Thomas Aquinas theologian

Abstract

Thomas Aquinas Theologian. By Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P. Notre Dame, IN and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. vi + 302 pp. $36.00 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). In this book Thomas O'Meara seeks to redress centuries-old error of over-emphasizing Aquinas's philosophy at expense of his theological concern with life in order of grace. The author's goal is to rehabilitate St. Thomas as a theologian who used best knowledge of his time to express his faith, rather than being a metaphysician who only used Bible to illustrate his philosophy. The opening chapter on life and career of Aquinas helpfully leads reader to an understanding of both man and his time. The nature and intention of scholasticism are sympathetically and helpfully presented. Throughout book author insightfully opens religious intentions of St. Thomas to concerns of our world. Stressing Aquinas's theology rather than his philosophy, O'Meara focuses primarily on Summa theologiae, written in last ten years of Aquinas's life. In his theological exposition, Aquinas drew heavily from John of Damascus, Augustine, Plato, Aristotle, and Gospels of Luke and John. He was first thirteenth-century scholastic to quote from Chalcedon. Although using best thought of his day to express his faith, central theme of Aquinas's thought was always life in order of grace. In our day Aquinas is often represented, and consequently misunderstood, as an essentialist. O'Meara rightly stresses radical primacy of existential act in Aquinas's understanding of God and human life. God is always God-in-act, and activity of God pervades Summa. O'Meara sees flow of Summa as the vast roiling activity of God pouring forth within life of Trinity which then acts outward, setting forth a universe of natures, human life, incarnation in Jesus Christ, and sacraments of grace CP 87). God, whose sovereign power produces other beings, is both source and destiny of universe. The goal of Christian living is happiness, and happiness, an activity, is attained only through action. God's life is joyful, and that life is our end. God is active in every created act by sustaining it in being, but, in addition to such presence, he calls human beings to a richer mode of existence in grace, where we live with God as his friends and members of his family. The author sees predestination in Aquinas's thought as God's predestining us to a higher, supernatural order of life rather than a predetermination of what we will do and what will happen to us. In incarnation, divine Word uses Jesus as Word's human agent-an instance of instrumental causation in action of God. Ministers of church are also instrumental causes, moved through their free wills by command and presence of Jesus. St. Thomas died before treating sacrament of Orders in Summa; he did not discuss possibility of women being ordained, but what he did write about role of women showed him to be a man of his time greatly influenced by Old Testament. …