Paths to the Triune God: An Encounter between Aquinas and Recent Theologies by Anselm K. Min (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 333 joining the Order of Preachers, they had him captured, sequestered in the family compound, and, by means of temptation and privation, tried to make him rethink his decision. This biographical moment would have undergirded the argument by pointing out how Thomas's filial disobedience represented at the same time pietas or obedience to God. Thomas's use of Aristotle represents another instance of apparent disobedience. As the Parisian condemnations of 1277 suggest, there were at least some who considered immersion in the thought of the Philosopher dangerous. Using him so heavily not only in the great Summa but even in his biblical commentaries suggested to some Thomas's tacit support of the more controversial Aristotelian positions. While perhaps disobedient on one level, Thomas's move can again be reframed as obedient, in this case to the truth and in deploying the tools necessary for communicating the truth about God and creation. This volume and its antecedent conference together reflect and encourage important moves in Thomistic studies, that is, the recentering of the biblical commentaries and their "reintegration" with "speculative theology" (xiii). As the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal continues to sponsor conferences and publications, it might ask where dangerous work analogous to Thomas's is being done today. Might future volumes bring to bear contemporary and, perhaps for some, dangerous theory to illuminate the Angelic Doctor? Theorists are myriad, but one possibility is to include sympathetic readings of those David Tracy designates as the three great hermeneuts of suspicion-Marx, Nietszche, and Freud. In sum, this volume contributes to scholarship on St. Thomas because it fills out our picture of him by highlighting one of his overlooked genres. It invites further research, and it teases out implications for the life ofthe Church, all vital tasks for speculative theology today. THOMAS F. RYAN St. Thomas University Miami Gardens, Florida Paths to the Triune God: An Encounter between Aquinas and Recent Theologies. By ANSELM K. MIN. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. Pp. 408. $50.00 (cloth), $26.00 (paper). ISBN 0-268-03488-5 (cloth), 0-268-03489-3 (paper). Anselm Min is attempting to accomplish several things at once. His central conviction is that Thomas, with his sapiential and theocentered theology, is able to provide themes and insights that importantly address the anthropocentricism and praxis orientation (which he refers to as "prophetic") that characterize 334 BOOK REVIEWS contemporary theology. The positive presentation of Thomas is set out in chapters 1 to 5. While Min ranges over the breadth of Thomas's thought, he remains generally focused on the doctrine of the Trinity. The encounter with recent theologies takes three forms: an ongoing interaction with contemporary currents of theology in which Thomas is allowed to critique and be critiqued; more sustained presentations of three social approaches to the Trinity (chapter 6); and treatments of a number of contemporary issues including the salvation of those outside an explicit Christianity (chapters 1 through 3), feminist and other critiques of God-language (chapter 6), and theological methodology (chapter 7). I will comment in more detail on Min's presentation of Thomas (with which I was quite impressed) and on his suggestions for contemporary theology (with which I was less impressed). His critiques of recent theologies are insightful but there is no need to rehearse these separately. Key points are set out in the first chapter. Min begins by arguing for the contemporary relevance of a natural theology understood more broadly than it was in traditional apologetics. Interreligious dialogue requires "a mode of knowing God that is not so tied to a particular religious tradition as to exclude all common ground" but that can be justified from within the perspective of a particular religious tradition itself (14). This sets the stage for a Thomistic understanding of the relationship of philosophy and theology that overlaps but does not identify with the relationship between reason and faith. It is the formal object, the ordo ad Deum which considers all things sub ratione Dei, that distinguishes theology or sacra doctrina, not the material considered or the use of reason. Min's treatment of this material is accurate and fairly standard. Less standard...