Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

40 PIM VALKENBERG
way divine truths are the better hidden from the unworthy. II
As Michel Corbin notes in one of his Christological studies on
Aquinas, the divine descent into human form, "taking the form of a
slave" (Phil 2,7) forms the Christological warrant for recognizing
God in "the least ones" (Mt 25,45).12
Finally, Aquinas quotes Dionysius once again when he deals
with the basic hermeneutical question of interpreting authorities in
theology. As we read before, Dionysius said that we should not dare
to speak about the hidden eminent Deity otherwise than in language
revealed to us in Holy Scripture. In his commentary on this text from
De Divinis Nominibus, Aquinas points to the Latin translation that
says: "we should not dare to say or think differently from the divinely
revealed expressions from the sacred writings"." Dionysius says:
from the sacred writings, not in the sacred writings, and therefore
everything that may - according to the rule of faith - be derived from
the text of Scripture, may be used in our God-talk although it is not
literally contained in Scripture. In this manner, Aquinas formulates a
hermeneutical rule that creates space for theological language not
directly contained in Scripture and yet faithful to Scripture. It is this
notion of faithfulness to Scripture while using different phrases that
will return in Nicolas of Cusa; both authors used this notion when
confronted with ecumenical issues. In the case of Aquinas, pope
Urban IV asked him to write an assessment of Greek theology in
preparation of the Council of Lyon in 1274. In the prologue to the
work he wrote, Aquinas shows his awareness of the fact that the
sayings of the Greek Fathers of the Church have to be explained
carefully because of the historical distance and the development of
doctrine. Therefore, some of their sayings do not sound exactly the
way we would phrase them; in those cases we should not reject them,
nor should we stretch them any further, but we should explain them
II Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 1 a. 9 ad 3um. Translation
Bauerschmidt (2005), o.c., 41.
12Michel Corbin, L 'inouï de Dieu: six études christologiques, Paris 1980,
204.
13 Dionysius, De divinis nominibus 1, I (in the Latin translation by Johannes
Sarracenus): "Igitur universaliter non est audendum dicere aliquid nee etiam
cogitare de supersubstantiali et occulta deitate praeter ea quae divinitus nobis
ex sanctis eloquiis sunt expressa." Text in Thomas Aquinas, Opera Omnia
(ed. Vivès) XXIX, 375.