sidered to be the Second Founder of the
Franciscans and was Minister General of that Order.
ST. BONAVENTURE AND THE AUGUSTINIAN TRADITION
Augustine was concerned with individual's in the concrete sense and not with abstractions such as the 'natural man.' Human beings should not be judged apart from their supernatural vocation nor in abstraction from the operation of supernatural grace. Consequently, Augustine did not make an absolute distinction between philosophy and theology; however, he did distinguish between the natural light of reason and supernatural faith.
If one's interest is involved in the soul's advancement to God, as Augustine and Bonaventure were, then one's cognition will
center around mankind in the concrete; and mankind in the concrete is humanity with a supernatural vocation. Neither Augustine nor Bonaventure would argue against the dichotomy between the natural and the supernatural; but because they were both mainly concerned with the actual historical person, who is a person with a supernatural vocation, they were, of course, inclined to combine theological and philosophical themes in one Christian epistemology. This was the situation instead of making a strict, methodological distinction between theology.
Concerning God and theology, Bonaventure learned from his Franciscan masters the Augustinian tradition which he was to promote, and whose most noteworthy disciple he was to become in the thirteenth century. The professors in the faculty of arts in the University of Paris were adhering to their Augustinian heritage. Still, by the time of the arrival of Bonaventure's career as both student and teacher at the university, a considerable amount of Aristotelianism was becoming more obvious at the University of Paris. But Bonaventure always remained faithful to the Augustinian tradition.
To Bonaventure, a human being must be considered in his actual historical condition. He is a creature o...