Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

AQUINAS AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 39
God's providence. From this starting point, it should be clear to the
Muslim as well that God could have acted otherwise, because God is
almighty. But the point here is that we look for a certain fittingness
(convenientiaf". This is one of the few times that Aquinas appeals to a
community in faith between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and that he
perceives Muslims as believers (Dei cultoresï. In this seventh chapter,
Thomas Aquinas gives a very interesting overview of the human life
of Christ as a poor and even weak man, in order to give us an
example of how to live our human lives, respecting both God's
strength and human weakness. Aquinas believes that the fruits of this
life of Christ as a common man are enormous: the conversion of
almost the whole world".
The fourth argument, about the eating of the body of God, is
disposed of quickly: everyone who is even slightly instructed in the
Christian faith knows that the body of Christ is eaten not by partition
of it, but by changing the substance of bread. Consequently, there is
no problem of reduced quantity here. But Aquinas seizes the
opportunity to invent some more penetrating objections: 'if an
unbeliever would say that this conversion (of bread into the body of
God) is impossible, he should keep in mind - if he believes in God's
86 C. 7: "Si quis autem obiciat quod Deus, cum sit omnipotens, alio
modo poterat humanum genus salvare quam per unigeniti Filii sui mortem;
considerare debet qui hoc obicit, quod in factis Dei considerandum est quid
convenienter fieri potuit, etiam si alio modo id Deus facere potuisset: alioquin
omnia eius opera similis ratio irritabit. (... ) sapienter cogitanti occurret quod
sic convenienter fieri potuit, Iicet Deus aliter facere potuisset. Dico autem hoc
secundum quod credimus totam naturae dispositionem - et humanos actus -
divinae providentiae esse subiectam; hac enim credulitate subIata, omnis
divinitatis cultus excluditur. Suscepimus autem praesentem disputationem ad
eos qui se Dei cultores dicunt, sive sint Christiani sive Saraceni sive Iudaei;
ad eos autem qui omnia ex necessitate provenisse dicunt a Deo, operosius a
nobis alibi disputatum est" (pp. B 65-66).
87 Ibid.: "Si quis ergo ex talibus initiis tantum fructum videat
consecutum, scilicet conversionem fere totius mundi ad Christum, et ulterius
alia signa quaerat ad. credendum, durior lapide censeri potest cum in morte
eius etiam petrae sint scissae" (p. B 67).The distance between the Middle
Ages and our modern era concerning this 'conversion of the whole world to
Christ' has been touched upon before.