Shawn Colberg: Wisdom and Conformity: Reading as Journey in the Theology of Saint Bonaventure

This study exposits Saint Bonaventure’s understanding of Christian wisdom as that which facilitates and marks a person’s growth in conformity to God. Bonaventure depicts believers as viatores or wayfarers on a progressive journey established by the Triune God, facilitated through grace, and realized through increasing exemplarity between the wayfarer and the incarnate Word. Progress on the journey is often paired with the language of wisdom or sapi­entia. Wayfarers advance by successfully discerning and reading the signposts of the journey. The present study argues that wisdom for the wayfarer is realized in reading God’s revelation so as to find conformity and union with God through the Word who is himself divine Wis­dom. Bonaventure’s understanding of wisdom is embedded in a dynamic movement toward full similitude between the wayfarer and God; the wise person, indeed, is known and marked by habitual exemplarity with the Word. To that end, the study explores Bonaventure’s work­ing definitions of wisdom, the relationship of wisdom to exemplarity, and the role of lectio for reaching union with God as terminus of the journey and full expression of Christian wisdom.

Keywords: Bonaventure – wisdom – exemplarity – grace – union with God