A Gift of Presence: The Theology and Poetry of the Eucharist in Thomas Aquinas by Jan-Heiner Tück (review)

The first English appearance of Gabe der Gegenwart: Theologie und Dichtung der Eucharistie bei Thomas von Aquin by Jan-Heiner Tück, a dogmatic theologian at the University of Vienna, gives Anglophone theologians a singular resource on Thomas Aquinas's Eucharistic theology. Originally published in German in 2009 and now in its third printing, this impressive work will appeal to a wide variety of scholars, including Thomists, sacramental theologians, liturgists, and even historians. Not only does it offer an excellent overview of Thomas's Eucharistic theology, but it may also be the most definitive English commentary on his Eucharistic hymns. Dr. Scott G. Hefelfinger, assistant professor of theology at the Augustine Institute, has done a considerable service to Thomistic research and scholarship by providing a readable yet eminently faithful translation of this work.

The work is divided into three main sections. Part A is entitled, "Systematic Reconstruction: The Eucharistic Theology of the Summa Theologiae." Part B considers "The Poetic Distillation of Eucharistic Theology in the Hymns." Third and finally, part C is called "Eucharistic Passages" and situates Thomas's writings in contemporary perspective. This review will briefly outline each of these three parts, concluding with some thoughts about the timely relevance of this work.

Tück uniquely challenges the critical charge against medieval and Scholastic Eucharistic theology, which holds that Thomas emphasized the somatic real presence of Christ and the words of consecration to the exclusion of other essential aspects, such as the soteriological and ecclesiological dimensions of the Eucharist. While Tück recognizes the validity to this claim, his book is an attempt to show that Thomas's Eucharistic theology needs to be understood within the whole of his doctrine of salvation history, sacraments, and soteriology—in a word, Thomas's doctrine of the Eucharist finds its deepest meaning within the Church. Thus, even though Thomas did not write a treatise De ecclesia, one can find elements of ecclesiology throughout the corpus of Thomas, and specifically in his theology on the Eucharist. I will highlight elements of Tück's challenge to this critique that appear in each of the sections of the book.

Part A demonstrates that Tück's work is both systematic and historical. It takes the reader through Thomas's Eucharistic theology and poetry in an orderly fashion, but orients his thought within the appropriate historical context. The introduction included in part A recognizes that Thomistic studies have recently been in decline, despite the prominence given to Thomas's works in theology by the magisterium. Tück sees his work as providing a faithful "re-reading" of Thomas (6). This "re-reading" particularly follows Thomas's "movement of thinking," and only after this "close textual reconstruction" can the "conversation with contemporary questions" be undertaken (9). Tück further places Thomas in dialogue with recent thinkers such as Johannes Betz, Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Joseph Ratzinger, among others, throughout his work, in the service of rediscovering the heart of Thomas's Eucharistic theology.

Tück's work focuses on a study of both Thomas's Eucharistic theology and his poetry. Such a study provides necessary distinctions between the science of theology and the art of praying to and with God. As such, the book shows "that the hymns can be read as a poetic distillation of the Eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas" (9). From the theological perspective, part A places Thomas's Eucharistic theology of tertia pars of the Summa theologiae in the context of the whole Summa. Tück does not narrow his focus to the tertia pars; rather, he gives the reader a thorough understanding of how Thomas's Eucharistic theology fits into the economy of salvation history, revealed in Thomas's works themselves. This background is necessary for understanding Thomas's emphasis on the somatic real presence of...