Paul as Professor of Theology: The Image of the Apostle in St. Thomas’s Theology*

PAUL AS PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY THE IMAGE oF THE APoSTLE IN S·.r. THoMAs's THEOLOGY* Paul wrote fourteen letters ... Their entire doctrine deals with the grace of Christ. This grace can be considered in a threefold way. First of all, inasmuch as it is in Christ the head himself-and this is the concern of the epistle to the Hebrews. Second, inasmuch as it is in the principal members of the mystical body-and this is the concern of the letters to the Prelates. Third, inasmuch as it is in the mystical body itself, which is the church-and this is the concern of the letters to the Gentiles.1 T:HIS IS WHAT Thomas writes in the prologue of his commentary on the epistles of Paul. And he works out this classification until all fourteen letters of the Pauline Corpus have their systematic place within the whole.2 * This article is the revised and enlarged English text of a German radio-lecture, transmitted November 14, 1970 by Radio Hilversum (Netherlands) within a series of radio-lectures on the exegesis of Paul in the course of the centuries. The German text has first been published in the Dutch edition of the entire series of lectures under the title: De dertiende apostel en het e/jde gebod. Paulus in de loop der eeuwen. Onder redactie van dr. G. C. Berkouwer en dr. H. A. Oberman (Uitgeversmij J. H. Kok N. V., Kampen, 1971), pp. 53-67. The English text-translated by the author-is first published in this volume. 1 Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistolas S. Patdi lectura, prol., ed. Marietti (TurinRome , 1953), no. 11. Quotations from the Commentary on Paul are given according to the individual letters (for example: In Rom. = In Epistolam S. Pauli ad Romanos expositio), indicating the verses which are commented on and the lectio to which that part of the commentary belongs (as it well known, traditionally the chapters of the commentary which correspond to the chapters of the biblical text are subdivided into lectiones). In order to facilitate the search of the quotations we add (in brackets) the current number of the edition of Turin mentioned above. About lectura and expositio c£. infra p. 5. For English cf. St. Thomas Aquinas Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (M~gi Books, 1966), ... to the Galatians (1966), ... First Letter to the Thessalonians and the Letter to the Philippians (1969). 2 For illustration I quote the entire text: " Scripsit enim quatuordecim epistolas 584 PAUL AS PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY 585 The modern reader cannot believe his eyes: the medieval commentator stresses a picture according to which the most spirited and least systematic author of the New Testament sits at his writing table, far from the world, and meditates on the suitable division of a dogmatical monograph about the grace of Christ. The results were fourteen chapters which treat the whole topic in an exhaustive way and in a definite sequence. Only an unimportant accident diffused this monograph over the whole world in the form of fourteen letters. But that is Paul in the eyes of Thomas Aquinas! The Apostle is for him the greatest systematician of the New Testament, the professor among the Apostles. How could such an image of Paul arise, in which the features of the Apostle obviously assimilate the traits of Aquinas and of his time? The " Evangelical Movement " Whoever thinks of the Middle Ages and particularly of quarum novem instruunt Ecclesiam Gentium; quatuor praelatos et principes Ecclesiae , id est reges; una populum Israel, scilicet quae est ad Hebraeos. Est enim haec doctrina tota de gratia Christi, quae quidem potest tripliciter considerari. Uno modo secundum quod est in ipso capite, scilicet Christo, et sic commendatur in Epistola ad Hebraeos. Alio modo secundum quod est in membris principalibus corporis mystici, et sic commendatur in epistolis quae sunt ad praelatos. Tertio modo secundum quod in ipso corpore mystico, quod est Ecclesia, et sic commendatur in epistolis quae mittuntur ad Gentiles, quarum haec est distinctio : nam ipsa gratia Christi tripliciter potest considerari. Uno modo secundum se, et sic commendatur in epistola ad Romanos: alio modo secundum quod est in sacramentis gratiae, et sic commendatur in duabus...