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Tilburg University The hermeneutics of knowing and willing in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas O'Reilly, K.E. Publication date: 2013 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): O'Reilly, K. E. (2013). The hermeneutics of knowing and willing in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. [s.n.]. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. sep. 2021 KEVIN E. O’REILLY, O.P. THE HERMENEUTICS OF KNOWING AND WILLING IN THE THOUGHT OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS [Type text] TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations . v INTRODUCTION 1 1. The notion of hermeneutics: clarification . 4 2. A brief overview of the argument . 9 3. The nexus mysteriorum and Scripture . 16 4. Facing some initial objections . 17 5. The hermeneutical influences operative in this work . 21 CHAPTER I TO THE IMAGE OF THE TRINITY 27 1. STh I, q. 93: human beings as made to the image and likeness of God . 31 2. Likeness according to conformation . 42 3. Conclusion . 54 CHAPTER II THE GOD TO WHOM WE ARE CONFORMED 57 1. The Scriptural foundations of Thomas’s Trinitarian theology . 59 2. The Trinitarian missions . 65 3. The processions of the Son and the Holy Spirit . 73 4. The proper names of the Son and the Holy Spirit: from theologia to oikonomia . 84 i 4.1 The Son as Word and Image . 84 4.2 The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift . 92 5. Conclusion . 100 CHAPTER III THE INTERINVOLVEMENT OF INTELLECT AND WILL 103 1. Sin and the life of intellect and will . 106 2. Intellect and will as powers of the soul . 110 3. The emanation of intellect and will from the essence of the soul . 117 4. The dynamics of reciprocal causality between intellect and will . 125 5. The epistemic-affectve implications of circulatio in the acts of intellect and will . 133 6. Conclusion . 136 CHAPTER IV THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCARNATION FOR HUMAN KNOWING AND LOVING 141 1. Participating in eternal Wisdom by imitating the example of the incarnate Word . 143 2. The causal efficacy of the mysteries of Christ’s life . 157 3. Conclusion . 170 ii CHAPTER V THE TRANSFORMATION WROUGHT BY GRACE 173 1. Grace as participation in the divine nature . 175 2. The transformative effects of grace . 185 2.1 The theological and other infused virtues . 189 2.2 The transformation of the notion of virtue . 196 2.3 The Gifts of the Holy Spirit . 201 3. Conclusion . 212 CHAPTER VI A HERMENEUTICS OF FAITH 215 1. The formal object of faith: God as First Truth . 216 2. The material object of faith . .225 3. Scripture, Church, and faith . 231 4. Conclusion . 243 CHAPTER VII BEYOND THE LIMITS OF NATURAL REASON 247 1. The individual act of faith . 249 2. Increase of faith . 257 3. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit . 267 3.1 The Gift of understanding . 272 3.2 The Gift of knowledge . 278 3.3 The Gift of counsel . 285 iii 4. Conclusion . 290 CHAPTER VIII TRANSPORTED BY CHARITY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE TRIUNE GOD 292 1. Established as friends of God by the Holy Spirit . 294 2. Some Scriptural sources for Thomas’s treatment of charity . 305 3. The dynamic interplay between faith and charity . 311 4. Conclusion . .322 CHAPTER IX BORNE BY CHARITY TO A STRANGE WISDOM 324 1. Increase in charity . 325 2. Increase in charity and intellectual illumination . 336 3. The Gift of wisdom: the invisible mission of the Son . 353 4. A sapiential hermeneutics . 362 5. Conclusion . 369 CHAPTER X CONCLUSION 372 Bibliography . 382 iv ABREVIATIONS Ad 1 Cor Lectura super Epistolam I ad Corinthios Ad II Cor Lectura super Epistolam II ad Corinthios. Reportatio Ad Phil Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Philipenses lectura Ad Rom Expositio super Epistolam ad Romanos CEG Contra Errores Graecorum Comp Theol Compendium Theologiae De car Quaestio disputata De caritate De malo Quaestiones disputatae De malo De pot Quaestiones disputatae De potentia De rat fid De rationibus fidei De ver Quaestiones disputatae De veritate De virt Quaestio disputata De virtutibus in communi In De Div Nom In De Divinis Nominibus In Ethic Sentencia libri Ethicorum In Eph Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Ephesios lectura In Heb Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Hebraeos lectura In Gal Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Galatas lectura In Joh Super Evangeliun S. Ioannis lectura In psalmos In psalmos Davidis expositio In Sent Scriptum super libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi In Sym. Ap. Expositio in Symbolum Apostolorum QD De anima Quaestio disputata De anima v ScG Summa contra Gentiles SDA Sentencia libri De anima STh Summa Theologiae Super De Trinitate Super Boetium De Trinitate In Octo Libros Physicorum Aristotelis (ch. 4) Other ancient and medieval authors Aristotle NE Nicomachean Ethics Politic Politics St Augustine De Corrept. Et Grat. De Correptione et Gratia De Div Quaest De Diversis Quaestionibus Octoginta Tribus De Trin De Trinitate Tract In Joh In Evangeliun Ioannis Tractatus St John Damascene De Fid Orth De Fide Orthodoxa Pseudo-Dionysius Div Nom De Divinis Nominibus Biblical books Col Colossians vi 1 Cor 1 Corinthians 2 Cor 2 Corinthians Dan Daniel Ec Ecclesiastes Eph Ephesians Heb Hebrews Is Isaiah Jn John 1 Pet 1 Peter 2 Pet 2 Peter Phil Philippians Prov Proverbs Ps Psalms Rom Romans 2 Thess 2 Thessalonians 1 Tim 1 Timothy vii INTRODUCTION Hermeneutics, the idea that human understanding is conditioned by factors that lie beyond its control, has long since established itself as an important area of concern both in philosophy and theology, not least as a reaction to the universalist claims of Enlightenment rationalism.1 Thomists to date have not displayed any great awareness of the historical and hermeneutical turns in philosophy and theology as represented by figures such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur.2 There is therefore much work to be done in order to show forth those elements in Aquinas’s work that can meaningfully engage with these turns. This lack in the world of exegetical scholarship on St. Thomas Aquinas and among Thomistic philosophers and theologians of a more speculative orientation furnishes the basic problem that this study aims to engage. In order to do so it undertakes the task of showing forth those elements in Thomas’s major theological synthesis, namely the Summa Theologiae, that can take their place in contemporary theological debate that is conducted on a hermeneutical plane. 1 For a clarification of the notion of “hermeneutics” see section one below. 2 See, however, Kevin E. O’Reilly, “Transcending Gadamer: Towards a Participatory Hermeneutics,” The Review of Metaphysics 65 (2012): 841-860, and “Objective Prejudice: St Thomas on the Elevation by Grace of the Life of Reason,” Angelicum 84 (2007): 59-95, for two such attempts, philosophical and theological respectively. See also Reinhard Hütter, “The Directedness of Reasoning and the Metaphysics of Creation” in Reason and the Reasons of Faith, ed. Paul J. Griffiths and, Reinhard Hütter (NY and London: T &T Clark, 2005), 160-93. Although Hütter does not employ the term “hermeneutics,” I contend that the theme is clearly operative in this article. For an important recent contribution in biblical hermeneutics, see Matthew Levering, Participatory Biblical Exegesis: A Theology of Biblical Interpretation (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008). 1 My previous work in this area, which has focused on Hans-Georg Gadamer as a dialogue partner, has shown Thomas’s construal of the relationship between the intellect and will to be central to the enterprise upon which I am about to embark. The will has an important influence on the unfolding of the life of human reason. In showing forth the elements in Thomas’s theological synthesis that can enter into dialogue with contemporary hermeneutical concerns in theology it is therefore necessary to trace the dynamics of this relationship throughout the major thematic areas of the Summa, an undertaking that has not to my knowledge been undertaken previously. In this regard, the question arises as to whether any discernible relationships obtain between the various thematic areas of the Summa with regard to the dynamics of the relationship between intellect and will. There arises, furthermore, the question of the significance of these relationships. Thus, for example, an initial acquaintance with Thomas’s doctrine concerning man as the image of God (imago Dei) and his Trinitarian theology reveal that intellect and will are ascribed analogically to God and to human beings. How does Thomas understand this relationship and what is its significance for human knowing and willing? In other words, what relevance does it have for Thomas’s theological hermeneutics? Do the Incarnation of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit have a role to play in this regard? If so, what is this role and.
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