Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

REVIEW of Carlo Leget, Living with God. Thomas
Aquinas on the relation betweenLife on Earth and 'Life'
after Death (Leuven: Peeters 1997), 304pp.
Thomas F. O'Meara o.p.
It is not easy at the end of the twentieth century, so rich in historical
and theological studies of Thomas Aquinas, to find an important theme
which books, monographs, and dissertations have not already
extensively presented. Carlo Leget's work on life does that, offering
an important term and theme which has multiple branch-topics. This is
a considerable resource for the Thomistic study of various aspects of
Aquinas' theology from the point of view of life. The book's pattern
moves from the life of God through Christian life to eschatological
life; it offers, however, smaller, valuable sections on knowing-beingliving.
on life in the Trinity or in Christology. on life and death. The
genre of this Thomistic survey is not one of historical context, nor one
of the development of the ideas of the medieval Dominican; it is,
rather, that often employed genre of Thomism which is the gathering
of numerous pertinent texts but, unlike some earlier attempts,
implications in doctrinal areas, patterns of organization, and challenges
of contemporary questions are kept in mind. The book and its English
are quite readable.
This book by a member of the Thomas Instituut in Utrecht,
The Netherlands, illustrates through detailed analyses the underlying
dynamics of Aquinas' theology; we see anew that it is a totality
wherein the parts illustrate each other. Hence life as existence and
knowing refers to divine life, and the life of grace refers to
Christology and eschatology. 'Life' also opens the reader up to the
boundary situation of the human being: between Creator and finitude,
between material being and spiritual person, between the living and
the living who live further in grace. The author emphasizes what we
might call an activist approach, seeking out the activities in kinds of
life. So his interest in divine life is often Trinitarian, and his
presentation of human life moves into active virtues, beatitudes
followed, counsels accepted. There is considerable discussion of death,