The Will as Mediator between Man and God in Bonaventure's Philosophy

The aim of this article is to discuss Bonaventure's approach on defining the will and it's relation to other faculties of the human soul and to the problem of evil. The will represents a faculty of the soul that defines the tendency or appetite towards a certain thing that is desired; mostly understood as the movement of the soul towards something and, in this sense, one speaks always about the will or desire of a certain thing. An analogy of the divine will and the way it may reflect into human will reflects the manner in which the act of willing is always oriented towards good. According to Bonaventure, the divine will represents the fundament of the universe and of its existence, the real cause of everything that was created. The divine will is also named providence as the carefulness and desire for every man to be saved and perfected. The only remedy to the problem of evil and weakness of the will is to obtain the rectitude of the will as the orientation of the will towards that what is just, morally right and according to the will of God. A right will is defined by a correct evaluation of the self that implies not to judge and criticize the people who commit evil, but to understand that they suffer from a weakness of the will that determines their moral behavior.