The Thomist Tradition by Brian J. Shanley, O.P.

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 157 The Thomist Tradition. By BRIAN]. SHANLEY, O.P. Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion 2. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002. Pp.236. $90.00 (cloth). ISBN 1-4020-0078-2. Interest in medieval philosophy has been markedly on the rise over the last twenty-five years. This can be seen not only in Catholic institutions of higher learning, but in journals, publishing houses, and university departments of a more secular character as well. The emergence of the philosophy of religion as a recognized field within non-Catholic philosophy has clearly contributed to this development. After falling into ill repute during the heyday of positivism, philosophical reflection on the existence of God, the nature of religious language, and the problem of evil now enjoys acceptance within the corridors of the Anglo-American academy. While the proximate roots of this return to respectability lie chiefly in the impact of contemporary thinkers such as Wittgenstein and Heidegger, it was inevitable that the thought of the Scholastics would also benefit, given their very ample and technical treatment of issues relating to God, man, and the world. Despite the obvious affinities between the set of topics now covered under the rubric of "philosophy of religion" and the religious questioning of the medieval Scholastics, the interface of these two approaches is not without its difficulties. For one thing, the new discipline side-steps the methodological distinction, so important within Scholasticism, between philosophy and theology. Likewise, some themes essential to the contemporary treatment-for example, religious pluralism-seem prima facie to be alien to the unitary faithpe !."spective of the Christian Schoolmen. Nevertheless, the benefits to be culled from a dialogue between the two discourses, contemporary and medieval, make it imperative to face the attendant challenges head on. Written as the second volume in a new "handbook" series on the philosophy ofreligion, The Thomist Tradition represents a serious attempt at promoting this sort of dialogue. The book is not intended to be an historical reconstruction of Aquinas's own teaching on "natural" religion (with a focus on religio and associated virtues in Summa theologiae 11-11, qq. 81-122). Nor does it aim at comparing influential contemporary projects in the philosophy of religion (as elaborated, e.g., by R. Swinburne or J. Hick) to work within Thomism. Rather, following an order of exposition that mirrors the standard topics in contemporary philosophy of religion, the author aims to show how the twentieth-centuryexponents ofa key medieval thinker-ThomasAquinas-have grappled fruitfully with all of the major issues in the new field. The idea, in sum, is to indicate how the Thomist tradition can serve as a valuable dialogue partner for contemporary research in the philosophy of religion. At this the book succeeds quite well. The level of discussion is sufficiently detailed that it conveys new insight to those who already philosophize from within Thomism, yet by shunning unnecessary jargon and pausing to explain key terms the book remains accessible to outsiders. 158 BOOK REVIEWS The story begins with Pope Leo XIII's encyclicalAeterni Patris (1879), which set the stage for a vigorous revival of Thomism in the next century. This influential text exhibited a basic ambivalence toward modernity. While heartily praising the genuine progress in human knowledge that had been achieved during this period (especially by the natural sciences), the pope nevertheless was quite critical of modern philosophy, which he deemed to be tainted by subjectivism and agnosticism. The encyclical accordingly gave rise to two different appropriations-conservative and progressive--of Aquinas's thought in the century that followed. The conservative strand viewed Thomism as an urgently needed corrective to the Cartesian and Kantian errors of modern thought. Its proponents thereby sought to maintain Thomism in its state of original purity, all the while promoting it as a sapiential framework from which to integrate the advances ofmodern science. The progressive strand, by contrast, was convinced that modern philosophy contained valuable insights that, once freed from their admixture of error and by dint of being creatively joined to Thomistic principles, would result in a revitalized Catholic philosophy. These two very different reactionsto modernity demonstrate howtwentiethcentury Thomism was anything but a monolithic doctrine. An initial glimpse of its diversity...