Into God: Itinerarium Mentis in Deum of Saint Bonaventure
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
An annotated translation of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum presenting both the Latin text side-by-side with a new English translation which attempts to avoid the use of Latin cognates while remaining critically faithful to Bonaventure’s text. Using endnotes to open the text, Regis Armstrong opens each chapter from the perspective of historical theology referring the reader to authors prior to Bonaventure, e.g. Augustine, the Victorines, Philip the Chancellor, Avicenna, as well as first-and-second-generation Franciscan authors. While maintaining Bonaventure’s architectonic approach, Armstrong studies each chapter as Bonaventure does by focusing on its unique character, e.g. by means of cosmology, epistemology, biblical theology, mystical theology. In a same way, the translator attempts to explain his translation of certain cognates into Anglo-Saxon English by citing contemporary linguistic tools, e.g., Brepolis Latin Texts.
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- Offers an annotated translation of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum
- Attempts to explain the translation of certain cognates by citing contemporary linguistic tools
- Includes, at the beggining of each chapter, the perspective of historical theology referring the reader to authors prior to Bonaventure
This is the work of a mature scholar who is arguably the most eminent contemporary scholar of matters Franciscan in the English speaking world...will be an essential reference point for the explication of this text.
Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame
At a time when many are striving to find hope in the midst of uncertainty, Fr. Regis Armstrong’s brilliant translation of Into God allows us to share in St. Bonaventure’s closeness to the Lord. I recommend this book to scholars and all who seek the confidence and consolation of the Lord’s promise to be with us always.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap., Archbishop of Boston
Established on the author’s lifetime study of patristic and Franciscan sources, Regis Armstrong’s Into God capitalizes on his erudition, his skill in contemporary translation equivalency, and his heartfelt penetration of one of the world’s greatest spiritual classics. Into God, through close textual and word analysis and commentary with extensive references, opens up the vista of Bonaventure’s inheritance in Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Gregory the Great, monastic theology, the Victorines, and Alexander of Hales. This pathway breaks from the dominance of the philosophical straightjacket that had confined the Itinerarium to subsidiary patterns of thought and reveals the Franciscan master in the breadth and depth of his learning as he adopted his biblical and theological inheritance to the search for meaning in the religious and lay followers of St. Francis of Assisi. Anyone who desires to integrate a deep spirituality with the best of the Christian tradition in scripture, theology, and philosophy can do no better than to start with this accessible, classic, and seminal exposition.
oseph P. Chinnici, OFM, Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego