Theology and Reading
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 52, No. 2 – Spring 2010
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Thomas Aquinas. Translated by Peter A. Kwasniewski, Thomas Bolin, and Joseph Bolin. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008. 404 + xxxii pages. Softcover, $39.95.
It is hard to imagine that anything “new” from Thomas Aquinas would appear considering over 730 years have passed since the death of the Angelic Doctor of the Catholic Church. However, Aquinas scholars will certainly be pleased with a significant new work translated into English by Peter A. Kwasniewski, Thomas Bolin, and Joseph Bolin. While English editions of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica are readily available in full versions and selected writings, similar English editions of his Scriptum super libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi [Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard] are not available. With this volume, Kwasniewski, Bolin, and Bolin have made available the first substantial portion of Aquinas’ Scriptum in English.
While many people will be familiar with Aquinas’ work on law, virtue, and proving the existence of God, fewer are probably aware of his significant work on love and charity. As the crown of the theological virtues, the theme of charity provides rich discussion within the writings of Aquinas. As with any collection of selected writings, it is difficult to focus adequately on a singular subject without the context of the rest of the work; yet, the translators offer a significant portion of Aquinas’ discussion of love and charity without losing too much of the greater context.
The first major contribution of this volume is obviously the English translation of a lesser-known, but certainly significant, work from Thomas Aquinas. While much of the material covered in this volume is paralleled in the Summa, English readers will have the opportunity to see how Aquinas developed some of his views on love and charity in an earlier stage of his career. The translation was made from the Mandonnet-Moos edition and compared to an unreleased provisional critical edition being prepared by the Leonine Commission (xiii). In addition, this volume includes a selection from Aquinas’ second attempt at a Scriptum, the Lectura romana, prior to the release of the critical edition of that commentary. In all, this work brings together a significant piece of Thomistic scholarship that was previously inaccessible in English.
The next major contribution of this work is the first appendix that draws a comparison to the writings of the Scriptum and the Summa. While the two works have a similar structure (questions, objections, responses, and replies to objections), the content of the two does not flow uniformly. The mature thought of the Summa seems to flow according to a logical development of the themes of love and charity. In contrast, the development of these themes in the Scriptum does not flow in a consistent pattern. As an aid to the reader, the translators provide a comparison chart of major questions in the discussion of love and charity with locations in both the Scriptum and the Summa to assist in further study.
The final key contribution of this volume also represents its most glaring weakness. In an attempt to keep the book within a manageable span of just over 400 pages, the translators were forced to omit most of their content footnotes and alternate translations in the printed volume. As a result, one has a clean text with a small number of footnotes that reference the Latin text or provide some crossreferences to other texts. In order to supplement this deficiency in the printed volume, the publisher has provided a Supplement to On Love and Charity on their website (http://cuapress.cua.edu). The supplement includes a 28-page full introduction that shines more light on the translation project and an overview of the complete work of the Scriptum. In addition, the supplement includes 518 footnotes that are marked by Arabic numerals in the printed volume but the text of which are not included. Finally, the supplement offers an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources related to Thomistic studies on love and charity. While the supplement is most certainly a wonderful tool for the serious scholar, the fact that it is only available online and exists as a 120-page PDF document makes it a little unwieldy. Also, there is no information regarding the length of time that the supplement will continue to be available online. This reviewer would have preferred that the extra pages be included at the conclusion of the printed volume.
This volume is certainly a marvelous contribution to Aquinas studies in the English language. The scholarship exhibited in the translation, sources cited, notes, and bibliography is of the highest caliber. All serious students of Aquinas’ work will want to make this volume a part of their libraries.
