The primacy that Saint Thomas gives to God in the organization of theological knowledge appears as soon as we glance at the structure of the Summa Theologiae. Whether it is a question of the divine essence itself, or of the distinction among the persons in the Trinity, or even of how we are to understand Creation, it is always the Triune God who is considered, in himself or in his work. It is impossible for a Christian theologian to deal with God in his unity or his Creation, or to turn his three-personed life into an abstraction, without mutilating the...

From a theology that puts God at the center of its concern, a number of important consequences follow. The most immediate involves the very organization of the theological material. The synthesis of knowledge about God must be presented in a way that stresses the sovereign primacy owed to the unique subject of that knowledge. The solution to this organizational problem is found in Thomas’s plan for the Summa Theologiae. The pedagogical aspect of that plan, however, should not lead us into error, for along with its uses as a classroom tool, it introduces us to the whole of Friar Thomas’s...

How to bring together the two terms in the above title is a task imposed on the reader from the very first pages of the Summa. When he asks himself about the possibility of a creature resembling God, Thomas answers with two scriptural texts. The first has been given a fair amount of attention: “We have made man in our own image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). But the second is rather unexpected: “When He comes, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).¹ Therefore, this provocative summary puts side by side creation...

It was easy to understand from the examination of Thomas’s views in the preceding chapter that the path of the man-image toward beatitude and his entry into glory presuppose a way to be traversed, just as acquiring perfect resemblance implies a model to be imitated. The second Person of the Trinity, whom we have already spoken of as the Father’s Art and perfect Image and through whom we come forth from the Father and return to Him, represents a model that is as entirely inaccessible in his uncreated perfection as the Father himself. But in his Incarnation as the Word,...

Looking at things from the human point of view, Christ’s moral example is the first thing that presents itself for the theologian’s consideration. In the Christian life, the imitation of Christ is the way to salvation. But when we examine this idea further, the usual approach shows itself to be inadequate. The slide from moral philosophy to moralism is easy and frequent, and it risks making Christ into the model of a man among other great men. Great men, of course, bring honor to the human race, but for a Christian, Christ is something entirely different from a mere man....

Ever since ecumenical dialogue put Latin theologians back in touch with their Orthodox colleagues, we have often heard the complaint that the Holy Spirit is absent from our Western theology and spirituality.¹ Without arguing here the possible merits of the charges or of the responses to them, we will discover quite quickly that, at least as far as Saint Thomas is concerned, these complaints are wide of the mark. For him, the Holy Spirit is neither absent nor unknown. He is as present everywhere in Thomas’s theology as Christ himself is, and thus, in Thomas’s spirituality as well. It is...

The preceding chapter allowed us to meet with the Holy Sprit in his presence “on a textual level,” if one may put it that way. Like primroses in spring, he arises everywhere in every possible situation. At each step, he is called forth as the One who responds completely. But at that level, Thomas does little more than put in order what he learned from the Bible, and that is only a part of his task as theologian. If we wish to grasp in greater depth the reason for the Spirit’s universal and constant presence, we must return with Thomas...

Though it is sometimes difficult for specialists to agree about exactly what to put under the term “spirituality,” there is at least one point on which history and theology allow them to meet. When we have to define what we understand by a person—man or woman—who is “spiritual,” it always involves “someone who allows himself to be led by the Spirit.” Saint Thomas is clearly no exception; he even insists on this dimension: “The ‘spiritual man’ (homo spiritualis) is not merely taught what he must do by the Holy Spirit, his heart itself is moved by the Holy...

To speak of spirituality is certainly to speak about God, as we have just done in the preceding pages. But it is also to speak about man, with whom God wished to establish a relationship in love which culminates in the saints. That, too, we have done up to this point. Or rather, it was impossible not to do so. God, himself, speaking to man through the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus himself, could only use human words. Man, too, does not know how to speak of God in a purely “detached” manner without implicating himself in the discourse. Under...

To introduce the preceding chapter, we invoked the celebrated maxim: “grace does not destroy nature, but brings it to perfection.” We are not giving in to an excessive taste for symmetry in beginning this chapter with another adage hardly less known: “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.”¹ This is true even on a material level: a liquid poured into a container takes the container’s form. It is even more true of a “receiver” who is a free and intelligent being, endowed with certain qualities proper to it, but also with a special temperament and...

Thomas replies to this question, which he encountered reading Aristotle, with the same conviction as the Philosopher. In every situation and at whatever age, “friendship is what is most necessary to live.”¹ For both thinkers, this is a fundamental question, whose importance becomes even more apparent if we remember the further uses to which it can be put. The Latin Christian clothes it in a fulness of meaning that it could not have for the Greek thinker.

For Aristotle, the term philia has a much wider meaning than “friendship” has for us. As one of the best interpreters observes, “This...

As we have seen up to this point, according to Thomas Aquinas man seems deeply rooted in a rich carnal existence and in a community of which he is a member, and from which he is inseparable. An animal being, it is not possible for him to achieve his full development unless his bodily opacity itself is fully given over to the divinizing power of grace. A political being, there is no success possible for him outside of the various social settings to which he is indebted. Far from being viewed as a handicap, this twofold relation is, on the...

Spiritual masters habitually put forward a way of the soul to God. Even if they do not always do so explicitly, their disciples at least take their personalities and manner of life as a special model of sanctity. But it is not rare to find explicit propositions for advance in the spiritual life; we can discern such intentions in the Soul’s Journey into God with Saint Bonaventure, the Way of Perfection with Saint Teresa of Avila, or the Ascent of Mount Carmel with Saint John of the Cross. There is no difficulty in further multiplying examples.¹ The question that arises...