A friend and I are starting a leisurely study of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, sometimes titled “The Soul’s Journey into God.” (We’re using Armstrong’s annotated translation, and he translates the title as “A Guide for the Mind into God.”) My friend wanted to read something on the “mystical” union with Christ—and mystical is what we’ll get!

Right away, in Prologue §4.1 (p. 9), I encountered the following gem, which in some way captures a large part of my current work at Erskine College. (I have included the Latin only at those points where I think Armstrong’s translation needs qualification.)

Therefore, from the outset, I invite the reader

to the pining of prayer through Christ crucified,

through whose blood we are cleansed of the filth of vice;

otherwise we might believe that

reading would suffice without anointing,

vigilance [speculatio] without zeal,

investigation without wonder,

circum-spection without elation [exsultatione],

diligence without piety,

learning [scientia] without love,

understanding [intelligentia] without humility,

study apart from divinely given grace,

the mirror apart from divinely breathed-in wisdom.

It is a good reminder to return continually to prayer before, during, and after designing a course and leading class meetings. If we are not pouring our hearts out to the triune God, then theologians—teachers and students alike—risk falling into the the illusion of mastery and autonomy and all the concomitant arrogance, self-deception, and vanity.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Regis J., ed. and trans. Into God: Itinerarium Mentis in Deum of Saint Bonaventure: An Annotated Translation. The Catholic University of America Press, 2020.