Le Christ en ses mystères: La vie et l’oeuvre de jésus selon saint Thomas d’Aquin by Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Le Christ en ses mysteres: La vie et l'oeuvre de jesus selon saint Thomas d'Aquin. Tome 1. By JEAN-PIERRE TORRELL, 0.P. Paris: Desclee, 1999. Pp. liii + 351. 180F (paper). ISBN 2-7189-0950-1. Jean-Pierre Torrell's Le Christ en ses mysteres: La vie et !'oeuvre de jesus selon saint Thomas d'Aquin is a timely book. It is a close reading of questions 27 to 45 of the Tertia pars of St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae. A second volume covering questions 46 to 59 is promised. Torrell explicitly states that his task is not simply one of an historical recovery of Thomas's thought. He takes Thomas's work to be of service to theology today, and much of this fine book is an effort to suggest how. In doing so, Torrell appreciates some of the difficulties and challenges of contemporary theology, especially contemporary Roman Catholic theology, which seems to suffer from manifold fragmentation. Most pervasive and pernicious is the divide between the study of Scripture and systematic theology. Certainly this past century has seen a renewed interest in what is often called "biblical theology." With it has come a desire to bring Scripture more fully and richly to bear :m theological reflection, and, at the same time, to pursue those ways in which the rich theological tradition of the Church can inform a substantive-and faithful-reading of Scripture. Ifsuch has been the task, it has proven to be a difficult one indeed. This egregious instance of fragmentation is hardly the only one. The many sub-disciplines of theology seem to work in increasing isolation; sub-disciplines have spawned their own sub-disciplines. The dangers and privileges of specialization are ubiquitous. If such is, on the negative side, an unfortunate circumstance of our time, St. Thomas may well have something to contribute to our work. This Torrell argues, explicitly and implicitly, throughout his book. Torrell begins at question 27, for it is at this question that Thomas begins his consideration of the narrative of Christ's life. This first volume follows Thomas through the Transfiguration; the promised second volume will cover the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Torrell has focused on these questions not simply because they show Thomas engaging the scriptural text, but because in them Thomas engages directly the narratives of the Gospels. Throughout these pages, Torrell brings out how fully immersed in the Gospels Thomas is, and, perhaps surprising to many, how attentive he is to the 631 632 BOOK REVIEWS Synoptics. Over and over again, Torrell uses Thomas's commentary on Matthew, as well as the Catena aurea on the other Synoptics, to complement the reading of the Summa or, better, to show how the thinking in the Summa is nourished by the reading of the synoptic Gospels. Thomas's reading of the Gospels is not, however, a bare reading. Torrell brings out with striking clarity the depth of Thomas's study of the Fathers, both Latin and Greek. His reading of the Fathers is a docile one, in the literal sense of seeking to learn from them. Torrell shows the delicate ways in which Thomas brings together the reading of Scripture and the Fathers to come to a deeper understanding of the faith. (One is inclined to say that if Torrell presents Thomas as a model of the intelligent theological reading ofthe Fathers for his time, Torrell is himself a model for the intelligent theological reading of St. Thomas in our time.) Perhaps most striking is Torrell's sense of the whole. He never considers questions or sets of questions as free-standing treatises. No event in the life of Christ stands in isolation. A profound sense of unity pervades this part of the Summa as it does the Summa as a whole. We might note two strains of capital importance. The first is methodological. From the opening of the book, Torrell brings out the consistent use of arguments from fittingness. Even the superficial reader of the Tertia pars cannot help but be struck how often Thomas argues ex convenientia, rather than by strict deduction. Torrell brings out the methodological force of this kind of...