Summa Theologiae Research Articles

What Happened to Joy? A Metastructural Examination of Joy in the Summa theologiae

Abstract: In Question 31 of the Summa theologiae, Prima secundae , Aquinas puts forward a distinction between bodily pleasure and joy, then argues for the superiority of the latter over the former. Given this, the reader expects an analysis of joy to follow, yet Aquinas does not devote a single question to its examination in his treatment of the passions. Indeed, scholars have long puzzled over Aquinas’s choice to instead focus the majority of his treatment on bodily pleasure. I contend that a close examination of questions 31–39 reveals the fittingness of Aquinas’s treatment of joy in his section on the passions. I argue that his careful usage of joy can be seen as an intentional didactic strategy that points the reader beyond the passions and towards the fruits of the Holy Spirit that spring from infused virtue. By causing the reader to hope for an examination of true joy in questions 31–39 of the Prima secundae , and subsequently delaying any examination of joy until question 28 of the Secunda secundae , Aquinas points to the subordination, though not the denigration, of the bodily passions and acquired virtues to the supernatural end of man.

Nicholas of Cusa’s Idea of a “Just War”

Although Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) does not explicitly speak about “just war” in his writings, the third book of his most important political work, The Catholic Concordance (De Concordantia Catholica), contains several text passages on feuds that reveal his idea of a “just war.” As a doctor of canon law, Cusanus rejected all kinds of feuds which often led to private wars among nobles. He saw the rampant feuds as a major reason for the decline and destabilization of the Holy Roman Empire. His idea of a “just war” is influenced primarily by many canonistic and moral-theological writings, especially the ideas of Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae. For Nicholas of Cusa war and violence are only justified under certain circumstances: if they are authorized by the emperor as supreme ruler or by the imperial courts, when there is a just cause, such as defence against external and internal enemies, and when they are done with the right intention, such as the restoration of peace.

Hugo Grotius on exchange and price

This paper explores the way Grotius's construction of a theory of acts which aimed at dealing with legal issues, in the chapter on contracts in a book from De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625) where the causes of the birth of war are discussed (bk II), gave birth to an original understanding of exchange and price. The latter is part of a more extended economic analysis which, at the difference of economic policy aspects, has been paid till now little attention. Yet, Grotius' conception of exchange and price occupies an interesting position between the scholastic analysis where price was compared to a norm of just price and the later articulation, in classical economic thought, between typically natural prices and market prices. In a way, his conception of price might be viewed as a continuation of the Scholastic approach, illustrated two centuries and a half ago by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 77, where the issues debated aim to enlighten the priest about the morality of a transaction carried out by such of his parishioners. But here, with Grotius, the issue is no longer the morality or sinfulness of the transaction, but its lawfulness. This shift from a religious to a legal approach gives birth to an attempt to explain why individuals can deviate from a commonly accepted price in an exchange, and under what conditions, in the framework of either natural law or the law of nations, this effective price can be regarded as legal by a magistrate.

An argument of Aquinas on God’s will mutability

I analyze an argument by Aquinas on God’s will mutability (Summa Theologica), which presupposes the collective predication on the term ‘man’. This explains why God repents of having made the collection of men, but not some men. The argument is valid, but its second premise and its conclusion are false.

Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period by Reginald M. Lynch, O.P. (review)

Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period by Reginald M. Lynch, O.P. (review)

Sejarah Sakramen Penguatan dan Teologi Sakramen Penguatan menurut Thomas Aquinas

As one of the sacraments of initiation in the Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Confirmation has an important spiritual element for the salvific work of Christians. The role of the third person of God, the Holy Spirit, often appears in the liturgy of this sacrament. This sacrament has a physical sign in the form of anointing oil that has a deep meaning from its historical, biblical and theological background. The theology of the sacrament of chrismation developed with one of them being elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologiae. In Summa Theologiae, there are several basic theological concepts of this sacrament of confirmation. From this history and theology, the sacrament of chrismation has a meaning that brings Christians to maturity in faith.

A Study of 'Sin' and 'Evil' Concerning 'Demons' in Chaoxingxueyao--A Comparison with the Chinese Version of Summa Theologica

<p>明清來華的耶穌會士利類思（Lodovico Buglio, 1606-1682），將聖多瑪斯‧阿奎那（St. Thomas Aquinas，1225－1274）神學鉅著《神學大全》（Summa Theologica）之部分內容，譯述以成《超性學要》一書。近代學者以拉丁文為主、多國語言（德、法、西、義、英）為輔，遵照原有編排體例，完成《神學大全》套書。觀察此部中文版《神學大全》，既對《超性學要》文句有所遵循，又對原典經義進行更多的內容譯述。因此針對兩書相同單元對比參看，既能呈現不同時代的阿奎那學理思想之譯述樣貌，又屬阿奎那神哲學思想之雙重解讀。本文藉由《超性學要》《神學大全》兩書論魔鬼與人罪與惡內容，比較用語文句及概念表現之異同，詮釋不同時代的教義傳達，呈顯阿奎那的哲理精神，作為魔鬼系列研究之延續。再者，藉由中西惡之比較，分析中西文化衝突交融下的傳教策略與文本譯述現象。</p> <p> </p><p>dynasties, Jesuit Lodovico Buglio brought St. Thomas Aquinas’ monumental work, Summa Theologica, to China, translating parts into Chaoxingxueyao. Modern scholars predominantly rely on Latin texts and utilize multiple languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian, English) to complete the Summa Theologica according to the original orchestration. Examining the Chinese version of Summa Theologica, one can find abundant references to the Chaoxingxueyao translation. Comparing corresponding chapters in both books reveals the evolution of Aquinas’ theories through different eras and offers a dual foundation for interpreting his theological thoughts. This paper compares the written texts of the devil and human sin in Chaoxingxueyao and Summa Theologica. The author aims to unveil Aquinas’ philosophical reflections on the devil and human evil by analyzing language usage, sentence structures, and topics, thereby contributing to the comprehensive study of devil-related themes. Additionally, by conducting a comparative analysis of the depictions of devils in Chinese and Western cultures, it is hoped to shed light on the missionary strategies and the phenomenon of text translation in the context of Chinese and Western cultural integration.</p> <p> </p>

Aquinas on Separated Souls’ Natural Cognition

Abstract The debate concerning whether Aquinas changed his view on the perfection of the separated soul’s natural cognition, i.e., the cognition not elevated by God’s supernatural grace, remains to be settled. Anton Pegis has argued that according to Aquinas’s earlier view, a separated soul ‘will function perfectly as a separate substance’. However, according to Aquinas’s mature view, it ‘does not have the intellectual power to function properly as a separate substance’, so Aquinas changed his view. In contrast, John Wippel has denied that Pegis showed any radical change in Aquinas’s works on this issue. In this paper, I intend to advance this debate by arguing that, in his Commentary on Sentences IV (1252–56) d. 49, q. 1, a. 4, qc1, Aquinas expounded a view on the perfection of the separated soul’s natural cognition that is incompatible with his view in Summa Theologiae I (1265–68), q. 89, a. 1, co. I will also identify two markedly different views on the implication of the human soul-body union for the perfection of the separated soul’s cognition in these two texts. I contend that the incompatibility between the views in these two texts suggests that Aquinas changed his view.

The Virtue of Humility: Interpreting the Summa Theologiae’s ‘Minimalist Approach’

Abstract This paper argues, in response to scholarly criticism, that Thomas Aquinas’s account of the virtue of humility in the Summa Theologiae does not undermine the importance of humility in the Christian moral life. While the Summa’s classification of humility as a ‘potential part’ of temperance, which results from Thomas’s reliance on classical sources, has been blamed for this work’s perceived belittling of humility, an understanding of the Summa’s overall scope and Aquinas’s system of organizing virtues therein helps demonstrate that this categorization does not imply a lesser significance of humility either than other virtues in the Summa or than humility as treated in his Bible commentaries. Furthermore, even if the Summa’s structure creates limited space for an extensive discourse on humility, the establishment of humility’s reciprocity with magnanimity and absolute contradiction of pride leave no doubts as to the magnitude of this virtue. Thus, the ‘humble’ portrayal of humility in the Summa not only adequately but aptly expresses this uniquely Christian virtue, capturing the way it disposes human beings to ‘creaturely’ reverence before the Creator, and invites a more holistic understanding of Aquinas’s virtue ranking in the Secunda Secundae.

Lauda Sion as Doxological Compendium of St. Thomas’s Eucharistic Theology

AbstractIn 1264 in the town of Orvieto, St. Thomas Aquinas composed the Lauda Sion as the Mass sequence for Pope Urban IV’s new universal solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the feast of Corpus Christi. The present paper will consider this text of St. Thomas’s liturgical sequence in relation to the eucharistic theology that he teaches in the Summa Theologiae. Just as, according to the Dionysian Aquinas, the Psalms contain all the doctrines revealed in the rest of scripture but transposed into the highest literary genre of praise, so the Lauda Sion contains all the essential eucharistic doctrines of the Summa Theologiae, now set in that same laudatory genre as the Psalter. The paper is divided into ten sections, corresponding to the questions in St. Thomas’s treatment of the Holy Eucharist in the Tertia Pars. Proceeding one topic at a time, this paper will show how the Lauda Sion serves as a doxological compendium of St. Thomas Aquinas’s whole eucharistic theology.

Eternal law in the thought of Thomas Aquinas

ABSTRACT This paper is a slightly modified version of the keynote lecture given at the 2023 annual conference of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain. The theme of the conference was the role of law in the Christian life. The paper opened the conference by following the theological lead of the Common Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas, who treats theology as about God and all things, including law, in relation to God. In particular the paper looks at Aquinas’s understanding in the Summa Theologiae of God as the eternal law. It examines how the eternal law meets Aquinas’s criteria for what counts as a law, and links eternal law to other law, such as natural law, as well as to the doctrines of the Trinity, providence, the beatific vision, and Christology.

Presença de São Tomás de Aquino na construção da narrativa medieval sobre o dinheiro

ABSTRACT As a reverse effect of constraining interpretation and limiting itself to the moral ordering of commerce defended by Aquinas, the Summa Theologica both motivated the enrichment of the Christian imaginary in narratives like Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Geoffrey Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales. In the case of the Divine Comedy, it expanded the reflection on the categories of sinners related to money, and as regards The Canterbury Tales, it provided support for the construction of anti-models in some of the framed narrative types of misers, simoniacs, and fraudsters. This article aims to present Aquinas’ instructions regarding the uses of money, juxtaposing, at times, with literary texts. For this purpose, biblical passages, commentators of the Catholic tradition Bible, and texts from economists are brought in as the Summa Theologica is analyzed. Theoretical thinkers of Christian thought, such as Augustine and Boethius, and economic thought, such as Molina and Robbins, have been used.

The Christ Who Meets Us in the Sacraments: The Influence of St. Ambrose on the tertia pars of St. Thomas's Summa theologiae

The Christ Who Meets Us in the Sacraments: The Influence of St. Ambrose on the tertia pars of St. Thomas's Summa theologiae

Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period by Reginald Lynch, O.P (review)

Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period by Reginald Lynch, O.P (review)

A Tree of Lies: Approaches to Mendacity in Part One of the Conde Lucanor ( Exemplo 26 and Other Tales)

Abstract: This article first considers precedents and contexts for understanding tale 26 in Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor , "De lo que contesçió al árvol de la mentira," including one that has gone unnoticed by critics: the figure of a tree of lies in John of Capua's thirteenth-century Directorium humanae vitae . It then shows how Patronio's general view of mendacity in Part One of the collection, as exemplified by tale 26, can be compared to the account of and prohibition against lying found in works by Augustine that informed Thomas Aquinas's treatment of mendacity in the Summa Theologica . I go on to demonstrate how a number of other tales in the Conde Lucanor advocate an alternative, more permissible approach to telling untruths that was to some extent anticipated in writings of the early Church, and that corresponds with politicized, utilitarian views emerging later in the Middle Ages, as seen in John of Salisbury's Policratus .

The Intentio of Pastness in Aquinas's Theory of Memory

AbstractIn the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas states that the “aspect of pastness” involved in memory is a certain kind of cognitive object — i.e., an intention — apprehended by the “estimative power.” All told, however, Aquinas mentions this idea precisely once. In this article, I construct an account of the idea that pastness is an estimative intention by drawing upon texts in which I argue that Aquinas develops this idea, albeit without invoking the terminology of the estimative intention. I conclude that, by identifying the aspect of pastness as an estimative intention, Aquinas neatly synthesizes the Aristotelian and Arabic traditions on memory.

The Cross at the Center of the Mystical Body

AbstractThis essay argues the image of the ‘Mystical Body’ or ‘Body of Christ’ is fully intelligible only in light of the Cross. The Body of Christ is a cruciform Body. As the Body of Christ crucified and risen, it is presently being configured to Christ in the world through self-sacrificial love. The essay traces the place of the Cross in some representative twentieth-century Catholic theologies of the Mystical Body, in light of the perspective of Thomas Aquinas. I first survey four theologians from the first half of the century who, in their understandings of the Mystical Body, gave a place to the Cross: Emile Mersch, Fulton Sheen, Charles Journet, and Pius Pasch. Here I also examine Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mystici Corporis. Second, I explore the approach of some notable Thomistic theologians or interpreters of Aquinas from the early 1960s onward: Jerome Hamer, M. J. Le Guillou, George Sabra, Jean-Pierre Torrell, and Herwi Rikhof. In this section, I also examine Vatican II's Lumen Gentium. My third and final section treats Aquinas himself, in order to reflect upon the place of the Cross in his understanding of the Mystical Body, as found in his biblical commentaries and the Summa theologiae.

Aquinas on the Nature of Lying

AbstractAquinas's views about the morality of lying are well known and often discussed by commentators. But his views about the nature of lying have yet to receive the attention they deserve. In this article, I take some of the first steps necessary to correct this state of affairs by clarifying and offering a limited defense of the account of lying that Aquinas presents in in his Summa Theologiae—more specifically, in that portion of it known as the treatise on truth (Part 2-2, Questions 109–113).

Lidia Lanza and Marco Toste (eds.). Summistae: The Commentary Tradition on Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae from the 15th to the 17th Centuries (Leuven, 2021)

Lidia Lanza and Marco Toste (eds.). Summistae: The Commentary Tradition on Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae from the 15th to the 17th Centuries (Leuven, 2021)

Summistae: The Commentary Tradition on Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologiae" from the 15th to the 17th Centuries ed. by Lidia Lanza and Marco Toste (review)

Summistae: The Commentary Tradition on Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologiae" from the 15th to the 17th Centuries ed. by Lidia Lanza and Marco Toste (review)