The times they are certainly a-changing, at least for thoughtful Protestants. Thomas Aquinas, for centuries the object of fear and dread among the followers of Luther and Calvin, is finally receiving his due among the “separated brethren” as a key Christian thinker. And I say this as one of those separated brethren.
The times they are certainly a-changing, at least for thoughtful Protestants. Thomas Aquinas, for centuries the object of fear and dread among the followers of Luther and Calvin, is finally receiving his due among the “separated brethren” as a key Christian thinker. And I say this as one of those separated brethren.
Historical research over the last fifty years has established clear continuities, and often significant points of dependence, between later Protestant thinkers and the Angelic Doctor. And the dogmatic implications of this are now obvious: significant points of overlap exist theologically between classical, confessional Protestantism and the theology of which Aquinas was a representative, particularly on the doctrine of God and orthodox Trinitarianism. There is also increasing appreciation for Thomas as an influential Christian advocate of natural law—a point that should interest not just theologians, but all Christians at this time of ubiquitous and confusing ethical conflicts.
As part of this retrieval, Manfred Svensson and David VanDrunen have assembled an outstanding collection of essays, Aquinas Among the Protestants.The essays examine numerous aspects of Thomas’s thought and bring these into constructive relationship with contemporary Protestant Christianity.
Why Have Protestants Historically Rejected Thomas?
Behind the traditional Protestant rejection of Thomas lie a number of convictions. First, there is the general rhetoric of the Reformers, which dismissed the medieval schoolmen as the intellectual defenders of a corrupt and theologically deviant church. Second, there were particular points of repudiation, such as the sacraments and justification. Third, there is the more recent tendency (something of a twentieth-century Protestant preoccupation) to reject Thomas because of his high view of human reason and of natural theology. The most famous advocate of this latter point was Swiss theologian Karl Barth, but the concern was also shared by other, more traditional theological figures.
These are formidable obstacles for any Protestant who wants to approach Aquinas with an open mind. But there is a further complication for anyone wishing to engage constructively with him: the reception history of his thought. As with many great thinkers, Thomas has been the subject of competing interpretations by those who would claim to be his allies. Most significant in this regard is Cardinal Cajetan in the sixteenth-century. He sharpened the distinction between nature and grace and arguably led later Thomists down a path that is vulnerable to the third Protestant criticism noted above. Still, one should not automatically impute the theological sins of the children to the parent.
The essays in this volume address all of the above issues. On the matter of the Reformers’ rhetoric, it is a basic point of historical method that one must always look at what authors do with an idea or a thinker, not simply what they say about them. Behind the black-and-white anti-scholastic rhetoric, there was a much subtler reception of medieval thought. In fact, Thomas proved to be a very important source for Protestants, particularly on the matter of the doctrine of God and the articulation of Trinitarianism.
