"The Ages of the Church": St. Bonaventure's Apocalyptic Theology of History

[Vouthon]

The Collations on the Hexaemeron were a series of sermons delivered to the Franciscan community at Paris in the Spring of 1273 by St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor.

In these lectures, St. Bonaventure theorized that the grand, overarching meaning of history - the ‘divine plan,’ so to speak - was hidden within the text of the Hexaemeron, the Genesis account of the six days of creation. Our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote his doctoral habilitation on St. Bonaventure’s apocalyptic theology of history while studying at university.

I am would be interested to read the assesment of others on the Saint’s scriptural exegesis and prophecies in this regard, particularly his idea of the “Ages of the Church”.

This concept holds that concordances exist in which precise historical parallels can be worked out among the seven ages of each Testament, the Old and the New. In other words, if we look at the history of the Israelites in the Old Covenant, we can anticipate foreshadowings of different epochs in the history of the Church.

From this theoretical foundation, St. Bonaventure formulated a “theology of history” in which there are Seven Ages of the Church, mirroring what he believed had been Seven Ages in the life of the Old Testament Jews.

 

[Vouthon]

Here is what St.Bonaventure wrote. As we read it, we should bear in mind that much has transpired since the medieval period in which St. Bonaventure wrote. Hence, if we were to apply his theology of history in our era, our division of the “ages” would likely be different with the benefit of hindsight:

**THE AGES OF THE CHURCH **

**According to this, the time of the founding of nature lasted from Adam to Noah, the time of the cleansing from sin from Noah to Abraham, the time of the chosen race from Abraham to Moses. God chose Abraham not Lot, Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau, and Judah from whom Christ was born. The time of the established Law lasted from Moses to Samuel, who anointed one king who was evil, one king who was chosen. The time of royal glory lasted from David to Hezekiah, when the migration of the ten tribes took place. The time of the prophetic voice lasted from Hezekiah in the strict sense and from Uzziah the leper in the broad sense down to Zerubbabel. Under Hezekiah there was the great miracle of the thirty-two-hour day caused by the reversal of the sun. The time of peace and quiet lasted from Zerubbabel to Christ.

In the New Testament the time of the conferring of grace lasted from Christ and the Apostles to Pope Clement and included the death of John. The time of baptism in blood lasted from Clement to Silvester, because under Clement began the great persecution when the Jews were sold into slavery and expelled from Jerusalem, and Clement with his people was ex-iled to Chersonea in Greece. During the intervening time from Clement to Silvester there were ten great persecutions. The time of the general law lasted from Silvester to Pope Leo I; in this time the Creed was issued.

The time of the law of justice lasted from Leo to Gregory, the Church Doctor; in this time the laws of Justinian were issued, as well as the canons and the monastic and canonical rules. In this time lived St. Benedict, who prophe-sied about St. Gregory and blessed his mother when she was pregnant with him. The time of the lofty throne lasted from Gregory to Hadrian, under whom the empire passed to the Gennans, and the rule of Constantinople was divided. Charlemagne was the emperor in the Western Church and Pepin was the first Frankish king of Italy, because when they were not able to bear the insult of foreign races they made him king of Italy and he fought the king of the Lombards and was victorious.

The time of clear teaching extends from Hadrian, but who can say or has said how long it will last? It is certain that we are in it, and it is certain that it will last until the overthrow of the beast coming up from the abyss when Babylon will be confounded and de-stroyed and afterward peace will be given (Rev. 17: 18). Nevertheless, it is first necessary that the tribulation come. The End is not to be placed there, because no one knows how long that time of great peace will last since ''when they said ‘Peace and security,’ then suddenly destruction came upon them" (Matt. 24:21).

The seventh time or age, that of quiet, begins with the shout of the angel who “swore through Him who lives forever and ever that there would be no more time; but in the days of the seventh angel the mystery of God will be completed” (Rev. 10:&-7).In the sixth age three things take place - excellence of victory, excellence of teaching, and excellence of the prophetic life…In this age there ought to come a life through an order which will possess the propheticlife. This age is double. Just as in the Lord’s Passion there was first light, then darkness, and then light, so it is necessary that first there be the light of teaching and that Josiah succeed Hezekiah, after which came the tribulation of the Jews through their captivity. It is necessary that one ruler, a defender of the Church, arise. He either is still to come or has already come. (He added: Would that he has not already come!) After him will come the darkness of tribulations.

In this age likewise Charlemagne exalted the Church and his successors attacked it. In the time of Henry IV there were two popes; the same was true under Frederick the Great. It is certain that some of them wished to destroy the Church, but "the angel ascending from the rising of the sun called out to the four angels, ‘Do not harm the land and the sea until we have signed the servants of our God on their foreheads’ " (Rev. 7:2-3). So the tribulation of the Church lasts even until now. It was said to the angel of Philadelphia, the sixth angel: "He who is holy and true, who has the key of David, who opens and no man closes, closes and no man opens, says this-’! know your works, and behold I have placed an open door before you’ " (Rev. 3:7). (And he said that now for the first time the understanding of Scripture would be given and that the revelation, or key of David, would be given to a person or a large group, but I think rather to a large group.)

In the seventh age [of the Old Testament] we know that these things took place - the rebuilding of the Temple, the restoration of the city, and the granting of peace. Likewise in the coming seventh age there will be a restoration of divine worship and a rebuilding of the city. Then the prophecy of Ezekiel will be fulfilled when the city comes down from heaven (Ezek. 40); not indeed that city which is above, but that city which is below, the Church Militant which will then be conformed to the Church Triumphant as far as possible in this life. Then will be the building and restoration of the city as it was in the beginning. Then there will be peace. God alone knows how long that peace will last. **

Collation 16:17-19. Translated from Opera omnia 5:405-6, 408.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Bonaventure’s thought on revelation is what I find appealing, not necessarily the specifics of his theological position on the Hexaemeron, although it is interesting exegesis.

But, it’s too difficult for me to understand exactly what is being said about the specifics of it, so I can’t really comment on it anyway.

 

[Ubenedictus]

By that grouping we are still in the 6th age of the world and should be expecting the ‘man of sin’

 

[Vouthon]

By that grouping we are still in the 6th age of the world and should be expecting the ‘man of sin’

Hi Benedictus,

Thank you for the contribution.

The Seraphic Doctor actually had a more optimistic understanding of ‘our’ current historical trajectory within the divine plan than what you say here.

He contended that we were going through a long ‘minor tribulation’ characterised by seemingly widespread, not to mention pervasive, decline and stagnation of the One True Faith but which would eventually witness the beginnings of a great renewal as well, heralding the transition to a better “age” for the Church.

After the said “tribulation” or “minor apostasy”, he thought the Church would enjoy a “Sabbath rest” in which she - and by extension the world - would be more closely conformed to the Church Triumphant in heaven than ever before. An era of peace, in other words. This would - or rather ‘will’ if you adopt his schema - be brought to an end by the advent of Antichrist.

EWTN refers to this “schema” too:

ewtn.com/expert/answers/endtimes.htm

**As Cardinal Ratzinger recently pointed out (in the context of the message of Fátima), we are not at the end of the world. In fact, the Second Coming (understood as the physical return of Christ) cannot occur until the full number of the Gentiles are converted, followed by “all Israel.”

Approved Catholic mystics (Venerables, Blessed and Saints, approved apparitions) throw considerable light on this order, by prophesying a minor apostasy and tribulation toward the end of the world, after which will occur the reunion of Christians. Only later will the entire world fall away from Christ (the great apostasy) and the personal Antichrist arise and the Tribulation of the End occur.

Although this is not Catholic doctrine, arising as it does from private revelation, it conforms to what is occurring in our time, especially in light of Our Lady of Fátima’s promise of an “Era of Peace.” This "Triumph of the Immaculate Heart"would seem to occur prior to the rise of the Antichrist. The optimism of the Pope for the “New Evangelization” and a “Civilization of Love” in the Third Millennium of Christianity fits here, as well. This would place us, therefore, in the period just before the events spoken of in the Catechism, that is, on the verge of the evangelization of the entire world. **

As indicated in the foregoing, this essentially relates to the “peace” promised by Our Lady of Fatima (the peace to be expected once Russia has become consecrated to her immaculate heart).

One can see the exact same sequence of future (hypothesized) events reflected in the prophecies of any church-approved visionaries, such as Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser in his Commentary on the Apocalypse that was first published in 1646:

latinritemass.org/bartholomew-holzhauser/apocalypse/

**This is a state of trouble, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the church. We may with just reason call it a state of purification, in which the Lord Jesus Christ has sifted His wheat, and will sift it again by wars, by seditions, by famines, by epidemics, and other scourges, by the tribulation and the poverty which He will suffer to weigh on the Latin church…

We shall see kingdom rise against kingdom; empires will be divided in themselves, and brought to desolation; principalities and monarchies will be overturned, and almost the whole world will sink into poverty. The greatest desolation will reign over the earth…Every one, like the beasts of the field, believes what he pleases, and doth what he wills. The correspondence of this period with the fifth age of the ancient world, from Solomon down to the Babylonian captivity, is extremely striking…

The succeeding period of the church the (status consolationis)—time of “CONSOLATION” begins with the Holy Pope and the Powerful Emperor, and terminates with the birth of Antichrist. (Revelations, 3: 7, 10.) This will be an age of solace, wherein God will console His church after the many mortifications and afflictions she had endured in the fifth period. For all nations will be brought to the unity of the true Catholic faith…

The spread of the church over all countries will take place by the instrumentality of this Strong Monarch, and before the destruction of the world, Christianity will be preached to all nations of the earth; as this is foretold in Matthew 24:4; in Isaiah 2:2; and in Micheas (Micah) 4:2. To this wide diffusion of Christianity allusion is made, when John is obliged to measure the temple of God.(Apocalypse 11:1).

A type of this period was the sixth age of the old world, from the deliverance of the Israelites out of the Babylonian captivity, and the rebuilding of the city and of the temple of Jerusalem, down to the coming of Christ…God pour out upon His church, that witnessed in the fifth period nought be affliction, the most abundant consolations…

All nations will come, and will worship the Lord in the one true Catholic Faith. Many righteous men will flourish, and many learned men will arise. Men will love justice and righteousness, and peace will dwell on the whole earth. For the Omnipotent will bind Satan for many years, until the advent of him who is to come,–the son of perdition.**

I personally subscribe to this eschatological “perspective”; albeit not so much in terms of the specific details as in the overall “schema” described. To me it is intellectually satisfying and gives our species a ray of hope - hope for a limited, temporal peace even on earth that foreshadows the Eternal Banquet of the Lamb at the end of time.