Bonaventure

English

For some Saints in this question followed more the theological way, drawing reasoning toward those things which are of the faith. Opinion of Augustine. But others, among whom the principal was Augustine, followed more the philosophical way, which lays down those things which seem more consonant with reason: hence he also drew the meaning of Scripture toward the confirmation and attestation of reason. Therefore, since it seems more reasonable that all things be produced at once by the supreme power, and that an intervening delay of time would seem to be of no utility or necessity, he held that all things were produced at once, confirming his position through the authorities of sacred Scripture, and explaining that which seems to him to contradict it — namely, the distinction of days — by showing that those days were not material days but rather spiritual [days], which could all be at once. — And this position was very reasonable and very subtle.

Not pleasing to all. Nevertheless, because the meaning of Scripture seems to be twisted by this position, and it is safer and more meritorious to submit our understanding and reason wholly to Scripture rather than in any way to twist it: therefore commonly the other doctors, both those who preceded Augustine and those who came after, understood and held [the matter] as the text and letter of sacred Scripture of Genesis seems to sound. Hence they held that all corporeal things were created at once Conclusion. in matter, but not at once — rather, through a senary of days — were distinguished in form.

Wilson Pruitt · wroot-bonaventure · published at bonaventure.wrootpress.com (bonaventure.wrootpress.com, In II Sent. d.12 a.1 q.2). This page quotes it; that is its home.

Latin

In II Sent., d. XII, a. 1, q. 2 (Quaracchi 1885, II.296–297) · pd

Notes

The moment the Latin tradition decides. Bonaventure sets out Augustine's position fairly and generously — the philosophical way, holding that all things were produced at once and that the days of Genesis were spiritual and could all be simultaneous — and calls it 'very reasonable and very subtle.' Then he declines it, on a ground that is not exegetical but moral: it is safer and more meritorious to submit our reason to Scripture than to twist Scripture to our reason. The common doctors, before Augustine and after, held that all bodies were created at once in matter but distinguished in form through the six days. Augustine's day, the one day repeated, does not survive this paragraph as the school's reading of Genesis 1.

Threads

• ← parallel · Bonaventure
  Phase 6. The same judgement twice, one distinction apart, and both times against the more spiritual reading on the same ground. At d.12 he grants Augustine's simultaneous days are 'multum rationabilis et valde subtilis' and declines them because Scripture would have to be twisted; at d.13 he grants the Greek doctors their emission and contraction of rays and declines it because the Latin account is 'rationabilior, quia virtuti naturali possibilior'. Reasonableness in the first case is fidelity to the letter, in the second what nature can do — and both times the literal, physical day wins.
• → contests · Augustine
  Bonaventure states Augustine's simul thesis with its Scriptural support and its account of the days as spiritual and simultaneous, grants that it is 'multum rationabilis et valde subtilis', and then declines it: to hold it, the sense of Scripture must be twisted, and it is safer to submit reason to Scripture than Scripture to reason.
• → parallel · Peter Comestor
  The schools' settled reading in its two registers within a century: Comestor simply narrates a natural day and never raises Augustine's question, and Bonaventure raises it in order to rule against it. The literal six days win by handbook and by disputation at once.