Towards a Biblical Thomism. Thomas Aquinas and the Renewal Of
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Towards A Biblical Thomism Thomas Aquinas and the Renewal of Biblical Theology Towards A Biblical Thomism Thomas Aquinas and the Renewal of Biblical Theology Edited by Piotr Roszak Jörgen Vijgen EDICIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA, S.A. PAMPLONA First edition: 2018 © 2018. Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen (eds.) Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A. (EUNSA) Campus Universitario • Universidad de Navarra • 31009 Pamplona • España +34 948 25 68 50 - Fax: +34 948 25 68 54 [email protected] ISBN: 978-84-313-xxxx-x Depósito legal: NA xxxxx-2018 This book uses information gathered through the grant “Identity and Tradition. The Patristic Sources of Thomas Aquinas’ Thought” (2017-2020) funded from resources of the National Science Center (NCN) in Poland, allotted following the decision no. DEC - 2016/23/B/ HS1/02679. Index: Karolina Iwan Portrait: Krzysztof Skrzypczyk Printed in Spain - Impreso en España Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 9 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 11 Part 1 HEURISTIC TOOLS Anthony Giambrone, O.P. The Prologues to Aquinas’ Commentaries on the Letters of St. Paul ............................. 23 Randall Smith Thomas Aquinas’ Principium at Paris ................................................................................. 39 Michał Mrozek, O.P. The Use of Scripture in Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae I-II, qq. 49-70 .............................. 61 Part 2 CHRIST Piotr Roszak Judge of the Living and of the Dead. Aquinas on Christ’s Power to Judge in his Biblical Commentaries ........................................................................................................... 99 Mateusz Przanowski, O.P. Formam servi accipiens (Phil 2:7) or Plenus gratiae et veritatis (Jn 1:14)? The apparent dilemma in Aquinas’ exegesis .................................................................................. 119 Part 3 THE MORAL LIFE Michael Sherwin, O.P. Love in Thomas Aquinas’ Biblical Commentaries: A Sketch ........................................... 137 Enrique Alarcόn Aquinas’ Harmonization of Evangelical Morality and Philosophical Ethics ................. 153 8 Towards A Biblical Thomism Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. Thomas Aquinas on the Bible and Morality: The Sacred Scriptures, the Natural Law, and the Hermeneutic of Continuity ....................................................................... 173 Paul M. Rogers Prophecy and the Moral Life in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on 1 Corinthians ... 197 Jörgen Vijgen The Intelligibility of Aquinas’ Account of Marriage asremedium concupiscentiae in his Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7, 1-9 .................................................................... 219 Matthew Levering Aquinas on the Indissolubility of Marriage ....................................................................... 243 Contributors ...................................................................................................................... 273 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 275 Index ...................................................................................................................................... 291 Acknowledgments Our gratitude goes first to the contributors to this volume whose dedicated scholar- ship made this book possible. Most of the essays in this volume are revised versions of papers delivered at the international conference “Thomas Aquinas and the Re- newal of Biblical Theology” (April 24-26, 2017), sponsored by the Faculty of Theolo- gy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland and the Thomistic Insti- tute in Warsaw. Without the support of the entire faculty and staff of these institutes the event would not have been possible. We would like to thank also Piotr Paweł Orlowski for his financial assistance and the entire Biblical Thomism Project in Toruń. Introduction In his introductory monograph Aidan Nichols tentatively argued for a new renais- sance in the study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas.1 The large number of in- troductions to his thought and translations of his works, which have subsequently appeared, attest to the fact that a growing number of scholars today find his thought still worth reading and understanding.2 From a Catholic perspective, this renais- sance inevitably means engaging in reflections on the way in which Thomism can be renewed after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and what it means to be a Thomist today.3 Such a post-conciliar renewal of Thomism, in particular in a context of prolonged postmodernity, will exhibit the features of a new phenomenon which is being coined in relation to a previous form of thought.4 The typically modern separation of speculative theology and biblical exegesis is foreign to the mind of Thomas Aquinas.5 In fact, as Gilbert Dahan has observed, 1 Aidan Nichols, Discovering Aquinas. An Introduction to his Life, Work and Influence (Lon- don: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002). 2 Some recent examples are Philip McCosker & Denys Turner, ed., The Cambridge Compan- ion to the Summa Theologiae (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016); Volker Leppin ed., Thomas Handbuch (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2016); Jason Eberl, The Routledge Guidebook to Aqui- nas‘ Summa Theologiae (Oxford: Routledge 2016); Pasquale Porro, Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press 2016). 3 See Joseph A. DiNoia., “Thomism After Thomism: Aquinas and the Future of Theology,” in The Future of Thomism, ed. Deal W. Hudson and Dennis William Moran (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 231-245; John Haldane,“Thomism and the Future of Catholic Phi- losophy”, New Blackfriars 80 (1999), 158-169; Serge-Thomas Bonino, “To be a Thomist,”Nova et Vetera 4 (2010), 763-773; Idem, “Le thomisme de 1962 à 2012. Vue panoramique,” Nova et Vetera (Fribourg) 87 (2012), 419-446; Thomas J. White, “Thomism after Vatican II,” Nova et Vetera 12 (2014), 1045-1062. 4 Tracy Rowland, Culture and the Thomist Tradition. After Vatican II (Routledge: Lon- don-New York 2003). 5 Matthew Levering, Participatory Biblical Exegesis: A Theology of Biblical Interpretation (No- tre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2008). On the origins of this separation see C. Kavin Rawe and Richard B. Hayes, “Biblical Studies,” The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology, John 12 Towards A Biblical Thomism Thomas Aquinas is situated in the final phase of the process of differentiation of speculative theology and biblical exegesis, or in other words, he is still able to com- bine them despite their differences at a time when many of his contemporaries thought that the two disciplines would diverge and create alternative worlds.6 In fact, for a medieval Magister in Sacra Pagina such as Thomas Aquinas, the Master’s threefold office of lectio, disputatio and preaedicatio constitute such a unity that the expressions sacra doctrina, theologia and sacra Scriptura are considered to be syno- nyms and “designate the whole of divine teaching foundation on Revelation.”7 Thomas Aquinas is indeed a witness of the times in which the transition from the narrative typology of monastic theology, based on a lectio divina, to the scholas- tic version of biblical exegesis, emphasizing the quaestio as an interpretative tool for understanding Revelation, took place.8 The sacra doctrina, which grew out of this scholastic perspective, however, is not intended on ‘freezing’ the intellectual reflec- tion on Revelation but remains located within a creative tension between biblical exegesis and speculative understanding. This creative tension offers a framework in which ever deepening reflection is not restricted but on the contrary functions as a fertile environment corresponding to, as Henri de Lubac observed, the Latin term humus.9 Aquinas’ exegesis is explicitly and implicitly imbued with metaphysics for Webster, Kathryn Tanner, and Iain Torrance eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 435- 455. 6 Gilbert Dahan, “Thomas Aquinas: Exegesis and Hermeneutics,” inReading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas. Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions and New Perspectives, eds. Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), 45-70, here 45. For an introduction into this lectio divina see Duncan Robertson, Lectio Divina: The Medieval Experience of Reading (Colle- geville, Minn. : Liturgical Press, 2011). 7 Gilles Emery, “Biblical Exegesis and the Speculative Doctrine of the Trinity in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on St. John’, in Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas, Theological Exegesis and Speculative Theology, ed. by Michael Dauphinais & Matthew Levering (Washington D.C.: CUA Press, 2005), 23-61, here 56. See also Petrus Cantor, Verbum adbreuiatum, textus prior, I : “In tribus igitur consistit exercicium sacre Scripture: circa lectionem, disputationem et predicationem […]. Lectio autem est quasi fundamentum et substratorium sequentium quia per eam cetere util- itates comparantur. Disputatio quasi paries est in hoc exercicio et edificio ; quia “Nichil plene intelligitur fideliterue predicatur nisi prius dente disputationis frangatur”. Predicatio uero, cui subseruiunt priora, quasi tectum est tegens fideles ab estu et a turbine uiciorum. Post lectionem igitur sacre Scripture et dubitabilium disputationem et inquisitionem,