Skip to content

Andrew Greenwell: St Bonaventure on the Gift of Knowledge

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
The gift of knowledge--which is based upon the supernatural life of grace, and so is something outside our ability to acquire on own--should not be confused with natural or acquired knowledge.

The gift of knowledge picks up natural knowledge as if it was its bride, and carries it across the threshold of faith into the supernatural inner sanctum where knowledge of the bridegroom Christ awaits one.  Within the life of faith, charity, and grace, this supernatural knowledge--the gift of the Holy Spirit--allows us to encounter knowledge of God as Savior, Emmanuel: Jesus our Lord and this leads us directly to the unfathomable mystery of the Triune God.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Highlights

By Andrew M. Greenwell
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
2/15/2015 (9 years ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Andrew M. Greenwell

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - In this article, we will summarize St. Bonaventure's teaching regarding the gift of knowledge (in Latin: scientia).  This represents the third gift of the Holy Spirit up the "Jacob's ladder" to Christ and hence to the supernatural life, communion with the Blessed Trinity, and, ultimately, eternal life.  Previous articles addressed the gifts of fear of the Lord (timor Domini) and piety (pietas).

The gift of knowledge--which is based upon the supernatural life of grace, and so is something outside our ability to acquire on own--should not be confused with natural or acquired knowledge.  Relative to God, natural (philosophical) knowledge will lead to the conclusion that God is, that He exists, that He is the First Cause of all that is.  But beyond that natural knowledge cannot go.  We cannot know by reason alone What (or Who!) God is.

Though there is an area of overlaps between natural knowledge and supernatural knowledge of God--in the expression of St. Bonaventure the "word of Solomon" (verbum Solomonis) and the "word of God" (verbum Dei) overlap--it is ultimately beyond the limits of natural or philosophical knowledge that the gift of knowledge takes us. 

The gift of knowledge picks up natural knowledge as if it was its bride, and carries it across the threshold of faith into the supernatural inner sanctum where knowledge of the bridegroom Christ awaits one. 

Within the life of faith, charity, and grace, this supernatural knowledge--the gift of the Holy Spirit--allows us to encounter knowledge of God as Savior, Emmanuel: Jesus our Lord and this leads us directly to the unfathomable mystery of the Triune God.  "No one can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit."  (1 Cor. 12:3)

In the Creed, we call Jesus Light of Light (lumen de lumine).  Light is intrinsically bound with knowledge.  "The brightness of the soul," says St. Bonaventure, "is knowledge, and conversely the darkness of the soul is ignorance."  [IV, 2]
 
Ultimately, the source of all knowledge is Christ.  "I am the light of the world," announces Christ, "whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  (John 8:12; cf. Isaiah 9:2)  The gift of knowledge is nothing less than the recognition that Christ is our light.

To be sure, natural knowledge (though limited) is a good thing for St. Bonaventure.  In fact, there is a vestige of the Trinity even in natural knowledge. "Nothing," St. Bonaventure insists, exists in philosophical knowledge of the cosmos--things, words, and morals--"which does not import the vestige of the Trinity."

Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

While natural knowledge, which is vestigially Trinitarian and which is obtained by human effort, is a good thing, the gift of knowledge is infinitely superior to it.  While all knowledge, both natural (acquired) and supernatural (infused) is in a sense "brightness and divinely given," according to St. Bonaventure, the supernaturally infused knowledge is of greater worth.  Why?  Because "always in granting them the gift is greater" (semper in donatione ipsarum sit maius donum). [IV, 2] 

This is an important Bonaventuran principle: the more gratuitous the gift, that is to say, the more the gift is based upon supernatural grace, beyond our human nature, and therefore the more absolutely a gift of God and undeserved, the more valuable it is. 

The price of the pearl of great price increases with the size of gift in the pearl. 

In other words, the supernatural gifts of God--which are not due to us because of our nature, are freely given by God in response to faith, hope, love, prayer, and the sacramental life, and are unmerited--are greater than any natural gifts obtained by us through our own efforts. 

Using this principle, St. Bonaventure divides knowledge into four categories based upon the order of "giftedness."  The more gratuitously given the knowledge is, the greater it is because the less natural, more supernatural, and more divine it is.
 
Divided in this way, the four levels of knowledge are (1) philosophical (purely natural and acquired), (2) theological (based on faith, dealing with supernatural realities, but are largely the result of human effort), (3) gratuitous (supernatural, infused knowledge--the gift of the Holy Spirit), and (4) glorious (ours incipiently in contemplation, but in fullness only in the beatific vision, when we see God "face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12) and see him "as He is" (1 John 3:2))

In distinguishing theological, gratuitous, and glorious knowledge, St. Bonaventure makes the following distinctions.  Theological knowledge is a "pious knowing of the truth as credible" or believable.  Gratuitous knowledge (knowledge which is the result of grace)--which is the "gift of knowledge--is a knowing of the "truth as lovable."  Glorious knowledge--found inchoately in contemplatives and in its fullness in the blessed in Heaven--is an eternally-lasting knowing of the "truth as desirable."  [IV, 5]

In his treatment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the main focus of St. Bonaventure, then, is the third kind of knowledge, knowledge of "truth as lovable," gratuitous knowledge.
 
Gratuitous knowledge takes us beyond philosophical and theological knowledge, and therefore supplements the limitations intrinsic to these lesser forms of knowledge. 

Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

Gratuitous knowledge is fueled by the love of God (charity=caritas=agape), and so is incompatible with sin.  It increases pari-passu with our love of God and hatred of sin. 

Gratuitous knowledge is therefore the "science of the saints," the scientia sanctorum.  [IV, 9]  This implies the important of maintaining purity of life and increasing the love of God, since vice and sin cloud, and may even fully extinguish, the light of gratuitous knowledge.  Conversely, the life of charity increases it.

In the language of the Catechism, the gift of knowledge--gratuitous knowledge--is directly related to being in a state of sanctifying grace.  A person in a state of mortal sin has no gratuitous knowledge, has no knowledge of the truths of God "as lovable."

Gratuitous knowledge affects us both intrinsically and extrinsically; that is to say, it affects our inner life and our life with respect to our neighbor.  It affects both our belief (orthodoxy), our interior life, and our external practice (orthopraxis).  From it we obtain the knowledge of sanctity, the agreeableness of sanctity, as well as the means of maintaining sanctity.  It is also this knowledge which inspires the desire to evangelize others, and inspires love and fidelity to God.

St. Bonaventure equates gratuitous knowledge to the knowledge of Christ, specifically the knowledge of Christ crucified, the scientia Crucis.  Loving God in Christ, St. Bonaventure states, allows us to "comprehend with all the saints, what is the length, breadth, height, and depth" of the knowledge of Christ.  [IV, 24]

This, of course, is a clear reference to St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:14-19).  "I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . that . . .  you may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth: To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."

To know "the supereminent brightness of the knowledge of Christ," the "charity of Christ: this is gratuitous, saving knowledge.  This is equivalent to knowing Jesus as Lord.  As Jesus said: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  (John 17:3) 

This "supereminent brightness of the knowledge of Christ," which is nothing less than the revealed knowledge of Almighty God, is precisely "the knowledge which is the gift of the Holy Spirit."  [IV, 24]

We may close with a prayer to the Holy Spirit by St. Alphonsus Liguori, begging God for the gift of knowledge, that we may know Jesus Christ better and more intimately and hope to be counted among the elect of God:

"O Giver of all supernatural gifts, who filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with such immense favors, I beg you to visit me with your grace and your love and to grant me the . . . gift of knowledge, so that I know the things of God and, enlightened by your holy teaching, may walk, without deviation, in the path of eternal salvation.  Amen."

-----

Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He is married with three children.  He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum.  You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.