Summa Contra Gentiles: Salvation (Summa Contra Gentiles)

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Summary: The Trinity, Incarnation, Sacraments, and Resurrection
Review: "Salvation" is the last book in "Summa Contra Gentiles", after "God", "Creation", and "Providence".

In the introduction to the first book of "Summa Contra Gentiles", Thomas promised to treat of truths that could be reached by natural reason and those that surpass it. The first part of that promise were dealt with in the first three books, although the third, "Providence", started to shade into truths of the second type, while, this, the last book, is wholly concerned with the second type of truth.

The transition between the two types of truths is easy to perceive from a shift in the premises Thomas used in his arguments: in approaching truths of the first type, he began with our common experience of the world, while in the second, he began with a particular sub-set of that experience, our experience of revelation through scripture. Where Thomas did not change was in his method: his approach was one of reason and argumentation, using an analytic method built on Aristotelian foundations.

With regard to subject matter, "Salvation" is concerned with four mysteries of Christian belief: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Sacraments, and the Resurrection. For each of these, Thomas was not concerned with demonstrating their truth independent of revelation - indeed, he considered such a task to be an impossibility. His purpose was instead two-fold: first, to defend the Catholic doctrine on these matters as philosophically possible, and second, as scripturally correct.

The first of these two purposes is easily understood from the purpose of the work as a whole: to provide intellectual support for Christians in Spain against Jewish and Moslem opponents. It takes little imagination to understand that demonstrating that Christian doctrine was not simply absurd was necessary both in reinforcing wavering Christians and in converting non-Christians.

The second of these two purposes is less obvious, but still understandable. Little is gained if the defeat of some anti-Christian argument is accomplished only by inadvertently adopting some other anti-Christian heresy in the process. A Christian defense must be a defense based on generally sound theological principals, and so Thomas provided not only defenses of the reasonableness of Christian belief, but also defenses against heresies that might otherwise be introduced in the process.

That said, one thing I could not help but feel missing from "Summa Contra Gentiles" was a defense of the authority of the New Testament. There is a substantial gap between demonstrating that such acceptance did not lead to unreasonable conclusions and demonstrating that such acceptance is more reasonable than non-acceptance. Nevertheless, this is something that Thomas simply did not attempt to do, even though it is clearly a necessary step in the defense of Christianity against non-Christians. Why Thomas omitted it is something of a puzzle, with the answer perhaps lying in what we don't know (which is a great deal) about the origins of the work.

That said, the points Thomas did undertake to demonstrate were handled with his usual surpassing insight and clarity. While Thomas had many great qualities as a writer, one of his qualities particularly welcome in a work such as this is the ability to clearly summarize and present without prejudice arguments with which he did not agree - Thomas didn't waste time constructing and demolishing straw men. Some of the subject matter is quite difficult (there's nothing easy about Trinitarian theology, for example), but that takes nothing away from Thomas's clarity as a writer.

As a final note, readers should be prepared on two levels: first, obviously, a familiarity with scripture. Since the premises of this book are drawn from scripture, the more familiar the reader is with scripture, the better. Second, it helps to be familiar with Aristotelian philosophy - particularly his "Physics". In my review of the first volume of "Summa Contra Gentiles", I presented a list of the core philosophical terms that Thomas used.

Rating:
Summary: Structure of
Review: Thomas Aquinas was an extraordinarily systematic thinker and writer. Because of this, one of the best ways to comprehend "Summa Contra Gentiles" is through consideration of its structure. At the highest level, it consists of 4 books, with the third book in two parts, on account of its length.

The titles of the five volumes are as follows:

Summa Contra Gentiles: God

Summa Contra Gentiles: Creation

Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence, Part I

Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence, Part II

Summa Contra Gentiles: Salvation

Each volume is formally divided into about 100 short chapters. A typical chapter gets its title from some proposition that is to be affirmed, or in some cases refuted. Each paragraph is an argument in support (or denial) of that proposition. The chapters are themselves ordered so that the later chapters build on what the arguments in the earlier chapters have established, and it is this arrangement of chapters that constitutes the real structure of "Summa Contra Gentiles".

Although in his later "Summa Theologica", Thomas formalized the higher-level structure of his writing, he did not do so here, which somewhat complicates any presentation of this structure - the book titles are so high level that they give little feel of the work, and the chapter titles so numerous that the reader is easily overwhelmed by a list of them.

In order to give the reader some sense of the overall work, I've prepared an outline of the work that (hopefully) is short enough to be readily comprehensible and long enough to give the reader an understanding of what topics are covered and in what order. This outline is presented below:

1.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: God

1.1 Intention of the Work (1 - 2)

1.2 Truths of Reason and Revelation (3 - 9)

1.3 That God Exists (10 - 13)

1.4 That God is Eternal (14 - 20)

1.5 God's Essence (21 - 28)

1.6 That God is Known (29 - 36)

1.7 That God is Good, One and Infinite (37 - 44)

1.8 God's Intellect and Knowledge (44 - 71)

1.9 God's Will (72 - 96)

1.10 God's Life and Beatitude (97 - 102)

2.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: Creation

2.1 Purpose of the Work (1 - 5)

2.2 That God is the Creator of All Things (6)

2.3 God's Power Over His Creation (7 - 29)

2.4 For and Against the Eternity of the World (30 - 38)

2.5 The Distinction of Things (39 - 45)

2.6 Intellectual Substances (46 - 55)

2.7 The Intellect, the Soul and the Body (57 - 78)

2.8 Immortality of Man's Soul (79 - 82)

2.9 Origin of Man's Soul (83 - 89)

2.10 On Non-human (Angelic) Intellects (90 - 101)

3.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence (Parts I and II)

3.1 Prologue (1)

3.2 Good, Evil, and God as the End of All Things (2 - 25)

3.3 Human Felicity (26 - 63)

3.4 How God's Providence Works (64 - 94)

3.5 Prayer and Miracles, Magic and Demons (95 - 110)

3.6 Rational Creatures and Divine Law (111 - 130)

3.7 Voluntary Poverty and Continence (131 - 138)

3.9 Rewards and Punishments (139 - 147)

3.10 Sin, Grace, and Predestination (148 - 163)

4.0 Salvation

4.1 Forward (1)

4.2 The Trinity (2 - 16)

4.3 The Incarnation (27 - 55)

4.4 The Sacraments (56 - 78)

4.5 The Resurrection (79 - 97)