Bonaventure's Soul's Journey in a contemporary note: Part Two

In Part One I discussed Days 1 & 2 of Bonaventure’s Soul's Journey into God. In Part Two, I take up

Days 3 & 4

Over the many centuries of Christian history, Christian thinkers have reflected upon the Genesis account of creation, especially the creation of humans. Genesis 1:26 states, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” The issue has to do with what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God. Many Christian thinkers thought that what distinguishes us from other animals is our rational faculty. Thus, in our ability to reason we are most like God. Some would add the faculty of the will, thus in our rational deliberations, we are able to freely choose between various goods.

          In modern biblical studies, there has been a recognition of the influences of other ancient Middle Eastern cultures on the formation of the biblical texts. These include such mythical accounts of origins as the Enuma Elish, the Gilgamesh Epic, as well as the many and various social-cultural practices that would form ancient people’s cosmologies and religious imaginations. In ancient Babylon, for instance, the king would be the prime manifestation and image of the deity. Thus, when the king spoke his will, it was legitimized and grounded in the belief that he was the mouthpiece of Marduk. Thus, in the biblical account, there is a democratization of those who contain the divine image.

          Despite how different thinkers in Christian history came to define what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, there was a general agreement that with the advent of sin, i.e., disobedience to the will and commands of God, humanity had damaged the image and likeness of God and could not recover either through their own volition. The will to live according to the commands of God had been irreparably damaged. This narrative of the ‘Fall’ would be incorporated into the western, Augustinian theology of original sin. Human desire would now be bound to a will congenitally self-focused, intent on self-construction. The creature comes to believe in the illusion of being its own creator.

          In day three of Bonaventure’s Journey of the Soul to God, the individual is called to move from looking at the outer world of creation, to the inner world of one’s mind/soul. Bonaventure, in the psychology of his day, will look at the natural powers that we have, that is, our capacities and abilities that are unique to human beings. One very important capacity that humans have is the ability to love ourselves. We desire good things for ourselves, and in some cases, we desire the good for others. In order to love ourselves, we must have some knowledge of ourselves.

          Memory will be important in self-knowledge. In this case, memory is not simply a recall of random events. Rather, our memories that form our sense of self include the many choices we have made over our lifetime. Thus, the will plays an important role in the formation of our self-identity.

          When reflecting upon our many choices, we can see that in most, if not all cases, our choices have been for the love of self. We desire happiness, wellbeing, and despite the fact that many of our choices, looked at objectively, have in fact been to our detriment, we nevertheless made these choices hoping for some kind of fulfillment, a means to satisfying some unconscious identity need (meaning, connectedness/belonging, recognition, and security).

          Bonaventure was convinced that our minds are built for truth, and that such apprehension of truth brings us satisfaction. Using mathematical examples, knowing that 2 + 2 = 4 brings us a sense of satisfaction, while claiming 5 to be the correct answer is disjointing. When we work out a problem, coming to a truthful resolution, we gain a sense of satisfaction, a sense of happiness. When we find something that we at first thought to be true, but discovered later to be a lie, we find such an occasion to be disheartening. Thus, our minds desire truth.

          However, we did not come out of the womb with a comprehensive list of what is true about the world. We have had to work at finding truth in the various areas and aspects of our lives. Even more disconcerting, our means of finding truth, especially when it comes to those truths that will genuinely fulfill our identity needs, can only be arrived at by means of others. We are dependent upon the various models who enter our social landscape. This is – with a great deal of understatement – problematic.

          Combining the various ingredients discussed above, we can begin to see our dilemma. First, as humans, we have the facility to love ourselves, thus, to know ourselves to some degree. Second, we are designed for truth. Knowing and grasping the truth of things informs a sense of satisfaction and happiness in our minds and hearts. Third, we can only come to knowledge of anything through experience, and when it comes to understanding our experiences, we are reliant upon the influences of others. We have to choose between the many and various options of interpretations offered from the many and various models in our life. Over time, our memories are formed by the various choices we have made, i.e., those modelled interpretations concerning what a meaningful life consists of. Those choices concerning who we will connect our affections to, whose recognition of our selfhood is deemed more rewarding. These choices will form a world in which we feel either safe or anxious.

          In this journey for self-knowledge, for truth, for happiness, we begin to make judgments about how we determine the good. We gain a sense of degrees to goodness. We form judgments about what a good life consists of. Unfortunately, these judgments are profoundly informed and shaped by the models we have formed our will and desires in. Over time, our worldviews, our emotional constructs, will become a habitus. Our automatic responses to the world will become a type of second nature.

Thus, our judgments will have the feeling of truth. However, from a Christian perspective, these judgments may in fact be falsehoods. But in our believing these falsehoods as true, Bonaventure, borrowing from Augustine, would state that we have been curved in upon ourselves. We no longer stand (metaphorically) arrect, able to look above us; above our deformed imagination, and see the truth for what it really is. Rather, we can only gaze upon our actual deformed minds which deceive us into believing the illusions we have convinced ourselves of.

          The deformation of our minds and hearts is manifested in many ways. We see it in such attitudes of tribalism, nationalism, bigotry, prejudice, violence, mean spiritedness, misogyny, patriarchy, and a myriad of other things that set humans against one another. And we know, by just the most minimal of historical knowledge, that such deformation of human beliefs and behaviors are seemingly beyond reformation. Even the most enlightened of individuals struggle to overcome inclinations to desire the self over the wellbeing of others. From a Christian theological anthropological view, the human condition is in need of salvation, that is, a healing, from a source beyond its own capacity. Thus, the need for a savior.

          Day three is a difficult part of the journey to self-knowledge. It requires radical honesty and fortitude to face the brokenness of one’s inner subjective reality. It takes radical humility to admit one may be desperately in need of transformation, and willing to ask for help.

          Day three is Bonaventure’s exploration of the natural human condition before the advent of grace. Grace is that necessary gift each requires to be brought to a state of rectitude impeded by a self-centeredness that places the needs and desires of the individual first. Grace is needed as well in order to overcome the illusion of self-creation. In day four, Bonaventure explores the dimension of faith and grace, found in the work of Christ.

          Day four has to do with redemption, the transformation of the individual, bringing a re/birth of the true image and likeness of God that has been lost by the malformation of the mind and heart through a will consumed with distorted desires for self-construction. Bridging day 3 and day 4, Bonaventure again looks at the faculty of memory. Memory, for Bonaventure, is somehow an aspect of the human person that touches eternity, as it allows us to transcend time by helping us to go back to the past, capturing the present, and draws us into the future through foresight, using the imagination. By recalling our experiences of the past, along with our awareness of the present, we can predict, to a small degree, a bit of our future. We can do this, because we have come to experience things happening in an orderly manner.

          In Bonaventure’s account of this day in the journey, he associates the different aspects of human psychology with the three members of the trinity. Such comparisons do not seem to relate to our contemporary understanding of human psychology. Thus, I will forgo using such comparisons in my interpretation of this day. Instead, I will use categories I believe are more relatable to our contemporary experiences.

          From a Girardian perspective, we each have models, or as Bonaventure would call it, exemplars, who mediate for us values, principles, convictions, and desires by which we learn how to shape our worlds of meaning. These models originate from the outer world, brought in through our senses, as I discussed in Part One. Over time, the acclimation and information of our models’ desires, values, principles, and convictions will become instantiated into the makeup of our very selves. We will embody these ‘others’ into the construction of our ‘self. Recognizing this is the first step in discarding the illusion of self-construction.

          When it comes to the theology of grace, the question as to how grace brings about transformation can be rather opaque. We can easily observe the seeming contradiction of those claiming to have been ‘saved’ by grace yet live in such a fashion that clearly contradicts the teachings of Jesus in the gospels. Such hypocrisy has been a source of animus towards Christianity for many.

          For Bonaventure, Jesus is the exemplar of God’s character. In Jesus, through his teachings and actions narrated in the gospels, we see the nature of the divine. By reflecting and meditating on the life of Christ, one begins to see what God’s desires and values consist of. For Franciscans like Bonaventure, Francis is the example par excellence of the imitation of Christ. He did this so profoundly that even his body became conformed to the body of Christ through the five wounds, the stigmata he received on Mount La Verna. But more importantly, Francis was profoundly conformed to the desires and values of Jesus as he spent hours upon hours in prayer, reflecting on the gospels.

          Thus, from a Girardian perspective, grace operates through the conscious and intentional act of conforming one’s desires upon those of the Christ. This includes imitation of the Christ in his teachings, his attitudes, his behaviors, his conformity to the will of God. Of course, this means that one must willingly seek to discard those desires that have been directed towards the self as a means of self-construction. This means that one must recognize the many dead-end journeys towards identity satisfaction that have created false constructions of one’s meaning world, based on the limited and distorted models whose own desires are formed in such misdirected ways.

          Days three and four, as with all the days on the journey, are ongoing endeavors. They are part of an overall pilgrimage that takes a lifetime of commitment and dedication. However, despite the incompleteness of the journey through days three and four, there must be some evidence/manifestation of the journey’s progress through the outward praxis of one’s inner conversion and transformation. Such evidence/manifestation will be the subject of Part Three, which will take up days five and six in Bonaventure’s schema.  

 

Bonaventure's Soul's Journey in a contemporary note: Part One

For several years, in a couple of different courses I have taught, I have had to attempt to teach Bonaventure’s Soul’s Journey to God. Anyone familiar with this text will know how difficult a task it is, especially with freshmen. On top of that, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a Bonaventurian scholar. However, teach it I have had to do. I found my first experiences in trying to convey Bonaventure’s medieval text, using his medieval categories, to be a losing battle. (I am sure an actual Bonaventure scholar might succeed). So, I decided to use his schema of the seven days and translate as best I could his medieval categories into modern categories. Because of my interest in Girardian studies, as well as the profound influence of Vern Redekop’s description of identity needs, I translated Bonaventure’s concepts into Girardian and human identity needs categories. This seems to resonate with many students. For some time, I have been thinking about putting my efforts into writing. I thought that I would start with writing the basics of what I present in class. In time I hope to expand this. But first, I need to get the basics down into a text of some form. Here is the beginning of this endeavor. I hope to actually finish this in four parts. Fingers crossed.

 

I begin this adventure with days 1 and 2 of the Bonaventure’s journey.

 

Part One: Day 1 & 2

 

Life is a journey as the saying goes. Like any journey, if there is a particular destination, one needs some kind of map to direct one’s path. The map itself is the result of previous journeys by others. The problem is, whose map should we follow?

          Bonaventure begins the journey paying attention to the created world. He believes, as a Christian, that creation came about by the will of a benevolent deity. And like an artist, creation contains traces, vestiges (footprints), of the artist. In the macrocosm of God’s creation, Bonaventure looks for patterns, for order. As God brought about order from chaos in Genesis 1, so we should see order in the created world around us.

          While Bonaventure lived a life infused with theological reflection, most of us live in a world in which the culture is no longer so infused with religious influences. Much of our life is primarily a plethora of secular concerns. There is no dominant, or hegemonic, ideology by which one can order one’s life. We are instead offered a smorgasbord of possible paths to follow. Yet, we intuitively know that order is a human need. We order our lives in order to experience a sense of security, a sense of meaning, a sense of connectedness with others. When our world of constructed security, meaning, and connectedness are disturbed or severed, we suffer a sense of chaos. In these moments, we seek to regain our sense of order by whatever means available.

          Bonaventure looked to the outer world of creation to find traces of order. He did this in a couple of different ways. One was to look at the world as if through a highly polished mirror. When we look into a mirror, of course we see an image of ourselves, surrounded by those objects around us. However, Bonaventure wants to look at actual created objects, like rocks, animals, and plants as though these were mirrors. What does he expect to see? He sees patterns, which he attributes to the intelligence of the creator.

          Most moderns rarely look at objects expecting to find some traces of the divine, and thus vestiges of divine order and intelligence. However, we do look to society and culture, seeking, both consciously and unconsciously, patterns by which to navigate the contingencies of our lives. This attentiveness to ordered patterns is typically focused on the many models presented to us in our social and cultural location. It begins with our parents, our siblings, and the various friends we make. It also includes the many other models our society offers us – celebrities, sports figures, intellectuals, and so forth. It is from these various models that we begin to build our internal maps. And from a Bonaventurian schema, these models are related to day 1 as they are parts of the created world outside our selves.

          For Bonaventure, looking attentively to the patterns and order of the created world, one not only sees vestiges of the divine, but one also begins to acquire wisdom. Of course, for Bonaventure, such wisdom is associated with the second person of the Trinity, who is the logos, the wisdom and reason of God. However, for most of us in the contemporary world, such reflection on the created world rarely leads to such religiously inclined conclusions. However, in our reflection and attentiveness to the social and cultural world outside us, we begin to recognize patterns of ideological constructs that offer promises of wisdom. We see this in such myths as the ‘American dream’, and the various nationalistic ideologies that promise security, connectedness, and meaning.

          Bonaventure will associate these various reflections on the order and wisdom of creation with goodness. For Bonaventure, in contradistinction with the heresy of Catharism – which claimed the world to be created by an evil deity – the world is good, created by the fulness of goodness, God. And as he reflects on this goodness, he realizes that we begin to perceive degrees of goodness. The height of goodness for Bonaventure manifests as beautiful. Goodness is beautiful. I think we can agree with him that when we experience goodness, we find it beautiful. We even say things like, ‘she has such a beautiful soul’ in relation to one’s goodness.

          However, in our contemporary lives, while we may experience aspects of goodness, we may not reflect beyond immediate experiences to the conclusion that life, and the universe, is ultimately good because it has been created by goodness itself. While Bonaventure, by means of his Christian lens, sees in the ordered, patterned created world, with its wisdom and goodness, the vestiges of the triune God, most of us merely experience random events that rarely lead to such a vision of the divine. Our universe is, rather, contracted by the immediacy of everyday events and responsibilities.

          Despite our different ways of reflecting on the world, i.e., looking at the created world (Bonaventure), or looking at social and cultural patterns (moderns), I believe we can still utilize Bonaventure’s schema. In our journey to God, we can see reflections of the divine in the cacophony of human voices offering us maps to a meaningful life that includes a sense of security and connectedness. We see such reflections of the divine in human identity needs. Every person, no matter where one comes from, no matter one’s cultural particularities, shares in some basic needs. Each one of us needs to be loved. Such love is experienced through connection with another, or others. Related to such connectedness is the fact that another, or others, have recognized us as worthy of such connectedness. In such recognition we experience the reality of our own goodness and lovableness. This in turn gives us a sense of wellbeing, of security. Together with these satisfied needs, we form a sense of meaning about life, a sense of purposefulness.

          At the same time, the failure to satisfy these needs can lead to the formation of inner angst and insecurity, leading to a variety of negative results. We may form dispositions of resentment towards the world, accompanied by attitudes of envy or jealousy. This in turn may impede one’s ability to form loving and trusting relationships. Such negative experiences tend to lead to occasions of conflict. Such formation by the influences of the outer world leads, as Bonaventure will tell us, to inner worlds reflecting such influences.

          After reflecting on the created world outside us (which, in my reflection is turned to the social and cultural world outside us), Bonaventure will, from his medieval scholastic training, turn to a reflection on the processes of how the world outside us finds its way into our inner world. He takes this up in his reflection on day 2 of his journey.

          While Bonaventure had issues with aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy – Bonaventure seems to have preferred Plato – he nevertheless knew Aristotle well. He utilizes Aristotle’s epistemology as to how one’s knowledge of the outer world is obtained via the senses of touch, taste, smell, and sight. These senses are doorways into the mind. They bridge the world outside us to the world within.

          We begin early in life constructing an inner world shaped by a plethora of experiences of social and cultural influences. We will form dispositions, memories, attitudes, and ideologies that will inform our relationships with those in our social spaces. Bonaventure tells us that one’s relationship with the outer world will in turn form in us various judgments, evaluations, and analysis about the world around us.

          Much of Bonaventure’s discussion of day 2 has lost its appeal, as it focuses on scholastic categories that we simply do not find meaningful in our contemporary world. Bonaventure felt the need to defend the positive gift that the material world is, along with our physical bodies. This was due to the matter-hating Cathars who believed the material world, including the body, was an obstacle to one’s spiritual progress. Fortunately, though there are still those who denigrate the body, we modern Christians have come to see the gift of embodiment, including the positive gift of sexuality. It is in such embodiment that we encounter other bodies, whose influence on us is immeasurable. Bonaventure will embrace the goodness of the created world. We too, in our journey to God, must embrace the goodness of our embodied reality, as it relates to our relationship with both God and others. It is only in our embodied state that we can experience anything at all. It is the means by which the outer world is brought into our inner worlds.

          However, the constructions of our inner worlds are fraught with complications and distortions. Our perceptions of the world are formed and deformed by the many different relationships we encounter and maintain. Bonaventure tells us that in one’s reflection on day 2 of the journey, we recognize that we learn to give names to the many objects we encounter. Such acts of naming give us the ability to understand the relationships between these many objects. Bonaventure sees such reflections as leading to a deeper understanding of God, moving beyond the vestiges (footprints) of the divine in the world, to a recognition of the image of God more clearly within ourselves. He makes this conclusion because, in reflecting upon our ability to make such connections, we can see in our depths a trace of the intelligent creator, who is loving and wise, and who has ordered all things for goodness.

Unfortunately, most of us simply do not come to the same conclusions as Bonaventure. We tend not to think in terms of the imago Dei (seeing ourselves created in the divine image). We see ourselves as formed by our own self-autonomous choices. We even neglect to see how our mimetic nature necessarily informs our need to imitate other’s maps in order to direct our journey. Such blindness is a real impediment to one’s journey to God. Such blindness creates the illusion of self-creation. In fact, until one acknowledges such illusions, one will never go further in the journey. This is why so many live lives of quiet, or not so quiet, desperation. The many sources of meaning and connectedness are ephemeral, changing with the social and cultural winds.

The heart of the first two days of the journey is twofold. First, we need the desire to take the journey in the first place, wanting to see the deeper meaning of one’s life. Second, we need a willingness to strive for a deeper self-knowledge, even when this might lead to unpleasant acknowledgement of one’s limitations, shallowness, and brokenness. In the search for such self-knowledge, one looks to the profound influences of one’s many models in the formation of one’s worldview, dispositions, attitudes, ideologies, and behaviors. Bonaventure would most likely encourage us to ask whether such influences are true, good, and beautiful, reflecting the creator’s truth, goodness, and beauty.

If one does in fact choose to continue this journey, there will be the difficult but necessary requirement of looking honestly at one’s brokenness, one’s illusions, one’s lack of love, and the need for conversion and transformation. Such reflections are taken up in days 3 and 4 in Bonaventure’s journey of the mind into God. I will look at this part of the journey in Part Two.