Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1995 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

THEOLOGY OF PROVOCATIVE RECEPTIVITY 29
3-11 of ST I, Corbin for his thorough analysis of ST I, q. 1, which
shows the important place of Scripture in Thomas' conception of
theology.' Research projects were developed and executed about the
role of Scripture in Aquinas' theology and about Thomas' use of
language theories in his christology. 6 In De Grijs' articles one can see
similar accents. As already noticed the remarks about the opening
quaestiones of the Summa play an important role in the discussion with
Schoonenberg. The way Thomas uses Scripture is more prominent in
some other articles, especially in two articles dedicated to this
question.
In both articles De Grijs is not so much interested in Thomas
as 'exegete', as commentator of Scripture, but in Thomas as
systematic theologian, that is, in the way Thomas uses Scripture in his
systematic reflection. In one article the topic is the will of Christ, in
the other Thomas' unfinished book De Regno. The two articles are
rather different, due to the difference in topic and material: in the
article on the will of Christ De Grijs starts with collecting a dossier of
relevant texts from systematic works, while with regard to De Regno
the dossier is given with the choice of the book. But there is further
difference, while the texts on the will of Christ contain 'inevitably'
references to Scripture, the theme of De Regno ('how to govern') does
not require inevitably references to Scripture. These differences lead
also to a difference in attention or focus. In the first case the attention
is focused on how Thomas in his systematic theological reflection on a
mystery of faith uses Scripture in his search for insight and in his
discussion of problems (32, p. 38). In the second case the aim is to
see whether the way Thomas uses Scripture throws light on the
theological character of this practical book (42, p. 35). This means
that, although in both cases De Grijs analyses, in the first article his
analysis is mainly an exploration, while in the second his analysis is
D.B. Burrell, Aquinas. God and Action, London and Henley, 1979;
M. Corbin, Le chemin de LathéoLogiechez Thomas d'Aquin, Paris, 1974.
6 W.G.B.M. Valkenberg, Did not our heart burn? Place and Function
of HoLy Scripture in the TheoLogy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Publications of the
Thomas Instituut te Utrecht, vol. 3, Utrecht, 1990; Henk J .M. Schoot, Christ
the 'Name' of God. Thomas Aquinas on naming Christ, Publications of the
Thomas Instituut te Utrecht, N.S. Vol. I, Leuven: Peeters, 1993.