Aquinas S Summa Theologiae And Eucharistic Sacrifice In The Early Modern Period

This book is focused on the reception history of Thomas Aquinas' account of Eucharistic sacrifice during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although the sacrificial character of the Eucharist has been of interest to theologians throughout the Church's history, during the early sixteenth century renewed attention was given to this subject, in part because of disputes that arose between Reformed and Catholic theologians about the relationship between the Eucharistic liturgy and Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Does the Eucharistic presence itself have a sacrificial quality? Can aspects of the liturgy or dimensions of the moral life be considered a sacrifice, and if so in what way? The emergence of these and other new questions in Eucharistic theology at the beginning of the sixteenth century coincided with a shift within the practice of theology in universities that began to emphasize Aquinas' Summa theologiae as the standard text of theological instruction, in place of Peter Lombard's Sentences. Because of the Summa's relatively late ascendency as a text of commentary and instruction, studying the Summa's reception history involves the interpreter in a complex textuality. Although itself a product of the middle ages, as a received text the Summa is in many ways a creature of the early modern period. Interpreting the reception of this text therefore requires one to consider not only the Summa in its original environment, but the life of this same text as it was received in new interpretive contexts.

A study of the reception history of Thomas Aquinas's account of eucharistic sacrifice during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

About the Contributor(s): Aidan Nichols, OP, is a member of the Dominican community at Blackfriers, Cambridge, and the author of numerous books on Eastern and Western theology and Church history.

Jan-Heiner Tück presents a work that explores the sacramental theology, lived spirituality, and Eucharistic poetry of the Church’s doctor communis, St. Thomas Aquinas. Although Aquinas’ Eucharistic poetry has long occupied an important place in the Church’s liturgical prayer and her repertoire of sacred music, the depth of these poems remains hidden until one grasps the rich sacramental theology underlying it. Consequently, Tück first offers a detailed but approachable primer of Aquinas’ theology of the sacraments, before diving deeply into the Angelic Doctor’s theology and poetry of the Eucharist. The Scriptural accounts stand at the heart of the systematic framework developed by Aquinas, and thus significant attention is devoted to showing the harmony between the accounts of Christ’s passion and the detailed exposition of the Summa theologiae. Moreover, the Eucharistic controversies of the ninth and eleventh centuries provide the contrapuntal context in which Aquinas did his thinking, praying, and writing. Not surprisingly, therefore, the response he crafts to these controversies draws upon both speculative powers and contemplative prayer, brought together in the unity of Aquinas’ theology and spirituality. The net result is a twofold treasure for the Church: a careful systematic presentation of Eucharistic theology and the lived devotional expression of the same in the carefully constructed—and now much beloved—stanzas of Pange lingua gloriosi, Lauda Sion, Adoro te devote, etc. By revealing the lively interplay of the saint’s powerful speculative intellect and a heart steeped in love for the Eucharistic Lord, Tück offers a sophisticated exposition of Aquinas’ Eucharistic poetry and the roots it sinks into a wider theological framework. Finally, the contemporary significance and power of Aquinas’ work is drawn out, not only in the rarefied realm of intellectual inquiry but also in the everyday expanse of ordinary life.

In this volume, Fr. Francis Quoëx responds to Joseph Ratzinger's call for a renewed appreciation of liturgical rite. A student of Pierre Gy, OP, he brings to this study of Aquinas's liturgical theology a rare combination of expert knowledge of liturgical sources and history and the best of mod-ern historical-critical research guided by sound theological judgment. Fr. Quoëx frames his study with an overview of the problem of rite in modern theological-anthropological discourse, before turning to Aqui-nas' theory of worship in the treatise on the virtue of religion. He then explores Aquinas' doctrine on the cultic dimensions of the Eucharist and other sacraments in his sacramental theology more broadly, finishing with a close study of the mass commentary of the Tertia Pars Although there has been increasing attention to Thomas's treatment of religion as a virtue, none have approached him from an anthropolog-ical angle with a focus on the nature of liturgical rite, or fully exploited the perspectives of liturgical scholarship to shed light on sacramental theology. Quoëx's work, as the work of a Thomist, liturgist, and medi-evalist well versed in medieval liturgical development and in the genre of often-allegorical liturgical commentary, opens up this crucial but ne-glected facet of Aquinas' theological synthesis. Few books have been pub-lished on Aquinas's liturgical theology. Now that interest in Aquinas's vir-tue theory and sacramental theology is growing rapidly, Quoëx's studies are an invitation to further reflection on the topic of Aquinas's liturgical theology with its manifold ramifications for and connections with other theological topics in his Summa, including his theological anthropology, his soteriology, his treatment of the Old and New Laws, and his account of the virtue of religion in connection with the other virtues.

In the light of its own history, the Catholic theology of the Eucharist, as it is generally understood today, is revealed as a splinter tradition whose deficiencies call for fundamental reformulation. The valid aspects of that theology (for example, the recovery of the role of the Holy Spirit in the new Roman Eucharistic Prayers) must be identified and integrated with the faith and practice of the first theological millennium when the lex orandi was not so dominated by the lex credendi. In the third theological millennium, more attention to the content and structure of the classical Eucharistic Prayers of both East and West will result in a Catholic systematic theology of eucharistic sacrifice that is not only truer to its biblical and patristic foundations but also - of ecumenical import - closer to some of the theological insights of the Protestant Reformers. These highlights of The Eucharist in the West illustrate the great value of this posthumous work. Conceptually complete, but in only rough draft form at the time of Father Kilmartin's death, it has been edited and prepared for publication by Robert J. Daly, SJ Chapter one describes the characteristics of the eucharistic theology of the Western Latin Fathers. Chapter two identifies the more important orientations and developments of the Catholic tradition from early medieval Scholasticism up to the first part of the twelfth century. Chapter three singles out the special contribution of early Scholasticism to Latin eucharistic theology. Chapter four functions as a bridge from early Scholasticism to high Scholasticism by outlining the general approach to a synthetic theology of the Eucharist which was obtained at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Chapter five treats eucharistic theology from high Scholasticism to the Council of Trent. Chapter six summarizes the dogmatic teaching of the Council of Trent. This is followed in Chapter seven, by a treatment of salient features of post-Tridentine Eucharistic theology. Chapter eight includes an analysis of the practice and theology of Mass stipends. Chapter nine includes a detailed analysis of Aquinas's theology of the eucharistic sacrifice. Chapter ten offers an account of some recent contributions to the formulation of a theology of the eucharistic sacrifice which have contributed to the modern average Roman Catholic synthesis. Robert J. Daly, SJ, is a professor of theology at Boston College and former editor of Theological Studies. Edward J. Kilmartin, SJ (1923-1994), professor for liturgical theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, taught theology first at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and later at Boston College. He served as director of the doctoral program in liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Explaining the historical origins of the debate, Robert Croken shows the reader where the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches have grown apart and where they have found agreement. This book is a systematic study of Martin Luther's writings in the context of his break with Rome, and will be of value to scholars and theologians of modern Christianity searching for common ground in ecumenical discussions.