Bücher von Joseph P. Wawrykow

This complete yet concise reference work provides scholars and students with accurate interpretations of the ways in which Thomas Aquinas used important theological terms. Aquinas, a theologian and philosopher in the Roman Catholic Church, sought to reconcile faith and reason, philosophy and Christianity. He discussed many theological topics in his extensive writings and became one of the most important theologians of the Middle Ages. His influence continues to be pervasive today and his thought is of major interest to both Roman Catholics and Protestants.The Westminster Handbook to Christian Theology series provides a set of resources for the study of historic and contemporary theological movements and Christian theologians. These books are intended to help students and scholars find concise and accurate treatments of important theological terms.

This volume is a reliable guide and introduction to the theology of Aquinas and provides direction to the most important features of his theological thought.

Offering a fresh approach to one significant aspect of the soteriology of Thomas Aquinas, God's Grace and Human Action brings new scholarship and insights to the issue of merit in Aquinas's theology. Through a careful historical analysis, Joseph P. Wawrykow delineates the precise function of merit in Aquinas's account of salvation. Wawrykow accounts for the changes in Thomas's teaching on merit from the early Scriptum on the Sentences of Peter Lombard to the later Summa theologiae in two ways. First, he demonstrates how the teaching of the Summa theologiae discloses the impact of Thomas's profound encounter with the later writings of Augustine on predestination and grace. Second, Wawrykow notes the implications of Thomas's mature theological judgment that merit is best understood in the context of the plan of divine wisdom. The portrayal of merit in sapiential terms in the Summa permits Thomas to insist that the attainment of salvation through merit testifies not only to the dignity of the human person but even more to the goodness of God.