Abstract

The working text follows the Faucher edition with some variants picked up from the Leonine. The questions cover St. Thomas' location of the virtue of religion as a "potential part of justice" and his consideration of "Religion in Itself" as a virtue. From here St. Thomas moves to a consideration of the internal acts of religion, "Devotion", "Prayer", and "Adoration", which, while they have an external face, are viewed properly as the direct ordering of the mind and heart to God. Next are considered the more external acts of religion, which are ordered to these internal acts: "Sacrifice," "Oblations," "Tithes," "Vows," and "Oaths". Finally, St. Thomas takes up "Adjuring" and the "Use of God's Name in Prayer or Praise". The last article of Q. 91 concludes on the delightful note that "song [should be] used in praising God so that the minds of the fainthearted may be incited to devotion," which, when taken together with other structural and focal hints throughout this treatise, suggests the subtle way in which St. Thomas has incorporated—if the anachronism be excused—all three of the Kierkegaardian "Stages" into the single dialectic of religion. The six appendices are clear, concise, and genuinely useful.—E. A. R.