Learning to Read: The Metaphysical Structure and Meaning of Lectio in St. Bonaventure’s Incendium Amoris (1259–60)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Complementary to all theological considerations of divine writing – sacra pagina – are those of divine reading, known in the Christian Tradition as lectio divina. Through a close reading of St. Bonaventure’s Incendium Amoris (De Triplici Via) this article seeks to elucidate the author’s understanding of the Christian’s act of reading, especially the reading of the biblical text. Between the eleventh and the late thirteenth centuries, the metaphysically rich sense of lectio regnant in the monastic environment goes into decline. In ascendancy is a lectio attenuated to a mere instrument, whether scholarly or spiritual in application. Standing somewhere near the apex of this watershed, Bonaventure understood the act of reading the Word of God as constitutive of a real, vital, personal relationship between the divine, living author and the human reader. Notwithstanding his scholastic contributions, Bonaventure remains essentially faithful to the understanding of lectio as practiced in a liturgically saturated monastic milieu.