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are then to be read together, in a process which (gradually) fashions a new literacy. The primary accomplishment of comparison is the person who makes the comparisonnot as the bearer of certain religious experiences, but as the reader (and then writer) of texts, who is educated differently and made proficient in the skillful performance of comparative reading. |
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In Chapters 2 and 4 we saw that the Advaita Text is a profoundly pedagogical document. The same is true of the Summa Theologiae. In his preface Aquinas announces that it is a text for students: |
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Because the Master of Catholic Truth ought not only teach |
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the proficient, but also instruct beginners (according to the Apostle: as unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat [I Corinthians 3.1,2,]) we purpose in this book to treat of whatever belongs to the Christian Religion, in such as way as may tend to the instruction of beginners . . . we shall try, by God's help, to set forth whatever is included in this Sacred Science as briefly and clearly as the matter itself may allow.
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That the Summa Theologiae is written for the student is evident in several ways. First, we are dealing in it with the basics of theology, what needs to be known by the well-trained theologian, and not with overly specialized questions. Second, Aquinas structures the Summa according to the needs of the student, and so according to the structure of good learning: the order in which topics are raised and difficulties met is conformed to how the student can best assimilate it in a reflective learning process.38 |
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The Summa Theologiae leads the student from an initial reflection on how we can be said to know anything about God, to an ordered consideration of God "in himself" and as creator, to a consideration of created reality, particularly of the human person who is enabled to know and relate to God, and finally to a consideration of Jesus Christ and the Christian order of salvation. Although this final consideration may of course have been the first concern for many students, it is not necessarily the first to be properly understood. |
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The consistency of Aquinas' pedagogical concern is revealed again in his comments on the master of theology in ST I117.1, |
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