Fergus Kerr

In almost all ways a model for this kind of book. Kerr writes clearly, concisely, and with a nice ironic turn. It's well structured: it start with "before Vatican II," then a bunch of individual theologians, and ends with "after Vatican II." The story of the individuals* is largely one of a progressive move from neo-scholasticism, via a recovery of various church fathers, to a wider range of theological positions. The 'nuptial mysticism' comes out of one of those strands, and finds its most famous, and perhaps silliest, representative in John Paul II.

Kerr himself acknowledges the limitations of this structure, to wit, he doesn't deal with many of the big changes in theology. There are no women, there's no liberation theology (though Rahner leads towards it), and so on. He does suggest pieces that can tell us about those movements, but I read one of them and... well, I would rather read Kerr's clear, concise, ironic prose any day.


*: Chenu, Congar, Schillebeeckx, Lubac, Rahner, Lonergan, Balthasar, Kung, JPII, Benedict.… (mehr)

An excellent survey on the (surprisingly varied) takes on St. Thomas Aquinas' theology. Focused on contemporary scene but includes mini-histories of interpretations of St. Thomas' writings on theological topics like doctrine of God, creation, Christology, theological ethics and so on.

My understanding of Aquinas was helped considerably, both directly and by inference from the varying views on issues Kerr reports theologians choose to fight about! Particularly interested in chapter on doctrine of God, in which Kerr contests the common argument that Thomas presents an excessively "Hellenistic" , and therefore insufficiently Christian (Meaning non-trinitarian) account of the nature of God.… (mehr)

In my reading about medieval history the name Thomas Aquinas keeps coming up. Because I wanted to know a bit more about this man, his work, and why he was so important, I bought this Very Short Introduction.
This introduction told me a bit less about the man and his influence and a lot more about his work than I expected. It looked very in depth into the Summa, Aquinas' main work. This was often very philosophical, and I do admit that some of it went over my head.
All in all this book is a good (and short) introduction into Aquinas and the Summa, but for a more in depth analysis of the man, his world and his influence, my guess is you need something more that this introduction.… (mehr)