Roman Thomism
| Setting | Pontifical universities and Roman colleges, especially the Angelicum |
|---|---|
| Climate | Leonine restoration; Doctoris Angelici; twenty-four theses of 1914 |
| Characteristic figure | Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., among others |
| Doctrinal standing | Institutional reception of a commended school; not the Magisterium itself |
Roman Thomism is the Thomistic formation associated with the pontifical universities and colleges of Rome, especially in the Leonine climate of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where Aquinas was taught as the ordinary master of ecclesiastical philosophy and theology.[1][2]
Thomism in the Roman schools
Roman Thomism is a geographical and institutional name before it is a list of theses. It names the teaching of Saint Thomas in the universities and colleges of the city of Rome under the eye of the Holy See: the Dominican Angelicum, the Gregorian in its scholastic periods, other pontifical faculties, and the seminaries that took their cue from them. After Aeterni Patris, that teaching was not a private Dominican hobby. It was the ordinary expectation of ecclesiastical formation.
The name should not be stretched to mean 'whatever a Roman professor thinks,' nor narrowed to one man. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange is the figure most often used to illustrate the current: a Dominican of the Angelicum, commentator, and opponent of what he judged to be modernism in philosophy and theology. He is a master of a school. He is not the pope. Other Roman teachers differed from him while remaining Thomists in the Leonine sense.
Leonine climate and the twenty-four theses
Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris restored Christian philosophy in the school of Thomas. Pius X's Doctoris Angelici required that philosophy in ecclesiastical schools be taught according to Aquinas's principles. In 1914 the Sacred Congregation of Studies issued twenty-four Thomistic theses as pedagogical norms for that teaching. They are a map of a school, not a creed. Present formation documents still name Thomas among the principal masters without imposing one later camp.[1][2]
Roman Thomism in this climate tended to be commentatorial: Cajetan, John of St. Thomas, and the great Dominican manuals were read as the ordinary way to Thomas. Sacred theology was arranged in scholastic treatises. The method trained generations of priests. It also produced the later complaint, from existential and historical Thomists, that the commentary had sometimes replaced the text. That complaint is intramural. It does not unchurch the Roman classroom.[3]
What the name does not mean
Roman Thomism is not identical with the Magisterium. The pope teaches from Rome. A professor at the Angelicum does not. Confusing the two is how a school becomes a sect. Donum Veritatis exists to prevent that confusion. Optatam totius directs students to Thomas as master in penetrating the mysteries of salvation. It does not direct them to treat a Roman manual as a second Code of Canon Law.[4][5]
Nor is Roman Thomism the whole of Dominican Thomism, or the whole of Italian Catholic thought. Salamanca, Paris, Louvain, Laval, Lublin, and River Forest are other maps. Transcendental Thomism had Roman students and Roman critics. Exact speech names the faculty, the decade, and the thesis. 'Rome teaches' is too coarse a sentence when the subject is a school rather than a document of the Holy See.
Commendation without monopoly
The privilege of Thomism in Roman formation is real. Aeterni Patris, Doctoris Angelici, Studiorum Ducem, Humani Generis, Optatam totius, and Fides et Ratio form a consistent commendation. The privilege is a recommendation of a doctor and a method. It is not a definition of every commentatorial conclusion, and it is not a prohibition of other faithful Catholic schools.[6][7]
Roman Thomism remains living when it returns to Thomas's texts, objections, and contemplative end, and when it distinguishes dogma from the scaffolding of the lecture hall. It fails when it treats a Roman accent as orthodoxy and every other Catholic philosophy as suspect. The Common Doctor is larger than any one city, including the city that commended him.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris — Encyclical restoring Christian philosophy in the school of Thomas Aquinas while distinguishing that commendation from a definition of every Thomistic thesis.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Pius X, Doctoris Angelici — Motu proprio requiring that philosophy in ecclesiastical schools be taught according to the principles of Aquinas.
- Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Thomism — Public-domain historical account of Thomist principles, commentators, schools, and the Leonine restoration.
- Back to citation Second Vatican Council, Optatam totius 16 — Conciliar decree on priestly formation, directing students to penetrate the mysteries of salvation with Saint Thomas as master.
- Back to citation Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Veritatis — Instruction on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian, distinguishing research, schools of thought, and the Magisterium.
- Back to citation John Paul II, Fides et Ratio — Encyclical on the harmony of faith and reason, the enduring value of Aquinas, and legitimate philosophical plurality under the Magisterium.
- Back to citation Pius XI, Studiorum Ducem — Encyclical on Aquinas as Common Doctor and the Church's continuing commendation of his doctrine and method.