Aquinas: God and Action, Third Edition

by David B. Burrell, Mary Budde Ragan (Editor), Denys Turner (Foreword)

This exploration of Thomas Aquinas's philosophical theology, decidedly ""unorthodox"" at the time of its original publication, had the good fortune to be employed extensively--notably at Yale and Cambridge--by my eminent colleagues George Lindbeck and Nicholas Lash. It essayed a ""non-foundational"" reading of the Summa Theologiae, unabashedly beholden to Wittgenstein, thereby preparing the way for a postmodern yet thoroughly traditional appreciation of the central role which Aquinas played in adapting Hellenic thought to form the hybrid discipline of ""philosophical theology."" Such a reading proved a welcome alternative to the neo-Thomist attempt to separate ""philosophy"" from ""theology,"" in an effort to show the wider world that the Catholic faith was ""based on reason."" While this unfortunate divide has been fixed in the departmental structure of Catholic colleges and universities throughout the world, it was effectively undermined by the universally respected expositor of Aquinas, Josef Pieper, who noted that free creation is ""the hidden element in Aquinas's philosophy."" However propitious it may have appeared to Catholic apologists in the heyday of modernism to sever ""philosophy"" from ""theology,"" it would have made no more sense to Aquinas than it could have to Anselm or Augustine before him. Ironically enough, a postmodern sensibility presaged by John Henry Newman in his Grammar of Assent finds the neo-Thomist construction of reason unadulterated by faith to be just that--an abstract construction--after Hans-Georg Gadamer succeeded in showing how any inquiry is fiduciary in its inception, and as Alasdair MacIntyre has reminded us that all inquiry is in fact ""tradition-directed,"" whatever its ostensible attitude towards ""tradition."" So a ""non-foundational"" reading of Aquinas was to prove amenable to current philosophers, as well as more faithful to the thought-world of Aquinas himself. David B. Burrell, CSC is the Theodore Hesburgh Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to authoring more than one hundred fifty scholarly articles, his many books include Analogy and Philosophical Language (1973), a translation of al-Ghazali's Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence (2000) as well as Towards a Jewish-Christian-Muslim Theology (2011). He presently serves the Congregation of Holy Cross in Bangladesh.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

222 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2008

Reviews

[Allyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book during a seminar I took from the author. That course changed the way I read Aquinas more than other other. Fr. Burrell is, I believe, the the most gifted interpreter of Aquinas today.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly a page turner but a great analysis of Thomas and a clear guide to the benefits of theology as grammatical rule instead of circumscribing description

[Lyndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burrell's work with Aquinas is a reminder how surprising and contemporary a medieval Dominican can be to modern sensibilities. I cannot say unequivocally that i fully comprehended all that Burrell argues in this text; however, I came away with fresh insight into God's free agency and how such a God deserves our praise, despite being incomprehensible. That God acts is reason enough.