Thinking Through Aquinas
Thinking Through Aquinas
Essays on God, Humanity, and Christ
by Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt
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In Thinking Through Aquinas: Essays on God, Humanity, and Christ, Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt presents fourteen essays, written over the course of twenty years, that are attempts both to think through the arguments contained in the theology of Thomas Aquinas and to use the theology of Thomas to think through the questions that confront theologians in our own day. The essays include discussions of Thomas’s understanding of the nature of theology and of God; his reflections on virtue, vice, and the moral life; and his theology of Christ, the Church, and the Sacraments. Over the course of these essays, Thomas is brought into dialogue with figures ranging from Michel Foucault to Flannery O’Connor, Jonathan Lear to Ignacio Ellacuría, Stanley Hauerwas to St. John Paul II.
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What People are Saying
“Writing with wit, wisdom, and humor, Bauerschmidt’s essays on Thomas Aquinas not only help us understand Thomas but also ourselves. Bauerschmidt has an interpretative gift that frees his account of Thomas from the slogans that too often rob him of his importance for helping us think theologically. Bauerschmidt makes the liveliness of Thomas’s work apparent by putting him in conversation with contemporary novelists and philosophers, making this book a treasure not only for a Thomist but for anyone trying to discern what it means to be a Christian.”
—Stanley Hauerwas, Professor (retired), Duke Divinity
“Bauerschmidt not only has a gift for translating the thought of St. Thomas to those who are not yet fluent in the Thomistic dialect but also for bringing out new facets of the Thomistic mosaic to those who are already familiar with its concepts and idioms. For those who want to know where he stands on the nature and grace debate, he argues that grace does not so much perfect nature as seriously disturb it. In the final essay, he demolishes the urban myth that Augustinians are anti-social misfits and Thomists undiscerning types who want to be friends with everyone. This collection of essays is both entertaining and informative. It should have broad appeal to undergraduates and post-graduates and everyone in between.”
—Tracey Rowland, St. John Paul II Chair of Theology, University of Notre Dame (Australia)
“For veteran students or newcomers alike, these quodlibetal essays—as Thomas would surely have regarded them—offer wonderfully imaginative developments as we work our way through the questions in the Summa, prompted by everything from the classic works of authoritative Thomist expositors like Josef Pieper to the more exotic ‘Hillbilly Thomism’ of Flannery O’Connor. Bauerschmidt returns again and again to the close readings of the text that we have come to expect in the work of such an experienced exponent of Thomas Aquinas.”
—Fergus Kerr, OP, Edinburgh
“Thinking Through Aquinas is an excellent introduction to the contours of Thomas’s thought: a Thomas who is a logician and a metaphysician, a biblical scholar and a systematist, an Augustinian and an Aristotelian. Bauerschmidt brilliantly shows that it is still possible, useful, and enjoyable to read and teach Aquinas today, provided that the art of logical and metaphysical distinctions is subordinated to the art of reading Scripture and loving one's neighbor. Bauerschmidt’s work transmits not only Thomas’s thought, but also Thomas’s way of thinking, and a way of thinking like Thomas.”
—Olivier-Thomas Venard, OP, Professor at the École Biblique, Jerusalem
