St. Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum, or Journey of the Mind into God, is among the best known of his writings and a true classic of medieval theology. Both scholastic and mystical in its content and execution, the Itinerarium is a complex and intricate text that is often as challenging to readers as it is rewarding.

With Mapping the Itinerarium, Randall Smith provides a vital aid for readers of this beautiful work, helping them to appreciate its structure and artistry, to grasp its profound theological insights, and to make their way through it with greater confidence and clarity. In his introductory essay, Smith provides foundational historical, cultural, and literary context for the work and its author, attending to the sermo modernus style that Bonaventure adapts and employs, his use of visual imagery, and the distinctive structure of the Itinerarium itself. This structure Bonaventure conceives of according to six wings of the seraph that St. Francis of Assisi saw when receiving the stigmata, with the three pairs of wings representing the soul's seeking and seeing of God "through" and "in" his created vestiges, his image in man, and his divine names, ascending finally to Christ crucified. Smith arranges the ensuing chapter-by-chapter commentary to follow this structure exactly, carefully tracking Bonaventure's journey of seeing the world anew through the lens of the crucified Christ.