This complete yet concise reference work provides scholars and students with accurate interpretations of the ways in which Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) used important theological terms. Aquinas, a theologian and philosopher in the Roman Catholic Church, sought to reconcile faith and reason, philosophy and Christianity. He discussed many theological topics in his extensive writings and became one of the most important theologians of the Middle Ages. His influence continues to be pervasive today and his thought is of major interest to both Roman Catholics and Protestants. This volume is an introduction to the theology of Aquinas and provides direction to the most important features of his theological thought. It is a reliable guide to his teaching with entries arranged alphabetically, and key Latin terms cross-indexed. For each entry, the main point of the teaching is sketched along with the passages in Aquinas where his views are found. Resources for further study are also provided.

Offering a fresh approach to one significant aspect of the soteriology of Thomas Aquinas, God's Grace and Human Action brings new scholarship and insights to the issue of merit in Aquinas's theology. Through a careful historical analysis, Joseph P. Wawrykow delineates the precise function of merit in Aquinas's account of salvation. Wawrykow accounts for the changes in Thomas's teaching on merit from the early Scriptum on the Sentences of Peter Lombard to the later Summa theologiae in two ways. First, he demonstrates how the teaching of the Summa theologiae discloses the impact of Thomas's profound encounter with the later writings of Augustine on predestination and grace. Second, Wawrykow notes the implications of Thomas's mature theological judgment that merit is best understood in the context of the plan of divine wisdom. The portrayal of merit in sapiential terms in the Summa permits Thomas to insist that the attainment of salvation through merit testifies not only to the dignity of the human person but even more to the goodness of God.

This volume examines depictions of Christ in the writings and art of the medieval Dominicans. The multidisciplinary essays provide perspectives on the life and thought of the Order of the Preachers, focusing on the role of Christ within the devotion and imagination of the Order.