Acknowledgments

Studying a work like Bonaventure’s Itinerarium makes one aware of how much Bonaventure depended on those who came before him. Like Aquinas, his great gift was bringing together the various strands of the tradition that preceded him and placing them into a meaningful, coherent structure. He was not only a faithful son of St. Francis – a claim I argue for in the chapters that follow against those who have doubts – he was also a faithful son of the Church and of the Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition. Like Aquinas, he used whatever he could find that was true in others to bring greater understanding of the faith and a greater love of the Triune God. Without his knowledge and deep appreciation of these invaluable predecessors, Bonaventure would not have been able to write the text we have today, one which I hope readers will soon enjoy if they have not done so already.

Indeed, the primary reason I wrote this book was to help readers read and enjoy Bonaventure’s Itinerarium more easily and benefit from it more fully. So, it is my hope that readers will have a translation of the Itinerarium open beside them when they read this book.Footnote ¹ As I write in my “Concluding Remarks” in the final chapter, Bonaventure’s Journey of the Mind into God is a great book, worth reading and re-reading, worth studying and reflecting on repeatedly, so that we can, with Bonaventure, share with him and others the journey he is mapping out in his “itinerary.”

But writing a book like this has also made me aware of how much I have depended on others, some who are alive, but many who have “fallen asleep” (as St. Paul puts it). I could not even begin to list all those who have gone before and left behind the fruits of their labors: not only all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, but all those who have worked tirelessly over the years to make their works available to the rest of us: scholars, editors, translators, and all the many technicians and librarians who have patiently catalogued and digitized so many wonderful resources that make possible a study like this one. I don’t know their names, but if you are one of those people who labor anonymously to provide services such as these, thank you. Please know that there are people who recognize your efforts, even if we do not know your name, and are profoundly grateful. You make possible what we do.

But there are also people who have not yet “fallen asleep,” and who I hope will still be alive when this book appears to read my thanks to them. First, I would like to thank my good friend John O’Callaghan, whose support both as a friend and as director of the Notre Dame Jacques Maritain Center has been critical to the completion of this book.

I would also like to thank Carter Snead, the director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, and the members of his wonderful staff – Laura Gonsiorek, Margaret Cabaniss, Ken Hallenius, Petra Farrell, Dave Younger, Phil Tran, Brooke Tranton, Tracy Westlake, and Fr. Terry Ehrman – who put up with me, kept my spirits up, made me laugh, and allowed me space to work, even though I so frequently invade their space as an uninvited intruder. To them, I offer my heartfelt thanks.

Thanks also go to Bearice Rehl, my editor at Cambridge University Press, who has now shepherded two of my odd, unwieldy books through the grueling process of peer review. I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of the book for their attentive reading of the manuscript and their many helpful comments, but I don’t know their names, which is as it should be. But if you’re reading this, you know who you are, so thank you.

Thanks also go to my colleague Ed Houser with whom I team taught different works of Bonaventure’s over many years. His scholarship on Bonaventure is second-to-none, and I am grateful for his guidance, his friendship, and his deep insight and knowledge of Bonaventure’s work, thought, and spirit.

One cannot work without the help and support of friends. I will make special mention of my dear friends John and Alicia Nagy and their entire family who give me great joy whenever I have the privilege and pleasure of getting together with them. Thanks also to Philip Bess, Fr. Michael Sherwin, Fr. Kevin Flannery, John and Sophia Furnace, Fr. Anthony Giampietro, Cecilia Abbott, Mary Catherine Sommers, and Catherine Peters for their friendship and support.

I am also indebted to the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and its director, Justin Dyer, and all its donors. I was privileged to enjoy a fellowship there for the 2023–2024 academic year which allowed me to finish the work on this book.

I will, as always, dedicate this book to my wife, the indomitable, immeasurably excellent Tamara Nicholl-Smith. But I would also like to dedicate it to Ralph McInerny, David Solomon, Alasdair MacIntyre, and John Cavadini, four men of virtue and learning to whom I owe debts of gratitude I can never repay.