Speaking with Aquinas: A Conversation about Grace, Virtue, and the Eucharist

According to Thomas Aquinas, the Eucharist is meant to build up the unity of the church. This desired ecclesial unity is, however, not often given adequate treatment. In Speaking with Aquinas, David Farina Turnbloom seeks to describe the relationship between the celebration of the Eucharist and the unity of the church. By examining Aquinas's treatment of grace and virtues, this book allows the reader to understand Aquinas's eucharistic theology within the context of the spiritual life of the church. In the end, Turnbloom retrieves a Thomistic theology of the Eucharist that arises from Aquinas's concern for the virtuous life of the church, rather than a eucharistic theology that too narrowly focuses on theories of transubstantiation.

Table of Contents:
Contents   FOREWORD - Bruce T. Morrill, SJ   xi   PREFACE Conversion through Conversation   x   INTRODUCTION Finding a Lost Voice   xvii   I. Grammars   xvii   II. Scholastic Grammars   xx   III. Modern Grammars   xxiv   IV. The Problem: Lacking Context   xxvii   V. The Solution: Finding a Lost Voice   xxx   CHAPTER ONE Why the Secunda Pars?   1   I. Lamenting the Loss of a Loss   2      1. The Deadly Dichotomy   2      2. Consequences of the Deadly Dichotomy   5   II. The Purpose of the Summa Theologiae   9   III. Signification and Causality   11   IV. Baptism and Penance: Infusing Charity   16   V. The Eucharist: Increasing Charity   20   VI. Unanswered Questions   25   CHAPTER TWO Grace as the Embodied Spiritual Life   27   I. The Teleological Nature of the Spiritual Life   28      1. The Structure of the Summa Theologiae   29      2. The Place of the Prima Secundae in the Summa    32   II. Grace and the Spiritual Life   33      1. Grace Actualizing the Image of God   35      2. The Spiritual Life Conforming to Grace   39   III. Belief and Signs   40   IV. Conclusion: Cooperative Participation   47   CHAPTER THREE The Theological Virtues Founding the Embodied Spiritual Life   49   I. The Theological Virtues: Orders and Degrees   50      1. Faith, Hope, and Charity  51      2. Orders of Generation and Perfection   52      3. Three Degrees of Charity   56   II. Falling in Love with God   57      1. Justification   58      2. Infusion   61   III. Growing in Love for God   64      1. Sanctification   64      2. Increase   66   IV. Being Saved by Love   70   CHAPTER FOUR The Moral Virtues Manifesting the Embodied Spiritual Life   73   I. Moral Virtues   74      1. The Codependence of Moral Virtues  75      2. Acquiring and Increasing Moral Virtue   84   II. Embodying Friendship with God   87      1. Operating Ex Caritate   87      2. Dispositive Acts of Charity   92      3. Communal Embodiment of Friendship with God   97   III. Grammars of Grace and Virtue   100   CHAPTER FIVE The Eucharist Nourishing the Embodied Spiritual Life   103   I. Jesus Establishes the Way   104      1. Paschal Mystery as Sacrificial Sign of God’s Love   104      2. Provocation as Possibility of Theosis   108   II. Sacraments Show the Way   111      1. Writing the Signs through Religion   112      2. Reading the Signs through Faith   115      3. Graced Cooperation   118   III. Eucharist as Nourishment for the Way   120      1. Writing Christ through the Eucharist   121      2. Spiritually Eating through Faith   123      3. The Unity of the Church: The Fellowship of Sinful Saints   129   C H A P T E R S I X A Liturgical Theology of Right Religion    133   I. A Self-Defeating Tendency   133   II. Goodness and Rightness   138   III. Religious Signification   140   IV. Right Religion   142      1. Religious Prudence   143      2. Striving for Right Religion   144   V. Writing a Diverse Christ for a Plural World   148      1. Prudently Writing Christ   148      2. How Do We Write Christ?   150   CONCLUSION Speaking with a Lost Voice   155   Bibliography   157 Index   163  

About the Author :
David Farina Turnbloom is assistant professor of theology at the University of Portland. He has published numerous articles focusing on the relationships between Christian worship and ethics. He is a board member of the ecumenical group The Liturgical Conference. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from Boston College. Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, holds the Edward A. Malloy Chair of Catholic Studies in the divinity school at Vanderbilt University where he is also Professor of Theological Studies. In addition to numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reviews, he has published several books, most recently Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament (Paulist Press, 2012). His most recent book with liturgical Press is Divine Worship and Human Healing: Liturgical Theology at the Margins of Life and Death (Pueblo/Liturgical Press, 2009).

Review :
"Lucid, compelling, and conversational, David Farina Turnbloom's Speaking with Aquinas connects the sacramental theology of the Summa Theologica with Thomas Aquinas's soteriology and ethics. By examining the relationship between grace and the virtues, Turnbloom uncovers the presuppositions of Thomas Aquinas's treatises on the sacraments and on the Eucharist. Aquinas's `multiple grammars' allow him to treat the paradoxical agency of both Christ and the Christian in the sacraments. As a result, in this nuanced but accessible treatment, the Holy Spirit and the Christian life of faith emerge as the center of Aquinas's sacramental theology. Speaking with Aquinas reveals the links between Christology, sacrament, the Eucharist, and ethics, showing how Aquinas's sacramental soteriology can still speak to readers today."Kimberly Belcher, PhD, University of Notre Dame "David Turnbloom invites us into an entirely new conversation about how the Eucharist nourishes our moral lives. Into the circle of contemporary theologians like Chauvet, Morrill, and Baldovin, Turnbloom invites Thomas Aquinas and gives him room to speak about his grammar of grace and virtue. As Turnbloom channels Thomas, we hear the thirteenth-century theologian with a whole new voice speaking to us about the spiritual life of friendship with God as a pilgrim community. Refreshingly satisfying discourse for hungry Christians on the move!"James F. Keenan, SJ, Canisius Professor, Boston College "Turnbloom provides a comprehensive understanding of the Eucharist while allowing Aquinas's work to be given a place that is extremely helpful to Christianity as a whole rather than getting bogged down"Robert Huttmeyer, Catholic Library World "Many elements of his work will facilitate conversation among even the most entrenched parties on either side, namely, those who would absolutize scholastic grammars of the sacraments, and those who would do likewise to modern grammars, such as those grounded in patristics, anthropology, or studies of symbols."Theological Studies "An ambitious project, but quite a necessary one. Turnbloom's attempt to build a dialogue between different aspects of Aquinas's thought and bring it into a more recent kind of liturgical theology is admirable. The author's writing is accessible to the ordinary reader who might not be familiar with Thomistic theology."Ecclesia Orans "By retrieving Aquinas' own understanding of grace and virtue, and the underlying principles of theosis, Turnbloom shows that there is not necessarily a deficit in Aquinas so much as in the interpretation of his work. Turnbloom also makes a strong case for the importance of virtues of charity and prudence in constructing `right' acts of religion today, perhaps offering a rejoinder to the more aggressive elements on both sides of current liturgical debates." Anaphora "This stimulating book sets a high bar for further study of other medieval authors like Bonaventure to situate their sacramental, eucharistic theologies more broadly within the broader context of the whole scope of their work. The book is a creative and thought-provoking contribution to contemporary eucharistic theology." Worship