Abstract

The aesthetics of light: A critical examination of St. Bonaventure's doctrine of light in view of his aesthetics, examines the complex philosophical tradition of light metaphysics that emerged among the early Greeks and was handed down to Christian philosophers through neoplatonism and Augustine of Hippo. The work contains a historical sketch of light metaphysics culminating in the vision of Bonaventure of Bagnorea. Bonaventure's doctrine of light embraces the entire medieval perspective including the material, metaphysical and spiritual levels of reality having their source in Uncreated Light. In his view, light reality accompanies all that is, and all that is, is arranged in a light hierarchy. The second section of the paper presents a first-ever account of the emergence of Bonaventurean aesthetics in the twentieth century and shows how his vision of the beautiful is such that it may even be considered a transcendental of being, accompanying all that is. Like light, beauty is discovered to be arranged hierarchically in the created world, finding its source in Uncreated Beauty. Bonaventure's unique contributions in the history of aesthetics are brought forth to show his genius as an aesthetician, especially in his charting of the affective movement of the subject toward the beautiful. Upon examination of his doctrine, it is discovered that there exist important parallels with his metaphysics of light. The final section of the study draws the parallels between light metaphysics and aesthetics such that, all is beautiful in the Bonaventurean vision, insofar as it manifests the light form that constitutes it. A re-reading of Bonaventure's masterpiece, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, in view of the aesthetics of light, is presented. The aesthetica lucis is discovered to be a new insight into the central dynamic of the Seraphic Doctor's thought. It is shown that Bonaventure's metaphysics of light and beauty are consistent with the mystical intuitions of St. Francis of Assisi, whose Canticle of the Creatures expresses poetically what Bonaventure holds philosophically. Likewise the work provides the philosophical and metaphysical foundations for the formulation of an aesthetic vision which is catholic, franciscan and optimistic in outlook