Memory in St. Bonaventure and the Moment of Coming to be as a Human Being
Bonaventure's work on memory is drawn from his work on the Soul's Journey to God. In the third chapter he writes "on Contemplating God through His Image stamped upon our Natural Powers" (Bonaventure, 79). Contemplation requires that the heart leads and the intellect follows. In this way a growth in understanding may lead us to a greater love than we had ever dreamed of achieving (Bonaventure, 56. Prologue to SJG). Bonaventure's intent, and mine, is that we may learn from ourselves as images of God in our human nature. Thence our relationship with our Creator may become more secure and peaceful for realizing the moment of our creation in its memorized actuality. In order to encourage depth to our thinking, I have presented material from John McDowell on the contact and involvement of the human mind with the world in which we live. This work, though from an adult perspective, throws light on the condition of babes in the womb and children in their development. Gopnik et al. draw our attention to the computational state of children's minds, which is quite clear from their research. Their work admonishes us to respect the developing conceptus more than past generations did in this regard. The human being is a great person from conception to adulthood and beyond. There are eight headings under which I aim to unfold some appreciation of this greatness.