Thomas Aquinas on the Jews: Insights into His Commentary on Romans 9–11 by Steven C. Boguslawski, O.P. (review)

676 BOOK REVIEWS regards contraception as immoral, is based upon sacred Scripture and the tradition of the Fathers and is taught by the papal Magisterium. Not only did Humanae Vitae reaffirm the Church's teaching in this matter; Paul VI, in that encyclical, made several prophecies which have turned out to be true, namely, that contraception leads to abortion and other dire consequences. Haas concludes with the potential moral problems associated with collaborating with doctors and other hospitals who do not adhere to this teaching of the natural law. Finally, Cataldo and T. Murphy Goodwin have masterfully shown in "Early Induction of Labor" that, given abnormal pregnancies or anomalies of the fetus when the mother and child are singly or together in danger of death, the use of early induction of labor has to be based upon the premise that "human beings should live to the natural terminus of life" (118). They weave together a series of conclusions that at first seem counterintuitive because abortion is never an option in Catholic health care. Many future studies of both revisionist bioethicists and those who uphold the Magisterium will have to reckon with the problems, insights and challenges offered in this manual. It should be at hand for every bioethical committee in Catholic hospitals-if not the major secular hospitals as well, so that the committee members may understand Catholic viewpoints when confronting issues of a Catholic patient. One would assume that by now it is on all the bishops' desks as well. Dominican House ofStudies Washington, D.C. BASIL COLE, 0.P. Thomas Aquinas on theJews: Insights into His Commentary on Romans 9-11. By STEVEN C. BOGUSLAWSKI, 0.P. Mahwah, N.].: Paulist Press, 2008. Pp. 145. $18.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8091-4233-0. In Thomas Aquinas on the Jews, Steven Boguslawski has made an important scholarly contribution, with a number of far-reaching implications. Boguslawski writes at the convergence of two fields. First, Christian reflection upon Judaism has occurred in a renewed way in the late twentieth-century, with scholars continuing to look for ways to respond to the anti-Judaism that has often been present in Christian teaching and practice. Boguslawski takes up this work via the study of St. Thomas Aquinas, also an area of study enjoying new enthusiasm in many quarters. In undertaking such a work, with a focus especially on Aquinas's Commentary on Romans, this book is unique. BOOK REVIEWS 677 This is not to say that Boguslawski is the first to treat Aquinas on the Jews. The work of Jeremy Cohen (beginning with The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution ofAnti-Judaism and continuing with Living Letters ofthe Law: Ideas oftheJew in Medieval Christianity) addresses the issue with force. Cohen situates Aquinas in his historical context, and insists that Aquinas's thought must be understood as a part of a larger movement in the thirteenth century, a movement exemplified above all in the "Talmud controversies" and facilitated especially by certain Dominicans, which instigated a change from relative tolerance to active persecution of Jews. In arguing for this claim, Cohen notes several features of Aquinas's thought, one of the most important of which is Aquinas's statement, in his Summa Theologiae, that observance of the ceremonial law constitutes mortal sin. Put simply, this is Aquinas's apparent claim that those parts of the Law whose observance Christians now forgo-but which are seen as obligatory by Jews-actually bring about spiritual death. Although Cohen's work on Aquinas has been criticized, he points here to a feature of Aquinas' thought that cannot be overlooked. Indeed, concern regarding this claim has been highlighted also by the wellknown Jewish thinker Michael Wyschogrod. Wyschogrod, in fact, notes explicitly that this is not only a matter for historical study, since Aquinas's claim has immediate and negative implications for Jewish-Christian interaction. John Hood, whose Aquinas on the Jews was published between Cohen's first and second volumes, adopts a more modest thesis. According to Hood, even given this difficult claim concerning the ceremonial law, Aquinas is completely conventional regarding the Jews. In the main, he simply reiterates traditional (primarily Augustinian) teaching, which is inherently ambiguous...