Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

28 PIM VALKENBERG
2.3 The rules of properly defending the truth of faith
The true nature ·of Aquinas' so-called 'Summa contra Gentiles' (1258-
1264) remains an object of many scholarly disputes. There are two
established traditions. The first one, based on the testimony of Peter
Marsilius, says that Raymund of Peiiaforte required this work as a
manual for the conversion of the Moors in Spain?', In that case, this
Summa would have a missionary purpose, and therefore a directly
apologetic character. The second tradition originated in Neo­
Scholasticism; it holds that Aquinas' approach in this Summa is of a
philosophical nature, and complements the theological nature of his
Summa theologiae. One thus distinguished between a 'philosophical'
Summa and a Summa theologica [sic]. Both traditions have been
attacked by Michel Corbin in his study about the shifts in the concept
of theology operating in Aquinas' four systematic-theological texts",
and by Mark Jordan in a series of studies about the rhetorical
character of Aquinas' texts".
One of the main arguments used by both Corbin and Jordan
to combat the tradition in favour of the apologetic or missiological
character of the Summa contra Gentiles is precisely that Aquinas
hardly seems to know anything about the Muslim religion and its
contemporary theories and practices, which would be absolutely
required for any apologetic manual worthy of its name. But, on the
other hand, it is evident that apologetic motives are at work in this
Summa which bears the title of Liber de veritate Catholicae fidei
contra errores infidelium in most of its oldest descriptions.
Another interpretation says that the work is apologetic indeed,
but it does not face the Muslims in Spain, but rather the philosophical
theologische faculteit Nijmegen, Baarn 1994, pp. 81-94, here pp. 82-84 with
reference to M. Poorthuis, Het gelaat van de Messias: messiaanse talmoedlezingen
van Emmanuel Levinas, Utrecht I Hilversum 1992.
64 Cp. M-D. Chenu, Introduction à l'étude de saint Thomas d'Aquin,
Montréal I Paris 1950, pp. 247-248.
65 M. Corbin, Le chemin de la théologie chez Thomas d'Aquin, Paris
1974, pp. 475-489.
66 See his "The Protreptic Structure of the < Summa contra
Gentiles> n, The Thomist 50 (1986), 173-209.