Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

INTRODUCTION
This year's volume of the Jaarboek of the Thomas Instituut, being the
sixteenth to be published since 1981, contains a rich variety of studies
of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Subjects that are treated are
Interreligious Dialogue, Christology, Law, the Wrath of God,
Freedom of God and Human Beings, and the concept of Life.
Pim Valkenberg, lecturer of systematic theology at the Faculty of
Theology of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and. member of our
editorial board, studies Aquinas' theory and practice of interreligious
dialogue c.q. communication. Having introduced the recent history of
interreligious dialogue, and his own views on the meaning of such
concepts as polemics, apologetics and dialogue, Valkenberg makes
plausible that Aquinas, despite obvious doubts, is relevant in this
respect. However, the author proposes an approach which is not
direct, of which he gives an example, but indirect, i.e.
hermeneutically sensible, devoting attention to Aquinas' theory and
practice of defending the Christian faith. Aquinas' Summa contra
Gentiles and De rationibus fidei are studied in this regard. This second
section of Valkenberg's contribution, which also contains a
comparison of Christian apologetics with the Islamic kalûm, concludes
that more study of other polemical, apologetical and dialogical texts in
the Middle Ages is needed in order to establish a 'definitive'
interpretation of Aquinas' texts. The third and last section contains a
number of proposals in this regard. This pilot study will be followed
upon next year, hopefully, by a monograph from the author and some
contributions to the Jaarboek by others.
The second study in this volume is written by emeritus
professor in systematic theology, the history of dogma and theology of
the Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, and former director of
our Institute, prof. dr. Ferdinand de Grijs. De Grijs, well-known for
his reluctance to join the publishing mania in academic circles, happily
agreed on publication of a, by the undersigned, reworked version of
what originally was a draft for private discussion. De Grijs defends
the thesis that faith in the risen, living Christ should be. the