Thomas Aquinas on the Jews

Book excerpt: Steven Boguslawski maintains in this provocative book that Thomas Aquinas in his Commentary on Romans uses predestination and election as hermeneutical keys to understand Romans 9-11 and to sustain a positive theological view of the Jewish people. Thomas' positions in the Summa Theologiae on significant policy questions of his time regarding the Jews are set against the socio-historical context in which Thomas wrote. He integrates predestination and election, as treated in the Summa, with their use in the Commentary on Romans. Then he draws a comparison between Thomas's position and that of Augustine. In conclusion he asserts that Thomas's way of reading Romans 9-11 not only corrects and develops the received tradition but also sustains a positive theology of Judaism.