Abstract
This is a scholarly, detailed and carefully written analysis of what the subtitle calls Reading Matthew, Disputing Grace and Virtue, Preaching Happiness: the thought of St Thomas across three areas of his work as a Magister in Paris, all written between 1268 and 1272, composed of his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, the questions in the Summa Theologiae dealing with the Beatitudes and (in a briefer section) sermons that mention the Beatitudes. This tripartite structure is justified and explored in the first two introductory sections of the book, where there is thorough coverage of the use Aquinas made of Scripture generally and the ways in which he interpreted it, allied to an in-depth study of the way in which the lectures on Matthew have come down to us through the notes or reportationes of two students. The basic approach of both St Thomas and this book is that of legere (reading and commenting), disputare (answering questions arising from reading) and praedicare (preaching). This is Volume XVIII in a series on the work of St Thomas by the Thomas Instituut Utrecht, and by the standard of this volume and its theological nature, a significant set of works that illuminate Thomas in real depth on a huge range of issues; it is clearly a series to absorb to great benefit.
The overall thesis follows the lines forged by Servais Pinckaers in his Christian Ethics, and the analysis of the Summa in Ten Klooster concurs with the English Dominican Fergus Kerr in After Aquinas, that the whole Summa is shaped by the question of beatitude or supernatural happiness. We are made for eternal life and the intellectual vision of God, however expressed. Ten Klooster quotes Kerr with approval that the discussion of virtue ethics in the Secunda Pars is ‘focused on the divine beatitude which is shared by the blessed but already able to be anticipated in the moral life here and now’ as a form of ‘anticipated happiness’ (p. 144, quoting Kerr, p. 130). This idea is explored in depth in all three elements of St Thomas that Ten Klooster examines. In the conclusions, he identifies a consistent approach to it with three words: ‘reject, affirm and pursue’ (p. 243). False conceptions are rejected, an affirmation of counterstatements in the Beatitudes is sketched out and then pursuing happiness is explored, which is found through those virtues that tend towards God, both natural and, in particular, infused, elevated by the action of the Holy Spirit in the gifts and fruits.
In the sections on legere, the commentary on Matthew is discussed in detail, both its structure and content. A version of the commentary is usefully added at the back of the book (in Latin), and the analysis of it throws up some interesting ideas: that it is Boethius rather than Aristotle who provides the background to the discussion of different and erroneous ideas of happiness; that the merit in the Beatitudes is the action of each; that the first seven Beatitudes are examined, with the final one a summation of the others; that they can be divided into active and contemplative, the latter being the pure in heart and the peacemakers, those who both see God and are made children of God; and finally the delight of eternal life or beatitude, in so far as it is possible in this life.
Discussions of the thoughts of St Thomas on virtue and the happiness of beatitude, which is the purpose of the virtuous life, often focus on the acquired virtues in philosophical understanding, and are linked to the infused virtues of faith hope and love given by grace; there is also much discussion about the relationship between these. However, St Thomas also adds the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and as part of this discussion in questions 68–70 in the Prima Secundae, the Beatitudes are linked both to the infused virtues and the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Beatitudes resurface in the Secunda Secundae particularly in the discussion of the Our Father and, for example, are mentioned in regard to specific virtues; for example, the sed contra on martyrdom under fortitude understandably quotes the eighth beatitude on persecution. This backs up the view expressed in the discussion on the commentary on the Beatitudes that the beatitudes are not considered as an exclusively eschatological category. The happiness they promise can be had in this life albeit in an inchoate form. Therefore the beatitudes are a moral exhortation to live this life in such a way that the happiness of the life to come will already begin to take form here and now. As such the beatitudes become part of the discourse on human action and happiness. (p. 79)
In the Summa, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the basis for the actions of the beatitudes, and the fruits, according to Ten Klooster which flank the other side of the discussion of the Beatitudes are ‘the very delight that streams forth from the beatitudes, as actions brought about by the infused virtues and gifts’ (p. 146). Quite how all these function within the life of the graced and virtuous human being, what role the gifts play along with the infused virtues, doubtless requires a good deal more detailed discussion, but what is abundantly clear in this view of the significance of the questions 68–70 are both their centrality in the Christian life on its way to eternal happiness and the interrelatedness of virtues, gifts, beatitudes and fruits in the realm of what is God-given, whatever the precise relationship between them, and between these and the acquired virtues. Indeed, the Beatitudes are some of the activities that constitute some of the inchoate happiness that participates in eternal happiness here and now. They are distinguished from virtues and gifts, ‘non sicut habitus ab eis distincti, sed sicut actus distinguuntur ab habitibus’(‘not in the sense that they are habits distinct from those habits, but rather in the way that acts differ from their corresponding habits,’ as translated by Alfred J Freddoso, University of Notre Dame (I-II, q. 69 a. 1)). Indeed, according to this study, ‘Aquinas interprets the beatitudes as perfections flowing forth from the infused virtues’ (p. 156) and these, it should be said, can be not only the theological virtues but also the cardinal virtues. The section in which this is discussed (4.4, pp. 154–81) is central in understanding what the Summa has to offer in regard to the place of the Beatitudes as a whole in the Christian life and their relationship to the virtues, gifts and fruits of the Spirit. They are the core of the book.
The final third of the book on preaching is the briefest section but perhaps acts as a summary of the previous two. Pages 211–13 on Beati qui habitant show how crucial eternal happiness is in understanding sanctity. There is also surely another book in considering the centrality of the final end of human life in combating false notions of happiness. To take one important example, the psychologist Jordan Peterson is right to criticise eudaimonistic contentment and re-emphasise the value of suffering in the face of debased modern ideas of comfort, but this analysis of Aquinas takes the question of happiness to a completely different level.
It becomes very clear from this book that not only do the Beatitudes have a more central role in the Summa than one might think and that they are perfective of the life of virtue but that also they require the infusion of grace. They make little sense to those without belief in God or those who are not aiming for the eternal beatitude that is the knowledge of God, and this perhaps accounts for the difficulty that many Christians continue to have with them; there is much background that is required in understanding both what they are and their place in the Christian life. This book goes much of the way towards elaborating the explanation of St Thomas of these central aspects of the Christian life. What is needed now is further pastoral application of these thoughts of St Thomas in the light of current urgent questions, particularly surrounding the purpose and meaning of a human life.