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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologiae to provide Dominican friars with solid theological instruction in moral theology and pastoral care on the firm foundation of scripture. Despite an increasing awareness among scholars of the importance of Thomas' scriptural commentaries to his thought, few have attempted to interpret his theology and philosophy in light of his scriptural commentaries and the mendicant context of the 13th century. This paper offers a reading of Thomas' theology of providence and divine government both as a mendicant friar and Master of the Sacred Page in order to understand some of the implications of the doctrine of providence for distributive justice in ecclesial practice today.
1 van den Eijnden, Jan G.J., Poverty on the Way to God: Thomas Aquinas on Evangelical Poverty (Leuven: Peters, 1994), p. 8.Google Scholar
2 Ibid.
3 Little, Lester K., Religious Poverty and Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978), p. 28.Google Scholar
4 Van den Eijnden, Poverty on the Way to God, p. 8.
5 Little, Religious Poverty and Profit Economy, p. 24.
6 Chenu, M.‐D., Toward Understanding Saint Thomas, trans. Landry, A.M. and Hughes, D (Chicago: Regency, 1963), p. 46.Google Scholar
7 Chenu, M.‐D., Aquinas and His Role in Theology, trans. Philibert, P. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 8.Google Scholar
8 Little, Religious Poverty and Profit Economy, p. 67.
9 Pieper, Josef, Guide to Thomas Aquinas, trans. R and Winston, C. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1962), p. 65Google Scholar.
10 Chenu, M.‐D., “The Masters of the Theological ‘Science,’” Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, trans. Taylor, J. and Little, L. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), p. 291.Google Scholar
11 Jordan, Mark D., Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after his Readers (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 See MacIntyre, Alasdair, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990), p. 124Google Scholar.
13 Jordan, Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after his Readers, p. 154.
14 An exception to this is Leonard Boyle, “The Setting of the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas”Facing History: A Different Thomas Aquinas (Louvain‐La‐Neuve, 2000) and M. Michelle Mulchahey, “First the Bow is Bent in Study … :” Dominican Education Before 1350 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1988).
15 Chenu, Toward Understanding St. Thomas, p. 322.
16 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, I.1.10. (Tarini, Italy: Marietti, 1820)Google Scholar. All English translations, unless otherwise noted, will come from Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of Dominican Province (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1948).
17 ST I.1.5 ad 2 (my translation). See also I.1.8 ad 2.
18 Torrell, Jean‐Pierre, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Person and His Work, Vol.I, trans. Royal, R. (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1996), p. 55.Google Scholar
19 Chenu, “The Evangelical Awakening,” Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, p. 242.
20 See Jenkins, John I., Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 79–98.Google Scholar
21 See Leonard E. Boyle, “The Setting of the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas” p. 67.
22 See Keaty, Anthony, “The Demands of Sacred Doctrine on ‘Beginners,’” New Blackfriars 84 (2003), pp. 500–509CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 As Henri de Lubac points out, it was customary in medieval and patristic theology to speak of the theological education of beginners in terms of the “milk” of sacred scripture and not the “solid food” of mystical theology for the advanced. Origen, for example, states “The food of milk in holy Scriptures is said to be the first moral instruction which is given to beginners, as to little children. For one ought not to hand over immediately to beginning students what pertains to the deep and more secret sacraments; rather, to them are given correction of morals, improvement of discipline…”Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, Vol. II, trans. by E.M. Macierowski (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 200), p. 29.
24 ST I.117.1.
25 ST I.1.1; I.1.2.
26 ST I.1.1.
27 Despite Thomas’ statement in the Summa Contra Gentiles affirming the possibility of the natural knowledge of God, in the theological Summa he argues that “even as regards those truths about God which human reason could have discovered, it was necessary that man should be taught by divine revelation” (I.1.1). His point here is that there is no place in human nature or thought that is devoid of God's grace, for even in the so‐called ‘natural’ knowledge of God, it is necessary to be led by revelation. Unlike later Thomists, for Thomas there is no such thing as “pure nature” or pure natural reason which can operate apart from God. See Kerr, Fergus, After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 134–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Summa Contra Gentiles I, trans. Pegis, A.C. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975)Google Scholar, I.6.1.
29 ST I.1.9.
30 Jean‐Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, Vol. II, trans. R. Royal (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press), pp. 109–110, citing De Rationibus Fidei c. 5, n. 976.
31 ST I.1.6 ad 2 (my translation): “Consilia destruentes et omnem altitudinem extollentem se adversus scientiam Dei.”
32 ST I.1.8.
33 Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Omnes S. Pauli Apostoli Epistolas, Super Primam Epistolam St. Pauli ad Corinthios, (Taurini: Marietti, 1820), X.1, p. 485 (X = chapter; 1 = lecture). For English translations of Thomas’ commentaries on 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Hebrews, and Colossians by Fabian Larcher O.P., see http://www.aquinas.avemaria.edu/Commentaries.asp
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.: “Vae qui sapientes estis in oculis vestris.”
36 Ibid.: “Secundus effectus est conversio infidelium ad fidem. Et quantum ad hoc dicit: Et in captivitatem redigentes, etc.; quod quidem fit quando id quod homo scit, totum supponit ministerio Christi et fidei: A alligando reges eorum in compedibus, etc.”
37 Ibid., pp. 484–485.
38 Ibid., p. 486: “contraria enim contrariis curantur.”
39 Ibid., I.1, p. 221.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid. “[Q]uod hoc nomen praemittit in signum humilitatis: nam Paulus idem est quod modicus: quod ad humilitatem pertinet…Consequenter describit eam a dignitate: et primo ponit modum adipiscendae dignitatis, cum dicit, Vocatus, secundum Heb. 5:4.
42 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, trans. Larcher, F.R. (Albany, NY: Magi, 1966),Google Scholar III.2, p. 126.
43 Super Primam Epistolam St. Pauli ad Corinthios, I.4, pp. 232–234.
44 It is significant that Thomas repeatedly mentions God's election of the abjecti, given the meaning of that term in the Middle Ages. There was a descending scale of destitution and social ostracism among the poor at that time, from “disdain, contempt, and finally, repugnance.”“The weakness of the little man (impotens) is close to the vulgarity of the peasant (ignobilis, vilis, and even vilissimus).” But at the bottom, the most repulsive pauper was the abjectus, who was “[d]irty, dressed in rags, foul smelling, [and] covered with sores.” Mollat, Michel, The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History, trans. Goldhammer, A. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 3Google Scholar.
45 Super Primam Epistolam St. Pauli ad Corinthios, I.4, pp. 232–233.
46 Chenu, Aquinas and His Role in Theology, p. 8.
47 ST I.1.6.
48 See ST II‐II.1.7; II‐II.1.8 ad 1; De Veritate 14.9 ad 8.
49 Rock, John P., “Divine Providence in St. Thomas Aquinas” The Quest for the Absolute, ed. by Adelmann, F.J. (The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966), pp. 67–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
50 Reginald, Garrigou‐Lagrange, Providence, trans. Rose, D.B. (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1998), p. 3Google Scholar.
51 ST I.2.1 ad 1.
52 Rock, “Divine Providence in St. Thomas Aquinas,” p. 84 (emphasis added).
53 ST I.96.4.
54 See Super Primam Epistolam St. Pauli ad Corinthios, XII, 3, pp. 356–358.
55 ST I.22.1.
56 ST I.22.1 ad 1.
57 See Goris, Harm, “Divine Foreknowledge, Providence, Predestination, and Human Freedom” The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, ed. by Nieuwenhove, R.V and Wawrykow, J. (Notre Dame IN, :University of Notre Dame Press 2005), pp. 99–122Google Scholar.
58 ST I.22.1.
59 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Catena Aurea: St. Matthew, Vol.I, trans. Newman, J.H. Cardinal (London: St. Austin Press, 1999), p. 838Google Scholar.
60 Ibid., pp. 839–840.
61 ST II‐II.185.1.
62 In Matthaeum Evangelistam Expositio, XXIV, p. 226 in Opera Omnia, Vol. 10 (Parma: Fiaccadori, 1852–1873), Taurini, Italy: Marietti, 1820): “‘Pasce, pasce, pasce oves meas.’ Pasce verbo, pasce exemplo, pasce temporali subsidio.”
63 ST II‐II.185.1.
64 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Catena Aurea: St. John, Vol.I, trans. by Newman, J.H. Cardinal (London: St Austin Press, 1999), p. 623Google Scholar.
65 Ibid., p. 624.
66 In Matthaeum Evangelistam Expositio, XXIV, p. 226.
67 Catena Aurea: St. Matthew, p. 838.
68 In Matthaeum Evangelistam Expositio, XXIV, p. 227.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 ST I.103.4.
73 ST I.104.2.
74 ST I.106.4.
75 ST I.103.6 (emphasis added).
76 Ibid. (emphasis added).
77 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, De Veritate 5.8 in Providence and Predestination: Truth Qs. 5 & 6, trans Mulligan, R.W. (South Bend, IN: Henry Regency, 1961)Google Scholar.
78 See ST II‐II.188.6; II‐II.182.1.
79 See The Perfection of the Spiritual Life translated as The Religious State by Rev. Procter (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1950), pp. 81–82Google Scholar, 93–94.
80 SCG III.77.5.
81 ST I.105.8.
82 ST III.43.4 ad 2. See also Catena Aurea: St. John, p. 459.
83 See Evangelium Joannis, XIV, 3, p. 550.
84 ST I.1.9 ad 3.
85 ST III.40.1 ad 1.
