first principle, this can be understood in a fuller sense only when we perceive that the limited emanation of the created world is grounded in the prior and perfect emanations of goodness in the first principle itself.
Hence, the entire theological endeavor of Bona by the contemplation of the trinity. If the trinity is source of all, then it should not be surprising that it would leave its stamp upon the world. Indeed, for Bonaventure this is the case at every level.
As the objectification of the Absolute Spirit, the world as a whole 1 Jn. 17, 3.
BONAVENTURE'S TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY
is a symbol of the trinity. The world is like a book which reflects its trinitarian author at three levels; that of the vestige, that of the image, and that of the similitude. Every creature is a vestige representing the trinity in a distant and unclear way; but the image, found only in intellectual creatures, reflects the trinity in a closer and more distinct way. The similitude is that most intense reflection which is found in the rational spirit that is conformed to God through grace. These three levels are like the steps of a ladder by which the human mind is designed to ascend gradually to the supreme principle who is God.? The world emanates from the trinitarian exemplar and reflects the trinitarian order at various levels and degrees.
In Bonaventure's thought, the trinity and Christology are inseparably. intertwined. It is the mystery of Christ that leads us to the trinity; and the trinitarian concept of God is developed as a function of Christology. At one level, the whole ot the trinity is seen as the exemplar of the world while at another level, the mystery of exemplarity is concentrated in the second person; for the divine Word is the total expression of all that the divine love is in itself and can be in relation to the finite. The entire triune structure of God, including the procession of the Spirit is focused in the Word in an exemplary way.° In as far as the Word is the expression of the entire inner-trinitarian life of God, that which is created as an expression of God bears a relation not only to the trinity as such, but to the Word in particular.
The human person, created _as an image of God, reflects its creative source in two ways. The. spiritual soul reflects the one spiritual nature of God, while the spiritual powers of memory, i nce, and will reflect_the mystery of source, origin, and order characteristic of the trinitarian life of God. There is here a limited reflection of the unity and trinity of God. That which Bonaventure designates as an image of God is, in a sense, an open possibility which must be brought to actualization. By reflecting either on itself or on things above itself, the image becomes an express image. The fullest historical realization of this is found in the gift of grace whereby the human person is transformed to true God-likeness and the soul becomes a similitude of the trinity. The world of created reality which comes forth from a trinitarian source is here approaching its Godappointed end in the mystery of grace which finds its completion in - 2 Brevil. 2, 12 (V, 230). For an excellent study of Bonaventure's theology of creation, cf. M. Wiegels, Die Logik der Spontaneitét. Zum Gedanken der Schopfung bei Bonaventura (Freiburg-Miinchen, 1969).
O ets, BT (Oi, eee 12s 2), PIC SIOE