Knowing God from its vestiges in creation.

St. Augustine and St. Bonaventure.

Abstract

This paper explores the knowledge of God from creatures, linking St. Augustine approach in Confessions (Conf. X, VI, 8-10) and the well-know Augustinian-rooted thought of St. Bonaventure, particularly in Itinerarium mentis in Deum. Both authors, in their difference, see, in contemplating creatures, a first moment in man's inner road to God which, though partial and in complete, is a prelude to the following steps. First, the perfection and beauty of creation points to its Creator. Then, the inner man discovers aspects of God in His "traces" created as evidence of His invisible perfection. Thus, creation is shown as a "book" open to man, who is called to interrogate and decipher His deeper words. Both thinkers are aware that access to God through creation is neither immediate nor accepted by all men; it is indicative of the need that will and the growth of love for God inside the human being accompany understanding, a fact that will in turn lead to a particular way of understanding knowledge and wisdom. The road opened by St. Augustine in the fourth century is followed nine centuries later by St. Bonaventure, who gave it his original seal and Franciscan spirit.