Contemporary scholarship on Bonaventure has characterized him as the Neo-platonic foil to the Aristotelianism of his day. The present book, however, shows a Bonaventure who is highly enthusiastic about utilizing the philosophy of Aristotle, and who centers much of his philosophical project around interpreting and understanding the texts of Aristotle. Two goals are central to this book. The first is to shed light on Bonaventure's greatly understudied ontology and theory of forms, demonstrating how his philosophical system is an important and unique alternative to other medieval Aristotelian systems. The second is to establish, more broadly, how Bonaventure's interpretation of Aristotle is a resource which should be mined for contemporary efforts in thinking about and reading Aristotle himself. Free ebook available at OAPEN Library, JSTOR, Project Muse, and Open Research Library

About the Author
Franziska van Buren is a post-doctoral researcher in ancient philosophy at KU Leuven.

Reviews

Van Buren's work makes an impressive contribution to Bonaventure scholarship, which could really reset the whole debate and narrative. It will challenge the historical norms for many a reader and interpreter of Bonaventure-perhaps, also of Aristotle! Indeed, this work will upend some deeply entrenched historical narratives that have proven a major obstacle for understanding Bonaventure as a philosopher. Christopher M. Cullen, Fordham University

The radical nature of her proposal is likely to give rise to new and fruitful exchanges on the philosophy of Saint Bonaventure. Laure Solignac, Speculum 99/1 (January 2024), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/728179

Well written, coherently argued, and intellectually stimulating, van Buren's study is an impressive piece of scholarship, one, it should be noted, that, on account of its lucid nature, is as accessible to students as it is to established academics. Regardless of whether one accepts her attempts to significantly reposition Bonaventure's relationship to Aristotle, it is to be hoped that van Buren's study will at least help generate a new wave of interest in the highly important, although much neglected, study of Bonaventure's metaphysics and the place that he occupied in the complex landscape of thirteenth century attempts to understand and critically appropriate Peripatetic thought. - William Crozier, The Journal of Religion, Volume 104, Number 3, July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1086/730361

Book Information
ISBN 9789462703568
Author Franziska van Buren
Format Hardback
Page Count 226
Imprint Leuven University Press
Publisher Leuven University Press
Weight(grams) 480g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 12mm