¹ Mark Jordan's recent work, Rewritten Theology. Aquinas after His Readers. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006)Google Scholar, provides an interesting study on the concept of the authority which over the years has been accorded to Thomas Aquinas. The opening words of his first chapter, ‘If only we could read Thomas Aquinas without encountering some other of his readers – especially the police,’ (1) express a sentiment in accord with the general tenor of this paper.

² For interesting insights on Thomas as a preacher see Torrell, J.-P. ‘La pratique pastorale d'un théologien du XIII^e siècle’ in Recherches Thomasiennes. Etudes Revues et Augmentées (Paris: J. Vrin, 2000), 282-312Google Scholar.

³ Thus Daniel Keating can write that he will take Thomas' biblical commentaries as the starting point' in dealing with theological topics, and from there proceed to look at the Summa. This can be done because Thomas ‘was first of all a commentator on the “sacred page” of scripture … The compressed, even terse, references to Scripture in the Summa are typically capsule summaries of what he has worked out at greater length in the biblical commentaries.’ Keating, D. A., “Justification, Sanctification and Divinization in Thomas Aquinas” in Keating, D. A., Weinandy, T. and Yocum, J. eds. Aquinas on Doctrine. A Critical Introduction. (London/New York: T. & T. Clark, 2004), 139-158:139Google Scholar.

⁴ Torrell ‘La pratique pastorale d'un théologien du XIII^e siècle,’ 299.

⁵ For details on the proposed date of composition see Torrell, J.-P., Saint Thomas Aquinas Vol. 1, The Person and His Work. Trans. Royal, Robert. (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 333Google Scholar.

⁶ Valkenberg, W.G.B.M., Words of the Living God. Place and Function of Holy Scripture in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Thomas Instituut, Utrecht – Peeters Leuven, 2000), 22Google Scholar. See also p. 36, n.86.

⁷ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 37. Ipse autem natura Dei est bonitas … pertinet autem ad rationem boni ut se aliis communicet … unde ad rationem summi boni quod summo modo se creaturae communicet. ST III q.1 a1 c.

⁸ Torrell, J.-P., Saint Thomas d'Aquin, maître spirituel. (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1996), 161Google Scholar. The original French wording is used as it better communicate Torrell's feelings. The English parallel is found in Torrell, , Saint Thomas Aquinas,Vol. 2 Spiritual Master. Transl. Royal, R.. (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 122Google Scholar. While in this context the reference is specifically to study of the commentary on John the critique can be applied in general to a lacuna in work on Thomas' scriptural writings. That this lack is being addressed today is evidenced by works such as Valkenberg's Words of the Living God and Thomas Ryan's study of Thomas' writings on the psalms. For a list of some of the studies on Aquinas' use of scripture see New Blackfriars 83(2002) 245-251.

⁹ Editions: Mandonnet, Opuscula, vol. 4, pp. 481-496; Marietti, Opuscula theologica, vol. 1, pp. 435-443. For an English translation of the texts see McInerney, Ralph, ed., Thomas Aquinas. Selected Writings. (London: Penguin Books, 1998), 5-17Google Scholar. All citations are from the Penguin translation. Page references will be included in the body of the text.

¹⁰ Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas Vol.1, 53, 338.

¹¹ Thomas used what is called the ‘le texte parisien,’ a university ‘version’ of the Vulgate, in his work. We do not have a copy of the actual translation Thomas used. It is also believed that he had access to the vetus latina, a translation which preceded St. Jerome's work. See C. Spicq, “Le texte Biblique de Saint Thomas,” in ‘Thomas d'Aquin,’Dictionnaire Theologique Catholique t.15A (1946), 695-697. As a Dominican friar Thomas would have daily recited the divine office hence it is likely that many of his scriptural citations relate directly to this practice. Here one can only surmise as the modern reader does not have access to the Dominican liturgy from this period. See Jordan, Rewritten Theology. Aquinas after His Readers, 21.

¹² It is of interest to note that Reinhard Hütter, while still a Lutheran, selected the works of Thomas Aquinas for his exploration of the argumentative aspect of theology. See Hütter, R., Suffering Divine Things. Theology as Church Practice. Transl. Stott, D.., (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambrige UK, 2000), 180-187Google Scholar. Theologia als kirchliche Pratik, 1997.

¹³ Quia dilectio Dei est maius aliquid quam eius cognitio, maxime secundum statum viae, ideo praesupponit ipsam. (ST II-II q.8, a.4, ad 2) See also Gilby, T., Summa Theologiae, Vol. 1 Christian Theology (Blackfriars, 1964)Google Scholar, Appendix 10, “The Dialectic of Love in the Summa,” 124-132.

¹⁴ Otto Bird notes that ‘in the Summa the sed contra argument almost always coincides with the position St. Thomas adopts.’ Exceptions include ST I q.14, a.16; q.17, a.1: ST II-II q.85, a.6. See Bird, O., “How to read an Article of the Summa,”The New Scholasticism 27/2 (1953) 129-159: 130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ The first definition is ‘given to arguing.’

¹⁶ From a different angle Mark Jordan critiques the way in which the excerpting and misreading of texts over the centuries have lead to the creation of Thomas as an authority, indeed even as the authority. See Jordan, Rewritten Theology. Aquinas after His Readers. Chapter One, ‘St. Thomas and the Police.’ As he remarks it is an ‘irony that such a dialectical author should have been made into so undialectical an authority.’ (15)

¹⁷ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 13.

¹⁸ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 13, 14. In this section Valkenberg traces the development of Thomas' thoughts on the concept of auctoritates as it applies to sacra doctrina.

¹⁹ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 15. See ST I q.1 a.2 ad 2.

²⁰ In what he terms an ‘excursus’ Eugene Rogers presents a detailed account of the relationship between faith and scientia in Thomas' commentary on Romans. In Romans (c.4 lect. 1) Thomas tells us that the ‘act of faith is said to be threefold, namely, to believe that God exists, to believe God, and to believe into God (credere Deum, Deo, et in Deum).’ He goes on to say that to believe in God (credere in Deum) is to go into God by charity, to believe that God exists shows faith as a theological virtue where God is the object while credere Deum is to trust God. In his interpretation Rogers shows how faith in a sense, is also one, as without love of God by the will, trust of God by the intellect will fail. ‘Faith perfects (not “terminates”) reason … Faith perfects the language of natural reason by enabling it to do what it cannot do on its own – point toward the God of faith… . And that ‘pointing toward’ is not even in the light of faith an intelligible ‘terminating in’– God is not rendered intelligible even by faith.’ Rogers, Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth: Sacred Doctrine and the Natural Knowledge of God, 176. This viewpoint seems to have been influenced by the earlier scholarship of Victor Preller. See V. Preller, Divine Science and the Science of God, 181. In a statement wonderfully supportive of our thesis Preller later writes that to believe ‘is to think with assent!’ The exclamation mark affords the comment the attention it deserves. Ibid., 191.

²¹ Utitur tamen sacra doctrina etiam ratione humana. (ST I q.1 a. 8 c) The term etiam is interesting as it is translated variously as ‘also’ or ‘even,’ two terms which in this context suggest very different understandings. We translate etiam as ‘also’ believing this to be in accord with Thomas' respect for the intellect as the place where the rational creature is most like the Triune God.

²² Auctoritatibus autem canonicae Scripturae utitur proprie, ex necessitate argumentando. Auctoritatibus autem aliorum doctorum ecclesiae, quasi arguendo ex propriis, sed probabiliter. Innititur enim fides nostra revelationi apostolis et prophetis factae, qui canonicos libros scripserunt, non autem revelationi, si qua fuit aliis doctoribus facta. (ST I q.1 a.8 ad 2)

²³ See Jordan, Rewritten Theology. Aquinas after His Readers, 18-32.

²⁴ See Ernst, C., “Metaphor and Ontology in Sacra Doctrina,”The Thomist 38(1974) 3: 403-425CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁵ Repraesentatio enim naturaliter homini delectabilis est. (ST I q.1 a.9 ad 1)

²⁶ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 7.

²⁷ See ST III q.61, a.1. The condition of human nature ‘is such that it has to be led by things corporeal and sensible to things spiritual and intelligible. Now it belongs to Divine providence to provide for each one according as its condition requires.’

²⁸ The introductions by Jaroslav Pelikan (11-24) and Jean Leclercq (25-32) in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, are insightful. C. Luibheid, trans. Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. Introductions by Jaroslav Pelikan and Jean Leclerq. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987.

²⁹ See Ernst, C., Multiple Echo. Explorations in Theology. (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1979), 57-75Google Scholar.

³⁰ What is supremely knowable in itself, may not be knowable to a particular intellect, on account of the excess of the intelligible object above the intellect.

³¹ Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 225.

³² Leo XIII, On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy according to the mind of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor. Encyclical letter, 4^th August, 1879. We cite this text cautiously aware that the neo-Thomism promulgated (and inherited) by this papal encyclical stems from a fantasy of Thomistic unanimity and stability, a certainty of thought that the general tenor of this paper cautions against. See Jordan, Rewritten Theology. Aquinas after His Readers, 3-7.