The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Engaging With Thomas Aquinas


On Monday we met at the Pastors Academy in Finchley once again for our reading group. Our subject was Leonardo De Chirco's book on engaging with Aquinas. I was leading so I'll reproduce the questions I prepared below. About ten of us met. We were all quite favourable towards the book which we found helpful though not essential. We decided next time to look at a couple of C S Lewis books.
Questions
How much did you know about Aquinas before reading the book? Have you read any of his work? What did you think of de Chirico's book? Who would benefit best from it?

Introduction 1-11 Are you aware of the evangelical love story with Thomas? (5) How would you answer the five questions on page 6? (“What should we make of this entire discussion? … ie sifting what is good and rejecting what is deviant?”) Also a sixth question as we move on to page 7?

1 The life and work of Thomas Aquinas 12-31 How do you tend to think of the Middle Ages? Is your ultimate goal to see God or to love him? Which is most important - the true or the good? (18) Why is Thomas better remembered than Bonaventure? (19-21) What do you make of Thomas's 1273 mystical experience? (25) How impressive is 8 million words? (26) [Dickens – 4.6m, Shakespeare – 884,000, Bible – 780,000]

2 Sources and synthesis of Thomas Aquinas's thought 32-67 Does a good theologian need a good knowledge of science? (33) Was Thomas's use of Aristotle a theologically compromised use of the Christian faith? (34) Is Aristotle of any use to us? Are some truths of faith accessible to reason? (38) What do you think of Thomas's five attitudes to the Word? (42) Have the inspired apostles and prophets ever said anything contrary to the dictates of natural reason? (44) Did Thomas understand justification by faith? Did he understand total depravity? Is the exitus-reditus motif of any use? (55-57) How do we relate nature and revelation? (59) What do you make of Thomas's five arguments for God? (62) Was Thomas too optimistic? (65-67)

3 Roman Catholic appropriations: from veneration to magisterial affirmation 68-93 Should the accrued venerations of medieval spirituality towards Thomas affect our attitude to him? Is there a Protestant equivalent to Thomas ie someone accepted as the standard representation of Protestantism? How important is the difference between Thomas and Thomism? What is the significance of the legend of the Summa and the Bible? (76) Is Thomas useful to Protestants in proving the incompatibility of Rome and the Reformation? (78) What is wrong with John of St Thomas's approach to Thomas? (80) Why did Thomistic trends from Trent onwards provide the best apologetics for the Roman status quo intellectually and symbolically? (81) What can you learn from Rome's opposition to modernism? (84) What is the significance of Pope Pius XI's 1923 encyclical? (85) “The irony was… neo-Thomism... built a… system that, to fight against the Enlightenment, ended up assimilating the rationalistic outlook of its plausibility structures.” Discuss. (86) What about Thomas's “theological guide” status? (89) Is de Chirico right to note the lack of reference to Protestant theologians in FR? (91) Is the reference to Thomas's Mariolatry significant? (92, 93)

4 Protestant readings of Thomas: circling around evangelical eclecticism 94-124 What are the implications of Schaff's statement? (94) Which approach to Thomas is best – that of Luther (95-100) Calvin (101) Zanchi, Dorsche (102, 103) Bucer, Vermigli (105ff) Melanchthon, etc (109) Turretin and Owen (110ff)?? What about Kuyper's approach? (114) and Bavinck (116ff) and Van Til and Schaeffer (119ff)? How about A Vos and Geisler (121ff)? Can and should evangelicals learn a great deal from Thomas? (123) Was Thomas a Proto-Reformer? (123)

5 Legacy and critical issues… contours... trajectories of Thomas's architectural thought 125-158 Are people naturally open to God? (125ff) Does grace scrap nature or bring it to perfection? (128) How important is it to distinguish common and special grace? (131, 135) How important is what is said about the development of the understanding of nature and grace by Rome? Where does general revelation sit in your theology?Any remarks on what is said about Vatican II? (145-149) Does Christianity need Greek philosophy? Is Bavinck's comment helpful? (150-153) “Updating without changing” – how well does that seem to sum up Romanism? (157)

6 Thomas Aquinas for evangelicals today 159-172 What colour hat for Thomas? (159) Can an evangelical be a Thomist? (160) Thomas on the doctrine of God: Frame or Trueman? (161-164) Can de Chirico's principles be improved, modified, increased? (165-172) Have you been avoiding conversation with Thomas? What is the significance of his having an integrated system? (169) Did you expect more reference to Sproul and apologetics? (171) Are you being mature about this?

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