Boethius and Aquinas

285 Pages·2012·15.42 MB·English

Boethius and Aquinas

Boethius and Aquinas
RALPH McINERNY
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
OF AMERICA PRESS
Washington, D. C.
Copyright © 1990, 2012
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standards for Information
Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Libary Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McInerny, Ralph, 1929–2010.
Boethius and Aquinas / Ralph McInerny.
p. cm.
Originally published: 1990.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8132-2110-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Boethius, d. 524—Influence. 2. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint,
1225?–1274. 3. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title.
B659.Z7M35 2012
189—dc23
2012034489
FOR JOSEPH BOBIK
Princeps Thomistarum

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: Two Italian Scholars I
PART ONE
The Art of the Commentary
1. Commenting on Aristotle 33
2. Altissimum negotium: Universals 6I
PART TWO
De trinitate
3· Thomas Comments on Boethius 97
4· Tres speculativae partes I2I
5· Metaphysics and Existence 148
PART THREE
De hebdomadibus
6. Survey of Interpretations I6I
7· The Exposition of St. Thomas I99
8. More on the Good 232
Epilogue: Sine Thoma Boethius Mutus Esset 249
Appendix: Chronologies of Boethius and St. Thomas 255
Bibliography 259
Index 265
vii

Preface
This book deals with the relation between St. Thomas Aquinas
and Boethius. That "the last of the Romans and the first of the
Scholastics" should have influenced Thomas has nothing distinc
tive about it: the same can be said of the vast majority of medie
val masters. But there is more in the case of Thomas.
It is the rare theologian who does not invoke Boethius's defi
nition of person and eternity, thereby exhibiting acquaintance,
however secondhand, with the Consolation of Philosophy and
the theological tractates. Thomas's affinity with Boethius is man
ifold. For one thing, unlike other theologians, he commented on
works of Aristotle, among them On Interpretation, in the course
of which he cites Boethius's comments, often to take exception
to them. Nonetheless, his own massive effort in commenting on
Aristotle owes much to techniques Boethius had passed on to
the Latin West. More important, Thomas commented on two of
Boethius's theological tractates, De trinitate (incomplete) and
De hebdomadibus. It is with these that this book is chiefly con
cerned.
When in 1879 Leo XIII issued Aeterni Patris, thereby giving
papal impetus to the modern revival of interest in St. Thomas
Aquinas, the Holy Father saw Thomas not only for himself but
as a lieutenant of Christian philosophy. Thomas was not re
garded as a lonely figure, without antecedents and without epi
gones, but as a man of massive intellect and holiness in whom a
multifaceted centuries-long cultural tradition achieved an im
pressive unity and from whom that perennial philosophy has
been passed on. Thomas Aquinas might be the preeminent Doc
tor of the Church, but there were many doctors before him and
there have been many since. Despite these assumptions of Ae-
IX