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St Thomas Aquinas on the Passion of Christ: A Reading of Summa Theologiae, q. 46

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

O.P. Aidan Nichols
O.P. Aidan Nichols
Affiliation:
Blackfriars Cambridge CB3 0DD
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Extract

In June 1272, a General Chapter of the Order of Preachers met in Florence. Among other things, it decided that a new theological study house, open to the general public (a studium generale) should be established in Italy, under the auspices of the Roman Province. That Province, accordingly, entrusted the project to brother Thomas d'Aquino. The choice of site was left, with, perhaps, a certain disregard for administrative propriety, entirely to him. For various reasons, not least among them the support of the Neapolitan crown, he selected Naples. Development was sufficiently fast for him to begin lecturing there that same September. Forty-six years old (probably), he had somewhat over a year left to live. He was ending his career as he had begun it: entrusted with the formation of young theologians. What better opportunity to finish his great unfinished work, the Summa Theologiae, described in what has been called Thomas' only recorded joke (but the remark was seriously meant) as an introduction to the subject for beginners. Having dealt already with man's sovereign Good, and with the general pattern of his return to God, as suggested by the dynamic structures of human nature, it remained for Thomas to consider how, in the concrete, this return to God might come about. As he wrote in the prologue to the Tertia Pars:

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , November 1990 , pp. 447 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1990

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References

1 Weisheipl, J. A., Friar Thomas d'Aquino. His Life, Thought and Works (Oxford 1975), pp. 293–300Google Scholar.

2 summa Theologiae (henceforth ‘ST’), la., prol.

3 Ibid. IIIa., prol.

4 Chenu, M.-D., O. P., , Introduction à I'étudede Saint Thomas d'Aquin (Montréal/Paris 1950), pp. 71–73Google Scholar.

5 Cited as testimony of the monks of Monte Cassino in Conway, P., O. P., , Saint Thomas Aquinas of the Order of Preachers (1225–1274). A Biographical Study of the Angelic Doctor (London 1911), p. 6Google Scholar.

6 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 1.

7 His discussion of necessity turns on Aristotle's Metaphysics V. 5. 1015a 20.

8 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 2.

9 Ibid., ad iii: ‘supremum et commune bonum totius universi’.

10 Thomas takes his cue for this discussion from Augustine, De Trinitate XII. 10; P.L. 42, 1024.

11 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 3.

12 Ibid., responsio: ‘… tanto aliquis modus convenientior est ad assequendum finem quanto peripsum pluraconcurruntquae sunt expedientiafini’.

13 Citing Romans 5, 8.

14 In dependence on I Peter 2, 21.

15 Thomas' source here is I Corinthians 6, 20.

16 Citing Ibid., 15, 57.

17 I have modified Thomas' arrangement of his multa, ‘multiple considerations’, so as to devote greater space to what is, in fact, his thirdreason. He treats it only briefly at this point as he is preparing to deal with the theme at greater length in Ilia., q. 48. Thomas'discussion there takes its rise from Augustine's commentary on Philippians 2, 9 (‘Therefore God exalted Christ Jesus …’) in tractate 104 In Joannem, P.L. 35, 1903, in the light of John 17, 10 which speaks of Christ's glorification both in himself and in hisdisciples. Thomas' account of Christ's receivinggrace as caputol redeemed humanity follows on his remarks in IIIa., q. 7, a. 1, and Ibid., q. 8, aa. 1–6.

18 Hebrews 12, 2.

19 ST IIIa., q. 48, a. 2, ad i.

20 Ibid., q. 49, a. 3, ad iii,

21 Ibid., q. 46, a. 4.

22 Thomas' authority here is Augustine, Liberoctoginta trium quaestionum 25;P.L. 40, 17.

23 See Chenu, M.-D., O.P., , ‘La Mentalité symbolique’ and ‘La Théologie symbolique’ in idem., La Théologie au douzième siècle (Paris 1957), pp. 159–209Google Scholar.

24 In Christi resurredionem 1; P. G. 46, 624.

25 Cf. Augustine, , Sermo 32 de Passione, P.L. 39, 1808Google Scholar.

26 ST la., q, 84., a. 7: the subject of Rahner's, Karl extended meditation in Geist in Welt (Freiburg 1957 2Google Scholar; ET London 1968; 1979).

27 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 5.

28 AgatTUJauthenticity: Wilmart, A., ‘La Tradition littéraire et textuelle de l' Adoro devote’, in Recherchesde Théologie andenne et médiévale 1 (1920), pp. 21–40Google Scholar; 149–176. For authenticity: Raby, F. J. E., ‘The Date and the Authorship of the poem Adoro te devote’, Speculum 20 (1945), pp. 236–238CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and idem., Christian Latin Poetry. From the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (Oxford 1953 2), p. 410Google Scholar.

29 Gardner, W. H. and Mackenzie, N. H. (eds.), The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (London 1967 4), p. 212Google Scholar.

30 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 6.

31 With reference to Chrysostom, Homilia in Joannem 22; P. G. 59, 136.

32 Thomas' Christ suffers not so much in penal substitution, in our place, as in representative solidarity, on our behalf: cf. Hardy, L., La doctrine de la rédemption chez saint Thomas (Paris 1936), p. IIIGoogle Scholar: Puisque le Christ ne fait qu'un avec ses membres, la peine se présente comme la part de l' humanité pécheresse.quele Sauveur fait la sienne pour entriompher.la charité comme l'apport du Fils de Dieu qui se communique á toute la nature; c'est ainsi que Jésus Christ réalise son oeuvre de médiation.

33 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 7.

34 Ibid., a. 8.

35 Ibid, ad i.

36 Ibid. a. 9.

37 Ibid., a. 10.

38 See Wilken, R. L., John Chrysostom and thejews. Rhetoric and Raility in the Late Fourth Century (Berkeley/Los Angeles 1983)Google Scholar.

39 Quaestioines Novi et Veteri Testamenti 55. C.S.E.L L, 100.

40 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 9, ad iv, with a reference back to: Ibid., q. 14, a. 4, ‘Utrum Christus omnes defectus corpo rales hominum assumere debuerit’.

41 Ibid., q. 46, a. 11.

42 Homilia 87 in Matthaeum, P. G. 58, 770; homilia 85 injoannem, P.G. 59, 460.

43 A symbolic christology, whether broadly imaginative or more specifically narrative in style, cannot prescind from this ontological question. The holding together of the two is the test of the christologian's ability.

44 ST IIIa., q. 46, a. 12.

45 Epistolae 17; P.G. 77, 121; cf. Mansi IV, 1084. For the context and possible Apollinarian misconstrual of Cyril's letter, see Frend, W. H. C., The Rise of the Monophysite Church. Chapters in the History of the Church in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries (Cambridge 1972), p. 19Google Scholar.

46 CitingTheodotus of Ancyra, Homilia 2 in nativitatemSalvatoris, P. G.77, 1384; cf. Mansi V, 216.

47 On argument from convenientia/amgruentia, see ST la., q. 32, a. 1, ad ii: Reason may be said to have (in theology) a twofold function; first, to establish a principle by sufficient proof… secondly,… to show the congruity of certain effects with a principle previously established’.

48 Gui, Bernard, Legenda sancti Thomas 13, as translated in Foster, K., O.P., , The Life of St Thomas Aquinas. Biographical Documents (London 1959), p. 36Google Scholar.

49 Hystoria beati Thomae 34.

50 Ibid., 29.

51 Pieper, J., The Silence of Saint Thomas (ET London 1957), pp. 45–47Google Scholar.