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67 Franciscan Studies 62 (2004) STRUCTURE AND MEANING IN ST. BONAVENTURE’S QUAESTIONES DISPUTATAE DE SCIENTIA CHRISTI Scholars consistently examine St. Bonaventure’s Quaestiones Disputatae De Scientia Christi1 with reference to a particular problem: certitude in human knowledge.2 The text itself certainly invites such analysis since its fourth question specifically treats human certainty. However, in an effort to contextualize question four, many scholars have abstracted this question from the rest of the disputation and recontextualized it in the light of either the sermon, Christus unus omnium magister, or other texts bearing on human knowledge found in Bonaventure’s commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences.3 Though 1 The critical edition is: St. Bonaventure, Opera Omnia, vol. 5, ed. PP. Collegii a S. Bonaventura (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1901), 3-43, henceforth referred to as Opera Omnia 5, followed by the page number. English translation in: St. Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ, trans. Zachary Hayes (St. Bonaventure: The Franciscan Institute, 1992), henceforth I will abbreviate this translation as Knowledge of Christ followed by the page number. The De Scientia Christi dates to the year 1254. See Knowledge of Christ, introduction, 40-42 for discussion. However, Ignatius Brady forwards a date of 1256: “The Writings of Saint Bonaventure Regarding the Franciscan Order,” in San Bonaventura Maestro Di Vita Francescana E Di Sapienza Cristiana, vol. 1, ed. Alfonso Pompei (Rome: Pontificia Facolt’ Teologica ‘San Bonaventure,’ 1976), at 92-93 and footnote 14. 2 Numerous studies follow this approach: Ignatius Brady, “St. Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Illumination: Reactions Medieval and Modern,” in Bonaventure and Aquinas: Enduring Philosophers, ed. Robert W. Shahan and Francis J. Kovach (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 57-67; Theodore Crowley, “Illumination and Certitude,” in S. Bonaventura. 1274-1974, vol. 3, ed. Jacques Guy Bougerol (Grottaferrata: Collegio S. Bonaventura, 1973-1974), 431-448; Bernard A. Gendreau, “The Quest for Certainty in Bonaventure,” Franciscan Studies 21 (1961): 104-227; M. Hurley, “Illumination according to the S. Bonaventure,” Gregorianum 32 (1951): 388-404. Also, Steven P. Marrone, The Light of Thy Countenance: Science and Knowledge of God in the Thirteenth Century, 2 vols, (Leiden: Brill, 2001). Timothy B. Noone, “The Franciscans and Epistemology: Reflections on the Roles of Bonaventure and Scotus,” in Medieval Masters: Essays in Memory of Msgr. E. A. Synan, ed. R. E. Houser, Thomistic Papers VII (Houston: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1999), 63-90; John Francis Quinn, “Certitude of Reason and Faith in St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas,” in St. Thomas Aquinas 1274-1974: Commemorative Studies, ed. Armand Maurer, vol. 2 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974), 105-140. 3 A notable exception is Andreas Speer, “The Certainty and Scope of Knowledge: Bonaventure’s Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ,” Medieval Philosophy and 68 JOSHUA BENSON these scholarly essays clarify Bonaventure’s teaching on human knowledge, they tend to obscure the meaning of the De Scientia Christi as a whole, since the entire text either becomes viewed through a largely philosophical problem, or the other six questions of the disputation are simply ignored.4 Bonaventure’s questions on the knowledge of Christ are transformed into Bonaventure’s question on human knowledge. I suggest a different methodological approach to these quaestiones; one that can preserve the important aforementioned philosophical concern, while resituating that concern within the wider scope of the entire De Scientia Christi. To approach the disputation through the interpretive context of its own structure provides such an alternative method. Indeed, I would urge that an important preliminary step towards understanding the positive content of any of Bonaventure’s works is understanding how the order or structure of a particular text provides an interpretive guide for the reader.5 Bonaventure consistently employs the same textual structures or symbols throughout his corpus (e.g. three, seven, center, and circle) and so, it is important to understand how these symbols convey meaning in the text. I assert that many of Bonaventure’s typical textual symbols are present in the De Scientia Christi. In this essay I will ague that the textual structure and content of this disputation reveals three distinct, yet intimately interrelated meanings: 1) Christ’s wisdom, 2) human knowledge, and 3) metaphysics. Theology...

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