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Document Details : Title: St. Bonaventure Subtitle: Aesthetics and Contemplation in the Journey towards God Author(s): OFILADA MINA, Macario Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 16 Date: 2006 Pages: 151-164 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.16.0.2017796 Abstract : This paper is an initial attempt to present a global perspective from which Bonaventure’s spiritual project or itinerary, especially in his Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, could be understood. By employing the hermeneutical keys or poles of aesthetics and contemplation, the author succeeds in presenting the very theoretical basis that underlies Bonaventure’s spirituality, with its philosophical and theological constructs and foundations. In effect, the journey of man to God is presented by Bonaventure in a mystagogical style, i.e., as an initiation into the mystery. The process of attaining union with God is mystical and is developed or elaborated by Bonaventure as a mystagogy. The present paper, while it succeeds in presenting aesthetics and contemplation as legitimate hermeneutical keys in understanding Bonaventure’s notion of the journey of man towards God, also succeeds in making further contributions to the clarification of the correlation between philosophy (the discipline from which the author proceeds) and spirituality (the direction of this same discipline and the very texts of Bonaventure studied in this paper). |
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