Aquinas on Scripture: A Primer

John Boyle provides a vital introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas on Scripture, illuminating the objectives, techniques, and commitments that motivate the Angelic Doctor's engagement with the holy page with the accuracy and depth born of thirty years of dedicated study. This introduction to St. Thomas's vision of Scripture is itself an orientation to the Church's vision of Scripture, from the Fathers through and beyond the Middle Ages, because the genius of St. Thomas's approach to the Bible lies not so much in its novelty as in the fidelity and clarity with which he recapitulates the riches of the preceding interpretive Tradition.

St. Thomas's approach to Scripture is deeply rooted in the Church's Tradition and in his own historical setting, yet this may put him at odds with contemporary readers who may find his interpretative vision obscure or even incomprehensible. Boyle begins this introduction by orienting the reader to the scholastic theology of the Middle Ages and the technical terms that St. Thomas utilised. Boyle expands on this by considering St. Thomas's perspectives on Scripture's final cause (its end or use), its divine and human authorship (the efficient cause), its order and division (the material cause), and its literary styles or genres (the material cause) in light of the mediaeval practise of considering Scripture according to the fourfold division of causes (formal cause).

Boyle draws on St. Thomas's writings across his works, but especially On the Commendation and Division of Sacred Scripture and the prologues to his biblical commentaries, to expertly explain the hermeneutic principles and profound wisdom of the Angelic Doctor's approach to Scripture, providing invaluable guidance not only for reading and understanding St. Thomas and other great masters of the Tradition, but also—and ultimately—for understanding Scripture.