Aquinas the Augustinian

3. Theology and Theory of the Word in Aquinas: Understanding Augustine by Innovating Aristotle

3 Theology and Theory of the Word in Aquinas Understanding Augustine by Innovating Aristotle Harm Goris In contemporary discussions, Aquinas’s theory of the word plays a role mainly in certain philosophical issues, in particular the semantic and epistemological status of the inner word (verbum interius) or concept and the question whether Aquinas represents some form of direct realism or representationalism .1 Generally, however, little attention is paid to the fact that Aquinas ’s theory of the word evolved over the course of his career. This neglect can have serious consequences for the interpretation of Aquinas’s position.2 In this essay, I shall trace the development of Aquinas’s reflection on what a word is.3 I shall not go into the philosophical issue about representationalism , but focus on the theological context within which Aquinas gradually developed his theory of the (inner) word or concept. There were two theological questions, both inherited from Augustine, that motivated him to elaborate this new theory. The first question concerns the doctrine of the Trinity: is  1. Cf., for example, Robert Pasnau, Theories of Cognition in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 2. An exception is Giorgio Pini, “Species, Concept, and Thing: Theories of Signification in the Second Half of the Thirteenth Century,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 8 (1999): 21–52. 3. I resume certain elements I discussed in my Free Creatures of an Eternal God: Thomas Aquinas on God’s Infallible Foreknowledge and Irresistible Will (Louvain: Peeters, 1996), 167–79. “Word,” when said of God, exclusively a personal name? The second question is about the plurality of the divine ideas and its compatibility with divine simplicity. Although the latter has been discussed less extensively by later commentators on Aquinas, the two problems are interconnected in Aquinas ’s theology. In both cases the confrontation with an Aristotelian doctrine of knowledge inspired Aquinas to develop gradually a new view on the inner word. The new view centers around an innovative elaboration of Aristotle’s theory of the cognitive act, which leads to an integration of Aristotelian and Augustinian views on cognition. His innovation in cognitive theory enabled Aquinas to maintain, explain, and substantiate Augustine’s theological claims about “Word” and the divine ideas within the framework of an Aristotelian analysis and interpretation of the cognitive act. I distinguish three subsequent stages in Aquinas’s texts that mark the development toward his new cognitive theory: an early stage in the Commentary on the Sentences, a middle stage in De veritate and the first redaction of Summa contra gentiles, book I, chapter 53, and the final stage, represented by the third redaction of Summa contra gentiles I, chapter 53, and later texts. In my interpretation of the texts, I shall focus on two things. First, I shall offer a new reading of the texts that represent the second stage, that is, the texts in De veritate and the first redaction of Summa contra gentiles I, chapter 53. Second , given this new interpretation, it will become clearer that there is a serious problem with the dating of the alleged second redaction of Thomas’s Commentary on the Sentences. Before taking a closer look at the three stages of the development of Thomas ’s theory of the inner word, I shall first introduce in more detail the two theological questions that gave rise to this development. I. Background With regard to the question whether “‘Word” is exclusively a personal name in God, Augustine had argued that in humans the inner word, or as he calls it “the word of the heart” (verbum cordis), always proceeds from, is said by, or is born out of our mind (mens) or memory (memoria). Therefore, “word” always signifies a real relation of procession and, when predicated of God, does not signify the divine essence, but precisely the Second Person of the Trinity. For Augustine, “Word” is as much a personal name in the Trinity as “Son”: “He is Son in the way He is Word, and He is Word in the way He is harm goris  Son.”4 This explanation harmonizes, of course, with the wordings of the prologue of the Gospel of John, in which “Word” refers to pre-existent Logos, incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. However, the introduction of the Aristotelian doctrine of knowledge in the early thirteenth century challenged Augustine’s view and the question came up if, within the context of an Aristotelian...