Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 681

Chat. V]

§

And

thought.

world

PREMATURELY CLAIMED TRIUMPH

103.

then they, too, threw themselves upon the

of thought, they

masters in

it

worked themselves

into

till

this day.

Suddenly they

and became which claims

it,

of the first rank, with a virtuosity

our admiration

657

rise like cedars

from the barren tablelands of the Dark Ages. And in so far as they, immovable in their faith, did not shrink before any intellectual labor, however gigantic, they are still our examHe who refuses to consult with ples as intellectual heroes. himself as a theologian. Aquinas weakens Thomas qualified their labor as a triumph grasped However, we have prematurely.

In the preface of the latest edition of

bardus' Sententiae and Thomas'

Summa,

Lom-

Paris, 1841, the edi-

tor wrote in a high-pitched key of these Sententiae and this jSiimma : " Stupendous works indeed, the former of which

ruled

all

Europe

for a century

and a half and gave birth

Thomas Aquinas, while the latter, being sum of theology, has ruled all Europe for

to

assuredly the very

five centuries from and has begotten all succeeding theologians." This flattering speech aims none too high; for after Thomas there has no one arisen who, as a theologian, has thought out the domain of sacred study so comprehensively from all sides, and who has penetrated as deeply and only to the bottom of all questions so heroically as he the latest development of philosophy has given the stream The very rise of of theological thought a really new bend. this newer philosoph}^ however, has discovered how greatly Tliomas was mistaken, when he thought that he had already hit the mark, when he placed the formal intellectual development of the Grecian world at the service of the Undoubtedly it is since then only that theology Church. within its own ground has come to a richer development, such as it had never known before, which has enabled it to assimilate and to reproduce no mean part of the treasures of Revelation but the struggle for principles, which theology had to carry on for the vindication of her own right of exTheology and philosophy istence, had scarcely yet begun.

the day

it

was brought

to light,

;

;

(taken

now

bv Thomas.

in the material sense) are too closely identified

He

takes too

little

account of the world of

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