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Chapter 4 Most Evident to Us, Most Distant from God: The Body as Locus of Salvation in Bonaventure’s Breviloquium Matthew Kemp Loyola University Chicago The thirteenth-century Franciscan theologian Bonaventure conceives of God not only as the source and cause of the created order, but also its goal and end. As he himself puts it, “the first being is of necessity the final end, the beginning and the consummation, the Alpha and the Omega.” This schema follows the common patristic and medieval pattern known as exitus-reditus. The return to God is for all of creation, not just spiritual beings like humans and angels. Yet Bonaventure accords the human person an indispensable role in his cosmology. As a body-soul composite, the human being alone contains the op- posite natures of spiritual and material creation united in one entity, thus displaying the fullness of God’s power, wisdom, and goodness. This unique location further allows humankind to function as a mediator between creation and Creator. While the corruption of sin makes this mediation impossible, the incarnation of Christ restores human nature and thus returns all of creation to God. Bonaventure’s cosmologically oriented anthropology has received ample treatment from scholars. However, these studies tend
Essays in Medieval Studies – West Virginia University Press
Published: Jun 5, 2019
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