The Theology of Thomas Aquinas ed. by Rik van Nieuwenhove and Joseph Wawrykow (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Theology ofThomas Aquinas. Edited by RIKVAi'\TNIEUWENHOVE and JOSEPH WAWRYKOW. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. Pp. 472 $37.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-268-04363-9. As seen from the Old World, Anglo-Saxon studies on St. Thomas Aquinas, which at present seem to be flourishing, are developing according to two major lines whose convergence appears at the same time problematic. Primo, there is "analytical Thomism," which essentially focuses on the letter of Thomistic texts in order to extract from them a rational argumentation capable of being utilized in contemporary debates on philosophy of religion. Although this way of reading Thomas is generally decontextualized and dehistoricized, it has the merit of rendering a certain philosophical actuality to these venerable texts. However, in neglecting their theological context and their historical depth, it runs the risk of lacking a profound intelligibility. Above all, in accommodating St. Thomas to the contemporary mode of doing philosophy, it neutralizes the formidable power of debate and innovation which the medieval mode of thinking currently holds. Secundo, there is another current that is very critical in the face of the presuppositions of neo-Thomism (of which analytical Thomism is in some ways a metamorphosis) that seeks to return the Thomistic corpus to its (super)natural place, which is theology, not only from a kind of archeological concern for historical exactitude but also to highlight the pertinence of St. Thomas to the contemporary theological debate. This wonderful work offered to us by Rik van Nieuwenhove and Joseph Wawrykow constitutes a sort of assessment and a manifesto in actu exercito of this Thomism re-theologized. The eighteen essays that make up this work were confided to well-known specialists of Thomistic thought, several of whom here offer us the heart of their work. Many of these authors are connected with two particularly vibrant centers of contemporary Thomism: the University ofNotre Dame (Burrell, Porter, Priigl, Wawrykow) and the Thomas Institute of Utrecht in the Netherlands (Goris, Leget, Rikhof, te Velde). The essays can be divided into two groups. Following more or less the plan of the Summa Theologiae itself, chapters 2-15 present St. Thomas's teaching on the principal topics of theology, from the foundational mystery of the Trinity to eschatology. Chapters 16-18, as well as chapter 1, investigate the nature of the Thomistic project itself and the conditions of its actualization. 457 458 BOOK REVIEWS Chapters 2-15 have a pronounced family resemblance that greatly contributes to the unity of the work. Here I would like to point out four principal characteristics. Primo, the authors adopt a "historical-theological approach" (xx), with the result that the teaching of St. Thomas is seen in continuity with biblical and patristic thought, as well as within the horizon of medieval theology. Secundo, much is made of the internal unity of Thomistic thought as it is reflected in literary structures. Thus, the authors often make reference to the plan of the Summa Theologiae, both to situate the topic that they are treating within the entire theological vision of Thomas and to expose its main points. They also know how to exploit the connections between the various parts ofthe Summa. For example, Wawrykow judiciously throws light on St. Thomas's teaching on grace in the Prima Secundae with his reflections on predestination in the Prima Pars and the grace of Christ in the Tertia Pars (chap. 9). Tertio, the emphasis laid on the synchronic coherence of the great works of Aquinas goes hand in hand with the taking into account of certain diachronic evolutions in his thought. Thus, Wawrykow demonstrates well the determinative influence that renewed readings of the anti-Pelagian works of St. Augustine had upon the Thomistic theology of grace, much different in the Scriptum and in the Summa Theologiae (see 206-9), or else the impact that a deeper reading of the Greek Fathers had on Aquinas's mature Christology (see 237, 389). Quarto, the authors refuse, and rightly so, "to bend Aquinas to the demands of the modern or postmodern scholarly agenda" (xx), but they do not hesitate to place Thomas's teaching in relation to contemporary theology and its issues. Sometimes...