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complete being from what it was when it was in its process of being made by its cause.” 101 Since
any demonstration can only argue from the natures observable in the present world, it cannot
reach definite conclusion about its nature during its stage of becoming. Overall, it is difficult to
compare Aquinas’ and Bonaventure’s stands on the demonstrability of the temporal beginning of
the world because of their different opinions on the relation between faith and reason.
Bonaventure, unlike Aquinas, does not consider reason apart from faith as a sufficient instrument
for attainment of truth; hence, he does not confine his investigations strictly to the philosophical
realm but weaves revelation and philosophy together. 102 Moreover Bonaventure, unlike Aquinas,
never wrote on the hypothetical possibility of a past eternity of the world. His treatment in the
Commentary on the Sentences deals with the specific question of whether the created world can
be eternal. 103 On the other hand, Aquinas believed that rightly used reason can arrive with
certitude at some truths and can never contradict faith; however, some articles of faith, and for
Aquinas the temporal beginning of the world is one of them, are inaccessible to reason apart
from faith.
In conclusion to this chapter, it is worth to noting that an understanding of the nature of
time is essential to the arguments for and against the temporal beginning of the world. A
mathematical analysis of infinity alone was not sufficient to provide the proof of a temporal
beginning of the world in the middle ages. The necessity of the consideration of the nature of
time in addition to the mathematical concept of infinity is clear from the distinction between the
future time and the past time made by many medieval (and modern) philosophers. The
possibility of the future time is not disturbing because an infinite future time is strictly potential.
101
Baldner and Carroll, Aquinas on Creation, 96.
Dales, Medieval Discussions, 102.
103
Baldner, "St. Bonaventure,” 208.
102
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