Christ as Head of the Church in Calvin and Aquinas

'Is Christ Head of the Church as Man?' This Licentiate Thesis addresses this apparently obscure question, a commonplace of high scholastic tracts 'De gratia capitis', first tracing its genesis in Augustine's commentaries, later biblical commentaries, and the twelfth-century schools, then considering its treatment by early-thirteenth-century scholastics, before turning to Aquinas' own treatment of the problem. Attention is paid to the development in Thomas' thought on this topic, a development which moves clearly and decisively away from what had been the majority opinion of his peers.

2000

De Medio Aevo, 2025

Current sociological and theological observations point to the existence of a phenomenon known as «de-churching» in Western countries. Within the Church, there has been a long-standing discussion on the relativisation of some points of the doctrine and the dilution of the notion of consensus in the Church in favour of what could even be described as deliberate multiplicity that does not need to be reconciled. In this perspective, I would like to analyse Aquinas's teaching about the consensus Ecclesiae, a theme which opens up the wider subject of the unity of and affiliation with the Church. Aquinas analyses the notion of ecclesial consensus and the unity/multiplicity relationship-concerning, for instance, opinions on the truths of the faith, permissible divergences, or «differences» in faith-in the context of unity with Christ and the concept of the persona mystica. This implies an alignment of the members with the Head, a constant movement of reconciliation that takes place not so much among the members as it does between them and Christ. In this sense, the «wounds of unity» in the form of heresies and schisms and the dangers that stem from them occupy his attention in many commentaries in which he makes an effort to demonstrate errors. This pursuit of unity is more than a concordance of opinions; it is an ontological perseverance in communion with Christ. Aquinas's reflections on the unity of the Church in the historical dimension will be presented in this light, with his distinction between implicit and explicit faith.

Credo Magazine, 2022

A discussion of the extra Calvinisitcum in Thomas Aquinas and its significance for classical Christology.

Themelios, 2017

The Heythrop Journal, 2020

New Blackfriars, 2018

Religious Studies Review, 2010

This book consists essentially of the edition of the Gospel of Thomas published in the fifteenth edition of the Synopsis Quatuor Evangeliorum (Kurt Aland, ed., 1996), with slight revisions, together with a commentary on each logion. The Coptic text of each logion is followed by a Greek retroversion whenever it has a parallel in the NT. The Greek parallel in the Oxyrhynchus papyri is also presented where extant, followed by an English translation of the Coptic text. The commentary is intended to facilitate understanding of the Coptic text, with philological and historical exegesis and discussion of parallel traditions in early Christian literature. In his introduction, Plisch deals with such issues as tradition history, time of composition, authorship, and provenance. Plisch places the Gospel of Thomas in a Syrian milieu, and argues that some of the sayings present very early tradition, while others stem from as late as the second quarter of the second century. Schenke Robinson's English translation of the German is excellent. While it is unfortunate that Plisch was unable to take into account the important work on Thomas by A. DeConick, his edition and commentary is a valuable contribution to scholarship on that gospel.

The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review, 2003

B orn THOMAS AQUINAS and Bonaventure, having completed their doctoral cursus in the 1250s, could leave the Sentences of Peter Lombard behind and apply their own theological acumen to the organization of sacra doctrina. Since Bonaventure was elected Minister General of his order in the same year he was recognized as a master by the University of Paris, his academic career was curtailed. He did manage in that same year, in response to the request of many students, to compose his Breviloquium, universally recognized as an attractive, accessible, and profound work of doctrinal synthesis. 1 Aquinas had the opportunity to teach for many years before he began around 1265-66 to write his Summa Theologiae, his crowning achievement. Though unfinished, this work, far more extensive than the Breviloquium, made available to students of his era and to us the fruit of his mature thought in a carefully devised pedagogical order. 2 In this essay we are principally concerned with the Summa and its ordering of topics, but to help us highlight its distinctive features we will contrast it with the Breviloquium. As our title

Theology Today, 66.2 (July 2009)., 2009

This essay evaluates John Calvin's ecclesiology-especially his emphasis on plural ministries-as a model for articulating a contemporary ecumenical ecclesiology in conversation with post-Vatican II "communion ecclesiology." Particular attention is given to the contributions of Latin American and U.S. Hispanic theologians whose liberating vision of church seeks to embody the very qualities Calvin affirmed in his doctrine of the church: a rejection of rigid hierarchical governance and an emphasis on God's grace as the very foundation of human community. This reflection on the relevance of John Calvin's ecclesiology for the ecumenical church is offered as a contribution to the discipline of systematic theology, understood as critical reflection on the Christian community's beliefs and practices in response to God's revelation (Gutiérrez). Thus, while historically informed, this article addresses the contemporary situation first and foremost. Furthermore, recognizing the contextuality of all systematic theologies (even when a particular theological "system" does not acknowledge its own cultural, political, and historical limitations), this work is offered as a U.S. Latino/a contribution to the broader conversations in both ecclesiology and Calvin studies.