TRUTH AND EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD IN SAINT BONAVENTURE

Abstract

The theme of the existence of God is presented by Saint Bonaventure through three ways that lead human thought to natural certainty, as a firm adherence to the truth that intelligence knows, whether according to eternal reasons or through demonstrative proofs. These three ways respectively consider the self-knowledge of the soul, the recognition of the external world in the relationship between creatures and the Creator, and the realm of immediate and self-sufficient evidence to engender indubitable truth. This paper will present the argumentative development of the proofs of the existence of God, according to Saint Bonaventure, in (1) the Commentary on the Sentences (I, distinction VIII) and, (2) the Disputed Questions on the Mystery of Christ (Q. I a.1), two works marked by the teaching activity of the Seraphic Doctor in the medieval university. I intend to show that these proofs, especially the third, owe much to the ratio anselmi, already known in medieval Latin scholasticism of the 13^th century.