Studying Aquinas in an Aquinas-like Manner

Liam McDonnell (Blackfriars), ‘On Studying Aquinas in an Aquinas-like Manner’

Beginning in the twelfth century, scholastic theologians started to write in a new genre: the summa. The stated intention behind the creation of the summa was, in the words of Hugh of St Victor, to furnish a unified account of ‘all theology’ in one book. This newly holistic exposition of theology enabled the mutually dependent connections between different areas of theology to be tested, examined and integrated to a hitherto unprecedented extent. Thomas Aquinas stands firmly in this tradition, his Commentary on the Sentences, Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologiae all having been written with the same ambitious, panoramic scope adopted by earlier pioneers of the summa genre. Even works of Aquinas on more specific subjects, such as De Malo, turn out to be very wide ranging in ambit, examining the interrelated connections between various ideas in detail. Paradoxically, much recent scholarship on Aquinas tends to take a very different approach to that of Aquinas himself, attempting to give an account of Aquinas’s thought on a single specific issue, narrowly construed, and in relative isolation from adjacent questions. In this way, much recent research now presents Aquinas in a way which is contrary to how Aquinas wrote and intended his books to be read. With reference to specific examples, I argue that not only are these methods un-Aquinas-like; they tend to yield inaccurate results, suffering from a narrowness of purview which the format in which Aquinas wrote was designed to prevent. The study of Aquinas on the salvation of those in involuntary ignorance of the Gospel is a subject which is well placed to aid a retrieval of research into Aquinas which is more holistic and Aquinas-like in the breadth of its perspective, and more historically accurate in its conclusions.

Dr Liam McDonnell is Junior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He completed his DPhil in Theology at Blackfriars: he was the Scovil scholarship holder and Junior Dean. His DPhil was on the history in medieval theology of the question of the salvation of those who are ignorant of the Gospel through no fault of their own. He locates the development of the pertinent questions in their historical contexts, and shows how they served as key test cases for the harmony between broader theological themes of divine justice, love, grace and human free will. He teaches as an associate staff member at the Maryvale Institute.

Part of this term’s lecture series, Thursdays at 5pm unless otherwise noted, presenting the breadth of Thomistic thought and its applications. Open to all, no registration required.

upcoming events in this series

Wednesday Wk 3 Fr Michael Sherwin OP (Angelicum), ‘Nietzche or St Thomas: Thoughts on Alasdair MacIntyre’

Wk 5 Jan Bentz (Blackfriars), ‘Aquinas and the Real Distinction: Historical-Philosophical Notes’

Wk 6 Jack Norman (Blackfriars), ‘McCabe’s Social Ontology: Sin, Sacraments, and the New Left’

Wk 8 Fr Richard Conrad OP (Blackfriars), ‘“Faith Believes, nor Questions How”: St Thomas on How (Not) to Understand the Eucharist’

Venue: Blackfriars Hall - St Giles Oxford, OX1 3LY United Kingdom Array ( [lat] => 51.756248 [lng] => -1.259881 )

Contact:
Aquinas Institute
aquinas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk