Book review of "Rewritten theology: Aquinas after his readers" by Mark Jordan, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, England, UK

Abstract

[Extract] Thomas Aquinas is arguably one of the most cited authorities of the Church, and is appropriated to support many differing agendas. Jordan's work attempts to rescue Thomas from the "police" who would coerce him into their own strategies of coercion. Sacheri — infamous supporter of repression in Argentina in the 1970s — found in Thomas support for violent state reaction to revolutionaries. Partially, the appropriation of Thomas for — particularly conservative — agendas is the fantasy that the Summa is a perfect whole and synthesis, the apogee of reason, and so a Grand Unifying Theme (or rather answer) to Everything. Too often, Jordan warns, people read Thomas’ commentators, and not Thomas. Alas, a not uncommon fault amongst those who refer to medieval writers.