Christ and Spirituality in St. Thomas Aquinas

9. St. Thomas, Spiritual Master

174 9 St.Thomas, Spiritual Master It is hard for a writer to talk about his book without talking about himself. This is true generally, but even more so when it comes to my book Saint Thomas Aquinas, Spiritual Master.1 Having read it, a colleague of mine told me that one could sense that I was much more personally involved in it than in my first volume, Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Person and His Work. I can only agree with this statement . This book was an attempt to answer a question that has been with me since my novitiate: Can the exercise of the intellect be placed at the service of the religious life? More precisely, perhaps, and at the same time more broadly: can the practice of theology further the holiness of the theologian? This question, quite personal , as I realized later, made me rediscover Thomas’s own statements in his defense of the religious orders confronted by the secular (diocesan ) professors of the thirteenth century. In the words of William of Tocco, his biographer, it was a matter of showing that salvation could be achieved in a religious order wholly dedicated to the studium contemplationis. --1 . Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 2, Spiritual Master; original text: Saint Thomas d’Aquin, Maître Spirituel, Initiation 2, 2nd ed. (Paris: Cerf, 2002). Spiritual Master 175 The title that you are familiar with, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Spiritual Master, is not the one I had thought of in the beginning. Somewhat inexact and too ambitious for my taste, it was chosen for commercial reasons; I would have preferred “Spiritual Themes,” which better suited my goal. With the idea that spirituality is not something simply added on to theology—like the pious corollaries or afterthoughts in modern spiritual manuals—but is really an integral dimension of theology, something that springs from its very exercise, I consequently wanted to delve into certain intuitions characteristic of Thomas. First, I naturally wanted to call to mind their pure and simple theological intent, but in such a way as to show where they lead us spiritually. Naturally it was impossible to speak of these themes without producing an overview of Thomas’s construction, but I did not seek to reconstruct, more or less artificially, a spiritual theology that Thomas himself did not leave us. It is in this sense that the term “spiritual master” is a bit too strong in characterizing what I wanted to do, but it remains true that the exercise of theology in his school allows us to acquire a certain number of basic philosophical and theological positions by which we arrive at a certain way of perceiving God and the world, and by which we develop a certain spiritual attitude—an attitude that a modern historian could qualify as a mindset, which seems to me to correspond rather well with what we also call “spirituality.” --Regarding the understanding of theology that underpins my approach , there is no need to linger over it at this time. But we need at least to be aware that it falls within the realm of Thomas’s sacra doctrina, which itself largely appropriates St. Augustine’s inspiration : “I wanted to see with the intellect what I held by faith” (De Trinitate XV, ch. 28, no. 51), and that of St. Anselm: “I want to understand your truth at least a little, your truth, which my heart believes and loves” (Proslogion I). St. Thomas will define this more technically when speaking of theology’s subordination by faith to God’s knowledge and that of the saints in heaven. The result is that with 176 Spiritual Master him, as with his predecessors, the theologian’s effort falls entirely under this light, and that his learning takes place on the trajectory that proceeds from the darkness of faith to the full daylight of the beatific vision. Here, Thomas is crystal clear: “The ultimate end of this doctrina is the contemplation of the first truth in our homeland ” (Sent. I, prologus, a. 3, qla. 1; cf. ad 1). We must never lose sight of this contemplative aim, even in the most technical aspects of research. This aim alone can explain why, as the theologian moves closer to the core of his subject, the undertaking becomes more demanding , and the properly religious character of his work grows. If Thomas never felt the need to articulate a spirituality in addition to...