Cognitio Dei Experimentalis—Experimentalis et Vera Sapientia Bonaventure on the Experiential Knowledge of God in the Commentary on the Sentences and in De scientia Christi

This article examines the distinctive characteristics of Bonaventure’s interpretation of the experiential-sapiential knowledge of God based on some selected texts from his Commentary on the Sentences and De scientia Christi. In the first part, after having taken stock of the multiple meanings of experience in Bonaventure’s theology, we turn our attention to distinction 35 of the third book of the Commentary on the Sentences, where the Seraphic Doctor uses the phrase “cognitio Dei experimentalis” to describe the experience of God of contemplative and holy people. In the second part, we will examine the sense in which Bonaventure accounts for the experiential dimension of the knowledge of God in Christ’s human soul. Here we will deal with his work De scientia Christi, questions 6 and 7, which discuss the way in which the human soul of Christ knows “per excessum”, the uncreated Wisdom united with Him and the infinite things in the eternal Wisdom. At the end, we will briefly compare the basic claims of both works regarding the experiential knowledge of God made by contemplatives and by Christ.