Aquinas and the Supreme Court: Biblical Narratives of Jews, Gentiles and Gender

Cover......Page 1
Title page......Page 7
Copyright page......Page 8
Contents......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Bibliographic Note......Page 16
List of Abbreviations......Page 19
Aquinas on the Bible and the Court......Page 23
Aquinas and the Court in New Natural Law Theory......Page 27
How to Read Aquinas......Page 32
How to Read This Book......Page 37
Part I: Aquinas on the failure of natural law......Page 39
Part II: Aquinas on the redemption of natural law......Page 40
References......Page 42
2: What Aquinas Thinks We Cannot Know......Page 47
Knowledge and Unfathomability Belong Together......Page 49
We cannot know the essence of God......Page 50
We cannot know things......Page 54
We cannot know singulars......Page 61
We cannot know conclusions from precepts......Page 65
Nature Belongs Together with Failure......Page 68
Nature Belongs Together with Grace......Page 74
References......Page 83
3: How God Moves Creatures: For and Against Natural Law......Page 85
Aquinas Meets Finnis......Page 86
Natural law is for getting leverage over against  the community as a whole......Page 91
Natural law is for sheltering the virtues from fate......Page 92
Natural law refers to the minimal practices of a craft......Page 93
Natural law is for uniting love and gravity......Page 94
Natural law is for talking about movement before it is  for talking about sentences......Page 100
A “precept” (prae + captus) of natural law is for “capturing in advance” first of all the works of virtue in action......Page 104
In subsequent reflection, a “precept” of natural law is for confirming that scripture has pre-captured the insights of Aristotle......Page 107
“Instructio” is for furnishing, equipping, or arming before it is  for teaching sentences......Page 111
Propositions are about the eucharist before they are about sentences......Page 113
Love and Gravity......Page 115
References......Page 117
4: How Aquinas Reads Scripture......Page 119
An Interpreter’s License......Page 120
A Sample of Figurative Exegesis......Page 124
An Ordered Diversity: Fitting Explications and Spiritual Senses......Page 126
Theological Interests and Purposes......Page 131
An Interpreter’s Virtues (Applying Stout)......Page 132
Between Providence and Prayer......Page 136
References......Page 138
5: How the Law of Nature Is a Character in Decline......Page 140
Natural Law in the Commentary on Romans 1......Page 147
What was its original character?......Page 149
Does the Truth of God include natural law?......Page 152
Is natural law an alias of the Truth of God, or a different character altogether?......Page 153
What happened to natural law?......Page 154
How does Aquinas portray natural law under detention?......Page 157
How did its detention affect its human captors?......Page 158
Natural Law and Natural Knowledge  of God in Parallel......Page 161
Notes......Page 165
References......Page 167
6: How the Narrative Sexualizes Nature’s Decline......Page 169
Rejoining what time has put asunder......Page 171
Seeing parts in terms of wholes......Page 174
Christianizing Aristotle......Page 176
Commentary on Romans......Page 179
The condemnation at Romans 1:26......Page 180
The unraveling of the assumed correspondences......Page 185
Aquinas on disputes about scripture......Page 187
Aquinas, Scripture, and Moral Norms......Page 193
Notes......Page 194
References......Page 195
Introduction......Page 201
Conclusions about the Natural Cognition of God from Aquinas’s Romans Commentary......Page 206
Aquinas and Barth......Page 217
A Barthian objection......Page 218
Assessing the hypothesis: Aquinas and Barth  in convergence on Romans 1?......Page 227
Notes......Page 234
References......Page 235
Controversy......Page 237
Trinity......Page 239
Knowledge of the Son......Page 243
The Law of the Spirit......Page 245
The Spirit in reason......Page 248
The Spirit in habit......Page 249
The Ecumenical Future of Faith and Reason......Page 251
References......Page 252
The Construction of Natural Law in the Summa and the Commentary on Romans 1......Page 254
Theses on Aquinas and Butler......Page 256
Lying and Lying Together, or How Do  Bodies Tell the Truth?......Page 259
References......Page 267
10: How the Spirit Moves the Law......Page 269
References......Page 285
11: How Natural Science Becomes a Form of Prayer......Page 287
Three Aristotles......Page 292
Discovery, Description, Deduction......Page 295
Philosophy versus Theology of Science......Page 297
Teleology: objection and reply......Page 299
Accessibility: objection and reply......Page 304
References......Page 309
12: How the Semen of the Spirit Genders the Gentiles: Rereading Romans......Page 311
Notes......Page 318
References......Page 319
Conclusion: Questions Answered and Unanswered......Page 320
References......Page 325
Subject Index......Page 327
Index of Thomistic Citations......Page 335