Nec enim est anima contemplativa, nisi per Ecclesiam sustentetur quasi super basim" (
Hexaemeron 20.28).
For example, in his
Hexaemeron, Basil of Caesarea marvels at the sense perception of sheep and goats that enables them to avoid harmful plants, starlings whose physical makeup allows them to consume hemlock, the meadows deep with abundant grass, the fertile earth that produces a plethora of goods, the dense woods with their many types of trees, the thick and leafy bushes so distinctly different from one another, and the grapevines heavy with ripening fruit.(16) He observes the similarities and differences of land, winged and aquatic animals, and he expresses delight with what he finds.
(25) "Unde creatura non est nisi quoddam simulacrum sapientiae Dei, et quoddam sculptile" (
Hexaemeron 12).
Metaphysics, as Bonaventure writes in the
Hexaemeron, begins with the consideration of the principles that govern particular, created substances, moving from that level to the consideration of the universal and uncreated and to the very notion of being.(6) One must proceed from the sensible experience of the world, but the movement of reflective thought does not rest in the multiplicity of regional experience and particular sciences.
At first he wrote secretly, fearing his superior's justifiable disapproval, for the
hexaemeron, or account of creation in six days, was considered by both Jews and Christians to be one of the three most difficult texts in Scripture and highly unsuitable for beginners.(12) After Abbot Garnier resigned from his post in 1084,(13) Guibert brought his work into the open and quickly finished it.
While he teaches many wonderful things and demonstrates a remarkable grasp of the science of his day, this preeminent Father of the Church gets a few things wrong, as when he says that heavy rains produce frogs and eels by spontaneous generation (
Hexaemeron 9.2).
Because the "diffusion (diffusio) is utterly final, in that the producer grants all that He can," and since "the creature is unable to receive all that God [the Father] can give," it is thus necessary, states the
Hexaemeron, that "this diffusion in the fullness of its possibilities be in something [the Son] greater than which nothing can be conceived." (16 )We thus understand what makes for the grandeur, and probably as well the specificity, of Franciscan thought.
Omilii la
Hexaemeron. Translated by Dumitru Fecioru.
En su comentario al
Hexaemeron Buenaventura presenta su elaboracion de la realidad de la generacion en Dios en una version madura y plena.