De Actibus Humanis: In I–II Summae Theologiae Divi Thomae Expositio by James M. Ramírez (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 175 The editor, Father Rodriguez, is to be congratulated on a work which besides being attractively printed and conveniently edited, contains an index of names, a lengthy analytic index of the contents and, most Important , an index of the texts of St. Thomas cited and commented on. University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana RALPH MciNERNY De Actibus Humanis: In I-II Summae Theologiae Divi Thomae Expositio. By JAMES M, RAMiREZ. Madrid: Instituto de Filosofia " Luis Vives," 197Q. Pp. 64Q. This fourth volume in Ramirez' Opera Omnia is a commentary on Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, I-II, qq. 6 - Ql. The contents and their ordering are roughly determined by the Summa topics; the form of presentation (long prenotes, definitions, outlines, syllogistic argumentation, precisely logical replies to possible objections) is quite different from that employed by Thomas in the Summa. Those unfamiliar with Aquinas often find him too orderly, almost cold, when they first read him; Ramirez's terribly precise work makes one appreciate the pleasantly fluid movement of Aquinas. The serious student of Thomas will be greatly helped by turning to Ramirez, but he will soon find himself anxious to return to Thomas. The Catholic moral theologian should be interested in any commentary on I-II, qq. 18- 21; he will want to learn how Thomas handled the circumstances of the situation, the consequences of the action, and the intention of the moral agent within the framework of what has come to be known as an "objective morality." The "prudence" of Thomas's Summa invites an input from many sources other than the " moral object of the action " : the contemporary moralist, faced with the popular emphasis on moral circumstances and/or a calculus of consequences and/or the moral quality of the agent's intention, searches for a way to be honestly faithful to these contemporary emphases as well as to the traditional emphasis on the moral object of a human action. A first glance at Ramirez will disappoint this searching moralist; a second, and longer, glance should be rewarding. Unlike so many recent publications , Ramirez makes no attempt to dialogue with the contemporary scene. His statement (one cannot truthfully call it a dialogue) is an attempt to understand Aquinas, all the while taking note of other similar attempts from the centuries which separate Ramirez from Aquinas. One can become totally frustrated by the cascade of outlines rehearsed before almost every 176 BOOK REVIEWS Question; nevertheless, it becomes clear that one's interpretation of Aquinas will be influenced by one's outline of Aquinas's articles. Ramirez reports the schemata proposed by other commentators and briefly argues about their appropriateness; the reader is thereby led to appreciate the sublety and underlying integrity of Aquinas's work. Similarly, seemingly endless discussions of definitions and divisions of terms prove helpful in understanding Aquinas. Uneven attempts (" uneven " because some attempts are far more persistent and fruitful than others) are made to recover the intellectual milieu of Aquinas, thereby helping the reader understand the significance of his teaching. (Especially valuable is the history included in Ramirez's discussion of the nature and source of morality. Like today's Catholic moral theologian, Aquinas had to concern himself with a seriously proposed moral. positivism.) Again, the refinements of definitions and divisions proposed since Aquinas are instructive in coming to understand him and to appreciate the intellectual originality of each commentator. Finally, the least useful part of Ramirez's work is the syllogistic arguments ; these complete the Scholastic mode but seem especially jarring vis-a-vis the more gentle argumentation of the Summa. The syllogism, so presented, always threatens to " prove " more than can be proved, or at least suggests greater rational certitude and logical completeness than one likes to associate with the mystery of· man's return to God; here especially is the Summa more attuned to today's theologian. Ramirez does not limit himself to these few questions of the Summa in his commentary. He draws upon other sections of the Summa to complement and understand these few questions; he looks to AquinM's other works to indicate growth in the Doctor's teaching. Even within the context of this single volume there...