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Full of Grace and Truth: the Sacramental Economy According to Thomas Aquinas

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Full of Grace and Truth: the Sacramental Economy According to Thomas Aquinas FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH: THE SACRAMENTAL ECONOMY ACCORDING TO THOMAS AQUINAS Joseph Dominic Vnuk BSc(Hons), BA, DipEd, MTh(Hons) Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2013 i ii ABSTRACT Full of Grace and Truth: The Sacramental Economy according to Thomas Aquinas Neo-Thomism misread Aquinas by trying to find in him answers to questions posed by Descartes and Kant, producing a theology that people like Chauvet rightly abandoned. This thesis, on the other hand, proposes a decidedly pre-modern reading of Thomas. It begins with two basic structures of Thomas' thought - a threefold notion of truth (so that truth is ontological as well as epistemological), and an understanding of exitus-reditus that shows its links to “archaic” concepts such as the hau of the Maori. Then it considers human life in terms of merit and thus “economy,” (exchange of valuables); but this economy is a gift economy, and here we consider the gift in the light of Seneca (whom Thomas took as an authority) and Mauss, as well as using Allard's insights into how debt, particularly debt to God, generates what in Thomas takes the place of the Cartesian subject. In this light grace is seen as the spirit of the gift with which God graces us, giving rise to gratitude. We then consider Christ as graced and gracing us, first of all by our configuration to him in the sacraments (using the analogy of clothes), followed by a conformation in grace. We look at this in baptism and penance, but then we take the Eucharist as a three-fold sign, and show how it generates in us faith, hope and love. The unity of the sacrament as a gift is emphasised, and the cases of its division, such as fiction, the votum sacramenti, and circumcision are examined. As a Jew, Derrida gives insight into grace before the coming of Christ and the value of the sacrifice of Abraham, and in this way we can see how Thomas circumvents Derrida's critique of the gift. Finally we compare Thomas with Chauvet. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I begin by thanking my parents, František and Anna Vnuk, who instilled in me a love of learning and who have been supportive through the years. Next I thank: my previous provincial, fr Thomas Cassidy OP, and the current provincial, fr Kevin Saunders OP, who gave me the time to do the doctorate; the regent, fr Mark O'Brien OP, who gave me the inclination; and the provincial bursar, fr Anthony Walsh OP, who made available the money. Recognition should also go to Dr David Coffey, who set an essay question on ex opere operato that was the seed for the this doctorate, and to the class of Melanesian seminarians to whom I taught the Sacrament of Marriage in 2005, who by their insistence on the retention of brideprice taught me to imagine an alternative approach to economies. In Nottingham I would like to thank Bishop Malcolm McMahon OP for providing accommodation at the cathedral presbytery, and the past and present deans, Rev Michael Brown and Rev Geoff Hunton, who have made me welcome over the years, as well as the other cathedral priests, the sisters of the Little Company of Mary, the parishioners of the Cathedral, St Augustine's and Our Lady and St Patrick's parishes, especially Anne Armstrong, who has done her best to ensure that I do not waste away. I have also enjoyed the pastoral care of Rev Chris Thomas, the Nottingham University chaplain, and the fellowship of the Catholic Students Association. Very sincere thanks are also due to my supervisor, John Milbank, for getting me to read Seneca and for all his other advice and support over the four years; similarly I would like to thank my co-supervisor, Conor Cunningham. The academic staff within the Theology and Religious Studies Department have been welcoming and supportive, and special thanks are due to the head of department, Karen Kilby. Dominican priories across Europe have made me welcome and often I have made use of their libraries: thanks are due to the communities at Oxford, Leicester, Cambridge, London, Warsaw, Kraków, Fribourg and Toulouse. Various people have helped to chase up articles or books for me: fratres Austin Milner OP (RIP), Richard Conrad OP, Robert Krishna OP, Martin Wallace OP, and Rev Dominic Robinson SJ. For his efforts to check all my references to Thomas, fr Gregory Murphy OP deserves a special mention, as do my proof-readers, fr Paul Rowse OP, Aaron Riches and Paul Mees. v vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 How do we read Thomas today? 1 1.1.1 Paradigm change in sacramental theology 1 1.1.2 The aporia of sacramental causality 2 1.1.2 Alternative approaches 4 1.1.3 The establishment of a new paradigm 6 1.2 How to read Thomas 8 1.2.1 The need to read Thomas 8 1.2.2 Neo-Thomism as a flawed reading of Thomas 8 1.2.3 Reclaiming what all want to explain away 10 1.2.4 A pre-modern reading of Thomas 11 1.2.5 The plan of this thesis 12 1.3 The sacramental theology of Louis-Marie Chauvet 13 1.3.1 Grace as a non-object 14 1.3.2 Grace as gratuity in exchange 15 1.3.3 Sacraments thought within symbolic exchange 17 1.3.4 The symbolizing act of Christian identity 19 1.3.4.1 How liturgy works 19 1.3.4.2 Sacraments as instituted 22 1.3.4.3 Sacraments as instituting 24 1.3.5 Connections with Christology and the theology of the Trinity. 27 CHAPTER TWO GRACE, TRUTH AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE SUMMA THEOLOGIAE 2.1 The threefold nature of truth 31 2.1.1 Establishing the threefold nature of truth 31 2.1.1.1 The three meanings of truth outside the commentary on John 31 2.1.1.2 Grace and truth 32 2.1.1.3 Truth and freedom; truth and the figures of the Law 35 2.1.2 The threefold characterization of truth and the threefold spiritual sense of scripture 37 2.1.2.1 Thomas' explanation of the three spiritual senses 37 2.1.2.1 The necessity of the spiritual senses 39 2.1.3 The threefold signification of the sacraments 42 2.1.4 The structure of the Summa Theologiae 45 2.1.4.1 Why the exitus-reditus schema fails to convince 46 2.1.4.2 An earlier approach: naturalis, moralis, sacramentalis 49 2.1.4.3 An increasingly human presence of the Word 51 2.1.4.4 Resolving some anomalies in the structure of the Summa 53 2.2 Exitus-reditus, spirit and grace 55 2.2.1 The circular movement in God and in creation 55 2.2.1.1 Processions in God 56 2.2.1.2 Vestiges and images of God 57 2.2.1.3 Divine missions 58 vii 2.2.1.3.1 Visible and invisible missions 58 2.2.13.2 The inseparability of the missions 60 2.2.2 Effects give glory to their causes 60 2.2.2.1 Omne agens agit sibi simile 61 2.2.2.2 Every effect honours its cause 63 2.2.2.3 Giving honour to God by sharing in the divine governance 64 2.2.2.4 Human reproduction 65 2.2.2.4 The possibility of communication 67 2.2.3 “Archaic” themes in Thomas' thought 68 2.2.3.1 The Christian context: spiritus 68 2.2.3.2 The animist context: hau 70 2.2.4 Full of grace and truth, we have seen his glory 73 CHAPTER THREE MORALITY EXPLAINED AS ECONOMICS 3.1 The existence of an “economy” in the thought of Thomas 75 3.1.2 Economy and the structure of Prima Secundae 76 3.1.2.1 The need for merit 76 3.1.2.2 What can and cannot be the basis of merit 78 3.1.2.3 Economy as ordo or structure 80 3.2 Justice and the economy 81 3.2.1 Strict justice and the virtues allied to it 81 3.2.2 Condign merit 82 3.2.3 How charity merits 84 3.2.3.1 The interplay between knowledge and love 85 3.2.3.2 The effects of love and the appropriateness of this exchange 88 3.2.3.3 How charity enables a real offering to God 90 3.2.3.4 Sacrifice 92 3.2.3.5 We know the value of what we offer to God 94 3.2.3.6 God's hand is not forced 95 3.2.3.7 Trinitarian aspects 96 3.3 Alternative bases to morality: punishment and temporal goods 96 3.3.1 Punishment 97 3.3.3.1 Punishment and ordo 97 3.3.3.2 Punishment as loss 99 3.3.3.3 Punishment as inflicted 99 3.3.3.4 Does God inflict punishment? 101 3.3.4 Material rewards 103 3.4 Economy and Law 106 3.4.1 Law as a structure 106 3.4.2 Is the New Law more or less a law than the Old Law? 107 3.4.3 Moving from the Old Law to the New: satisfaction 110 CHAPTER FOUR THE GIFT 4.1 Debt 113 viii 4.1.1 Legal and moral debt 113 4.1.2 Moral debt 113 4.1.3 Debt and the subject 115 4.2 Gratitude and gratia 119 4.2.1 The multiple character of gratia 119 4.2.2 Thomas' debt to Seneca 120 4.2.3 The gift object and the spirit of the gift 122 4.2.4 Welcoming debt 124 4.3 Maussian gift-exchange 126 4.3.1 The basics of Mauss' theory 127 4.3.2 Gifts and symbols 128 4.3.3 Gifts and Warre 131 4.3.4 What Mauss brings to light in Thomas 134 4.3.4.1 The need to interpret gifts 134 4.3.4.2 History and the splitting of gratia and vindicta 135 4.4 What the benefactor causes in the beneficiary 138 4.4.1 Debt 138 4.4.2 Gratuity 138 4.4.3 Social bonds 140 4.4.4 The modality of the cause: the spirit of the gift 143 4.5 Satisfaction revisited 146 CHAPTER FIVE GRACE 5.1 Developments in the doctrine on grace 150 5.1.1 Predestination and grace as gift 150 5.1.2 The threefold meaning of gratia 152 5.1.2.1 From two meanings to three 152 5.1.2.2 Corroboration from the biblical commentaries 155 5.1.3 Is grace the sort of thing that can be effected by an instrument? 157 5.1.3.1 Is grace created? 157 5.1.3.2 Instrumental causality 158 5.1.3.3 The nobility of grace 159 5.1.3.4 A change on the communicability of miraculous power 160 5.1.4 The end results: grace is like hau 163 5.2 Corroboration from biblical commentaries 164 5.2.1 Distinction between the gift object and the spirit of the gift 164 5.2.2 The principal conclusion of the Letter to the Hebrews 165 5.2.3 John's Gospel and Christ's abiding presence
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