Thomas Aquinas. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, stands for a mystically tinged theology and skepticism concerning the secular offerings of philosophy. He steers by the star of Augustine, about whom he wrote, “No question has been propounded by the masters whose solution may not be found in the works of this Doctor.”2 Aquinas, a Dominican, represents the Aristotelian side of the debate, aware that theology is needed to complete the teachings found in the philosophers but eager to make full use of those teachings nonetheless. The contrast is epitomized by their rival conceptions of human knowledge.
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