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31. See Chapter 3, pp. 52-55. |
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32. See Chapter 12, "Doctrines," in Lonergan 1972, for an example of the way in which the required differentiation of doctrine might proceed. |
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33. For an exposition of the transition from comparative theology to the theology of religions, see Clooney 1990a. |
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34. See my comments on Lindbeck's understanding of the relationship between scripture and world, at the end of Chapter 3. |
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35. On these, see D'Costa 1987, Clooney 1989a, and Knitter 1989. |
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36. My understanding of Aquinas throughout this section is indebted to David Burrell's reading of Aquinas, particularly in his Aquinas: God and Action (1979). |
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37. Cardinal Cajetan notes that "student" and "beginner" here should not be taken to indicate that the Summa Theologiae is a mere primer; rather, its elegant simplicity is at the same time profound, and requires intensive, careful study. |
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38. This was recently aptly recalled by MacIntyre (1988, pp. 175-178), who correctly notes how carefully Aquinas keeps together the following concerns of the good teacher: to begin with simpler truths, to distinguish between premises and consequences while yet not expecting that the former be fully understood before the latter are worked through, to understand the process of understanding as it personally occurs in a student's ordinary experience and, finally, to pay attention to the quality of the life of the student, who learns properly only when properly prepared and thus making the connection between the practice of the good life and proper reflection on lived experience. See also Persson 1970, pp. 242ff., on how pedagogy and the structure of the "real" contribute to Aquinas' ordering of the Summa Theologiae. |
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39. Persson elucidates the pedagogy of the Summa Theologiae. He stresses that for Aquinas all theology is scriptural theology or, better, a sacra doctrina,a teaching "in other words" of the divine revelation which is available to us only in the Bible. Although the Bible is entirely adequate, it is difficult, accessible to those who have zealously studied it and probed its meaning. (Persson 1970, p. 58) In order to present its truth to the larger community of those who are not so well-prepared, the Church has always had to find ways of teaching the scripture; this teaching is the traditio of the Church, the doctrina. (47) Aquinas himself prefers the term "doctrina" to "theologia," in order to stress "the sense of teaching and the outward activity which clearly for Thomas constitutes the theological task." (71) Good theology is always an extension of scripture (89), which remains its norm. (83) He notes that when Aquinas in- |
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