Reading the World Rightly and Squarely

Bonaventure's Doctrine of the Cardinal Virtues

Bibliographic Data

ID23137649
AuthorsKent Emery (University of Dallas, corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume39
Pages183-218
Publication date1983-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTraditio (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-1529 • E-ISSN: 2166-5508
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0362152900009612
OpenAlexW2516370672
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited6

In an article concerning the seven deadly sins, Siegfried Wenzel distinguishes one model for the traditional topic of vices and virtues which he calls ‘ cosmological’ or ‘ symbolic.’ This model develops the idea that ‘ man is a septenary,’ a composite of three powers of the soul and four elements of the body. The association of the three theological virtues with the three powers of the soul and the four cardinal virtues with the four elements of the body was current in the twelfth century. In the first half of the thirteenth century, Robert Grosseteste developed the analogy in the context of a metaphysics of light, somewhat unexpectedly in a treatise on confession. The ‘connection between virtues and vices on one hand and physiology on the other,’ Wenzel remarks, ‘is an area that needs much further study.’ Perhaps the fullest development of the cosmological or symbolic model of the virtues was made in the last half of the thirteenth century by Bonaventure. Indeed, for him the cardinal virtues (the concern of this study) are the four poles of the created universe.

Analogy · Body of Christ · Confession (law) · Context (archaeology) · Doctrine · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Soul · Theology · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · Medieval Literature and History · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy

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