Why Thomas Wrote the Summa
Most 20th century Thomists were philosophers, whereas Saint Thomas’s main job was a Biblical teacher. So to interpret correctly his Summa, we must take into consideration his commentaries on Scripture. It is possible to study the Summa purely philosophically within the study of the history of philosophy, but we will neglect the foundation of the work. Our modern understanding makes us unaware of the theological emphasis of the Summa. In the first question, Saint Thomas begins with Sacra Doctrina, which encompasses more than we understand today by theology. He uses it often in connection with Scripture and he calls it a science. He occasionally uses the word theology, aware that theology anticipates something much greater, sacra doctrina, which uses theology, metaphors, Scripture, and anything that can lead us more deeply into the mysteries revealed by God. Sacra doctrina encompasses theology, Scripture, the preaching of the Popes, Doctors, and Fathers. This instruction, sacra doctrina, is called science. This is used differently than today, where it means the studying of phenomena with means of study. It is also different from Aristotle’s use. For Aristotle, it was a certain knowledge, where the mind makes a judgment (going beyond an intuition), a judgment made within a process of reason, and that this process is inter-subjectively transmittable. This science searches for the necessary reasons of truths, the causes, asking the question “why?” Modern scientists are afraid of final causality.
Saint Thomas uses these Aristotelian processes to describe science, but sacra doctrina isn’t a science because it uses these methods. Rather, it is because it transmits a sure knowledge coming from the source of all knowledge, God himself. So the Latin scientia should be translated “knowledge” and not “science.” It concerns truths, knowledge, which has been given by God. So Saint Thomas isn’t trying to jam theology into Aristotle’s philosophy, which would subordinate the superior truths of faith to the lesser claims of knowledge. Saint Thomas ascribes the primary role to revelation, knowledge coming directly from God, which confers to sacra doctrina the status of scientia. God reveals the mysteries of himself and his plans bestow to the believer knowledge of our salvation and invite him to participate in the knowledge of God himself. These divine mysteries Saint Thomas calls sacra doctrina. Some sciences draw their knowledge from other sciences, Saint Thomas says, whereas sacra doctrina draws its knowledge from sacred scripture, an expression of divine wisdom having been given to humanity. Both the private guidance of people by the Holy Spirit and the public revelation of God are divine, but the knowledge required in sacra doctrina comes from effort in scrutinizing the divine knowledge and communicating it to other people. This scrutiny cannot be chaotic if it is to be transmitted.
With the aid of precise notions from philosophy, we compare what has been revealed by God to what has been attained by reason, attempting to see the inner logic of what has been revealed by God. This is why sacra doctrina satisfies our reason. We can reflect on the revealed mysteries. Our reason may fall into error, but we cannot deny reason the opportunity to understand these revealed truths. But this reasonable investigation into matters of the faith must been undertaken in faith. If our reason were to try to judge faith by rational criteria, it would ruin faith. It would be a replacement of faith by human wisdom, against which Saint Paul warned.
Philosophy has an ancillary function in theology, namely, that of providing precise concepts and the knowledge discovered by reason. It has a secondary role in theology, that of a handmaid. The arguments put forward to defend theological truths don’t give the truths of faith their ground, but can make critics and adherents see that they are reasonable. Our faith is gets its ground because God has revealed it. The knowledge that God shares with human beings is the subject of sacra doctrina. The method to understand it must accord with the capacities and hungers of man. But the main source of what theologians have to say is the self-expression of God. God is the subject matter. Saint Thomas rejects other theologians’ thoughts that the sacraments, the redemption, the Church, etc. are the subject matter of theology. For Saint Thomas, the focus must be on God. The whole of the Summa gives us an answer to the question of Who is God. We can study ancillary subjects in theology, the history of spirituality, Biblical archaeology, ethics, etc., but this is not the sacra doctrina that Saint Thomas is studying. Saint Thomas is studying God, not just as the metaphysical source of everything, but as the revealer of himself who engages in a dialogue with human beings.
Such a notion of theology is very purifying. Von Balthasar said that any theology must have the character of adoration, of a doxology. God cannot be a neutral object of study. We cannot reduce Him so. The point of departure must be your knees. The subject matter must bring with it an attitude, a fascination. We base ourselves on a revealed gift. He is mysterious. We will never comprehend him, which is an invitation for us to love. A revealed mystery, rather than acquired knowledge, brings fascination and nourishment of our faith.
Saint Thomas wrote the Summa to answer the question whether we need something beyond the study of philosophy. He says we need a study that is ordered to the end outside of the capacities of our intellect. He just states this, he doesn’t prove it. We need a theology going outside of the realm of rational thinking and philosophy. He places the thesis that salvation is the end of our life. Without an answer to the question of our destiny, there is no point in asking any questions about any science. If we don’t know that we’ve been destined for God, that there’s a point to our life, there’s no point in studying anything. We can use knowledge in other spheres to help us in our purpose.Saint Augustine says that theology must do the following four things: generate, nourish, defend, and strengthen salutary faith. Sacra Doctrina has a specific function towards faith, to generate it, to get reason to bow before the mystery, in a decisive way for the spiritual life. Theology won’t give us faith, which is a gift, but it will help us to bow down. Sacra Doctrina is to nourish faith, to encourage perseverance. It defends faith against accusations coming from the world, saying the reason is the ultimate arbiter. Sacra Doctrina cannot prove the revealed truths, because then it would be knowledge, but it can show that it is reasonable, and that it doesn’t distort human nature. It also strengthens faith, bringing us more deeply into the mystery.
Saint Thomas describes theology, hence, in maternal terms, to generate, nourish, defend, and strengthen the great gift of God. If we are to exceed the limits of our reason, we need a support to undertake the risks of faith. So theology uses philosophical concepts to give us support. Theology leads the hand of the believer into the divine mysteries. So Saint Thomas’s practical end was to widen the intellectual horizon of his students so that their faith would grow. This is much more important than the pastoral formation of future priests. We won’t find great texts for catechesis, marriage preparation, etc.
What was Saint Thomas’s principal project as he wrote the Summa? The way he wrote it conditions our understanding of it as a whole, and particularly of the moral section. Fr. Chenu applied to it the Platonic concept of exitus-redditus, which Saint Thomas mentions in his commentary on the sentences. He claims that Saint Thomas put his theology into an Aristotelian straight-jacket, to satisfy the Aristotelian methodology of science. If this were to hold, then the secunda pars would be a philosophical work. Such an enterprise would be an agnostic subordination of faith to reason. The secunda pars, hence, would lend to a Pelagian interpretation of our natural human efforts bringing us back to God.
The fact that the morals sections is built on the (acquired) virtues and not on the commandments does not tell us what Chenu thinks it does. The virtues describe a catalog of good activity by which we return to God. Why does Saint Thomas discuss so many (>50) virtues? Why does he list the obligations that the corresponding virtues entail? Is not this a nominalist game, by saying there’s a virtue and then deducing an obligation? This would be similar to Luther’s interpretation of the old Law, namely, to convince that we cannot keep them — only Christ could. If we see them, rather, as good dispositions, then such a reading is frustrating, for wouldn’t it be too taxing in a human point of view?
A Salesian Thomist, Giuseppe Adda, questioned Chenu’s understanding and stressed the theological underpinning of the secunda pars, which is a theological work that merely uses the help that philosophy can provide. The real reason that Saint Thomas wrote the Summa was because of the need for a good systematic moral theology (according to Boyle). The secunda pars, the practical part of the Summa concerned with human action, received its theological ground in the prima pars, and this moral section has to be considered in that context. The practical benefit that Saint Thomas had in mind had to do with the faith that needed to be generated, nourished, and strengthened. Saint Thomas’s is not a vain curiosity. If we have to have the courage to persevere, we need to have reasons for this. Today, on the other hand, there is a distrust of speculative theology. We focus more on emotional experience. The mind of the ancients tried to obtain the ontological perspective. Today, we discuss how things appear, rather than how they necessarily are. The social sciences aren’t based on a rigorous methodology. So when Saint Thomas speculates about truth — to penetrate and concentrate it, to grasp it — it must entail a careful observation.
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