Abstract

This book notes that from the standpoints of "speculative vigor, originality and profoundness of thought" the Scripta on the Sentences "ranks first in the long list of Aquinas’ works". Yet, it claims, no commentator "has ever tried to extract from it the basic elements of his philosophy". The difficulty is that "Aquinas carefully avoids attributing to himself the discovery of any new doctrine". Mondin accordingly undertakes to disengage in some areas the philosophy contained in the Scripta. Logic is covered briefly, reconstructed to fit into a framework already outlined by R. W. Schmidt. The epistemology, likewise briefly, adjusts the texts to the viewpoint of critical realism. In metaphysics, esse and essence "are to be seen as two really objectively distinct principles", though in the Scripta Aquinas presents "a varied and complex treatment" with regard to their real distinction. The use of the term existentia is vindicated, and "in the Scripta we encounter a proof of God’s existence, different from the Five Ways, based exclusively on Aquinas’ new understanding of being and on the real distinction between essence and esse in creatures". Man is examined as an imago Dei, and as having a "natural end". Finally, theological language and analogy are discussed in the framework of currently accepted categories, with the conclusion that no sign of a substantial revolution in the understanding of analogy and metaphysics is to be found in the career of Aquinas. Klubertanz’ list of analogy texts is copiously supplemented.