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1 Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P. 1 AquinasonPaul’sFlesh/ SpiritAnthropologyinRomans I will primarily argue that, despite numerous exegetical limitations, the late St. Thomas Aquinas achieved a broad and faithful appropriation of St. Paul’s flesh/spirit anthropology in the Epistle to the Romans. Second, I will show that Aquinas’s interpretation of key Romans passages on flesh/spirit does not adequately manifest his reception of the Pauline doctrine. Only the Summa theologiae allows a just evaluation of that reception. Third, I will show that a study of Aquinas’s Pauline exegesis must take into account the way in which St. Augustine mediates and guides that reading of Scripture. I will begin with a brief historical study of St. Paul’s flesh/spirit language in Romans 7–8. I will consider how this language functions within the main theological and pastoral arguments of Romans, especially in light of 1 Corinthians and the cosmology that such language presumes. Only by recognizing how and why Aquinas receives and develops Paul’s teaching can we begin to determine the ways in which Aquinas can participate in the theological and ecclesial exegeses that are the necessary complements to historical exegesis.1 Second, I will offer a summary of St. Augustine’s various interpretations of flesh/spirit language, especially in light of the doctrinal stakes involved. Third, I will analyze Aquinas’s interpretation of the letter and the doctrine of Pauline flesh/spirit in the Romans Commentary (chapters 6–8), in the Galatians Commentary (chapter 5), and in select articles on sin and grace in the Summa theologiae. 1. On theological and ecclesial exegesis, see J. A. DiNoia, O.P. and Bernard Mulcahey, O.P., “The Authority of Scripture in Sacramental Theology: Some Methodological Observations,” Pro Ecclesia 10, no. 3 (2001): 329–45; Matthew Levering, Participatory Biblical Exegesis (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008); Denis Farkasfalvy, O. Cist., “Inspiration and Interpretation ,” in Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition, ed. Matthew L. Lamb and Matthew Levering (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 77–100. 2   Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P. Flesh/Spirit in Romans A proper understanding of Paul’s flesh/spirit language demands a sufficient awareness of its cosmological background. In Paul’s Hellenized Jewish culture, pneuma, or spirit, is a higher reality that has its own power of movement and knowledge.2 Pneuma is a vital element of any living person. There are many types and qualities of pneuma at work in the world.3 Paul usually does not employ the term to refer to the Holy Spirit. The latter doctrine especially emerges in light of the Gospel of John, the Book of Acts, and the early Christian tradition. For Paul, pneuma is not purely spiritual. Good pneuma is divine stuff, a life force that joins us to God. Christians are one pneuma with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17). Stanley Stowers has argued that the basic model for this participation language is that of genetic descent, of relatives sharing the “stuff” of their ancestors.4 Paul argues in Galatians 3 that through Christ, we have received God’s pneuma, which in turn connects us with the blessings promised to Abraham, as we now become his descendents in sharing his “stuff.”5 Romans 8 employs a similar logic. The same pneuma or life force that belongs to Christ now dwells in believers. Christians have a portion of Christ’s “stuff” and thus are alive, while their sarx is dead because of sin (8:9). Pneuma clearly does not refer to the individual soul or a spiritual substance . We might say that it is a metaphorical term, yet only with significant qualifications. Pneuma is very real, an active force at work in the universe, but it is not an individual thing. Similarly, Paul often employs the term sarx to refer to something other than an individual body, and in that sense is speaking metaphorically, yet sarx or flesh is no less real than pneuma. Part of the difficulty in interpreting Pauline sarx is rooted in the multiple uses and meanings of the term. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul addresses the problem of the man who has sexual relations with his stepmother. He must be expelled from the community, since his immorality is corrupting the communal body of Christ. Dale Martin has pointed to the medical background of such pollution language. The incestuous man should be turned over to Satan, who will destroy the sarx, so that the pneuma may be saved. But whose spirit does Paul...

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