“Modus et Forma”: A New Approach to the Exegesis of Saint Thomas Aquinas with an Application to the “Lectura super Epistolam ad Ephesios” by Christopher T. Baglow (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 499 form of ignorance. In his treatment of this issue and elsewhere Gondreau parts way with Aquinas in that, following a number of contemporary authors, he prefers not to admit the presence of the beatific vision and the scientia infusa in Christ. However, a rejection creates serious difficulties. If one ascribes the fullness of grace and virtue to Christ, why not the fullness of knowledge, as Colossians 2:3 suggests Jesus possesses? I conclude with some minor points. I wonder whether Goodreau does not too easily speak of "sources" of Aquinas's doctrine. The presence of a parallel text in an earlier author, known to Aquinas, does not necessarily mean that it is a source of his doctrine. Another difficulty a reader may experience is that, at least in the first part of the book, Gondreau does not sufficiently keep apart the passibility of Jesus and the emotions of the sensitive appetite, called passions. Physical suffering and pain do not come under the latter but are the loss of a natural disposition. Goodreau himself writes that the notion of passions as defects is virtually absent from the treatise of emotions in general (in the Prima Secundae) (220). Doesthis not imply that we should sharply distinguish between these two senses of the term "passion" when dealing with Christ's passibility and emotions? Institute ofTheology "Rolduc" Kerkrade, The Netherlands LEO J. ELDERS, S.V.D. "Modus et Forma": A New Approach to the Exegesis of Saint Thomas Aquinas with an Application to the "Lectura super Epistolam ad Ephesios." By CHRISTOPHERT. BAGLOW. Analecta Biblica 149. Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2002. Pp.290. $18.00 (paper). ISBN 88-7653-149-1. ChristopherBaglow's "Modus etForma" posits two admirable methodological norms for scholars interested in mining Thomas's biblical commentaries (and, indeed, any of the medieval scriptural commentaries): namely, "a) that a truly systematic and comprehensive approach to Thomas' biblical commentaries is necessary for a fruitful encounter with his biblical corpus, and b) that such an approach must be united to the analysis of his actual practice as an exegete" (17). These two "fundamental assertions" provide the structure for Baglow's work. Part 1 aims at a "truly systematic and comprehensive approach" by examining standard methods of inquiry into Thomas's exegesis (19-22); the nonnarrative suitability for theological or moral exposition demonstrated in the Lectura super Iohannem, Lectura super Epistolas Pauli Apostoli, and the Expositio super lob as supported by Aquinas's "... envisioning biblical authorship as focused not on narrative primarily, but rather on meaning transmitted by concepts" (36); the 500 BOOK REVIEWS relationship between sacra scriptura and sacra doctrina by which Thomas "doctrinalizes scripture ... [and draws] the narrative and historical parts of the Bible into a unity with the parts which are more expository" (44); Aquinas's hermeneutical approach which is the literal sense of the text, ". . . Thomas' major preoccupation as an exegete, ... on which his theory of interpretation focuses" (45); the status quaestionis and appraisal of Thomas's hermeneutics through A. A. Torrance's (55) and 0. H. Pesch's (73) critique ofhis "Aristotelian schematization" of Scripture, as well as C. Clifton Black's negative appraisal (e.g., of Thomas's homogenizing exegesis, "constructive" development of the literal sense [62, 65-66]). Chapter 3 attempts to forge a template (89-112) through a detailed "Genre-Identification Approach" to "formulate a comprehensive approach for the benefit ofthose who would attempt to consider other Thomistic biblical commentaries." Baglow's proposal has three principal subdivisions: pre-analysis (textual pre-analysis, Thomas's exegetical framework, and auctoritates [93-100]), Thomas's analysis of the parts of the text (minor divisions, words and phrases, interpretive conclusions, use of auctoritates [100110 ]) and summative overall evaluation (similarities/differences from Thomas's otherworks, lectura, expositio, postilla as theological models, miscellaneous data [110-12]). In part 2 Baglow applies-although not exhaustively-the GenreIdentification Approach to Thomas' Lectura Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, namely: pre-Analysis (115-38), Thomas's analysis of select texts from Ephesians (139-231), and the overall evaluation of the Ephesians Lectura and its potential contribution to contemporary theology (233-75) guided by the architectonic theme de institutione ecclesiasticae unitatis. Thomas provides this theme in...