He is less well-known for his commentaries on the Bible, but it is these which I suspect reflect most of his day-to-day preaching and teaching. St Thomas spent much of his career in the Order of Preachers as a Master of Theology lecturing on the Scriptures. His great Summa represents a bold attempt to systematise our understanding of God's Word, but just as a material scientists's understanding of the properties of a particular material is rooted in the experience of many individual experiments, this systematic treatment of revelation is surely rooted in Aquinas' contemplation of the various Biblical texts.
I believe it is worth attending to his Scriptural commentaries, then, for two principal reasons:
First, they show us the mind of Aquinas in motion, plumbing the depths of God's Word. We see more clearly how his final insights, expressed in his more systematic works, originate in his reading and (no less important) teaching of the Scriptures. This can help us to avoid a sense that Aquinas' theology "floats free" of Scripture, as a beautiful castle in the clouds, which would ultimately be only an idle curiosity for Christians concerned to know God in his self-revelation.
Second, they show us a way of engaging with Scripture that is likely to be very different from our own. Often, contemporary Christian engagement with Scripture falls into one of two extremes.
We may take a thoroughgoing historical-critical approach, reading the latest scholars in order to understand what was in the mind of the (human) Biblical author. We evaluate (or, usually, read others who evaluate) manuscripts, archeological evidence, and whatever else might help us to know, historically, what the authors said and in what context. While not excluding the notion that these texts are inspired, such a method will not by itself enable us to see what God is revealing of Himself (and ourselves) in these human words.
On the other hand, we may treat the Scriptures simply as "material" for prayer. Practices such as Lectio Divina encourage us to reflect on what the Holy Spirit might be saying to us as we read a Biblical passage. This need not, however, have much to do with the text in itself - we may "fly off" into contemplation of a truth suggested by the words we read, but which is not present there. Such prayerful practices do not lend themselves to systematic treatment of God's Word, being ordered more to the correction of our hearts than of our understanding.
Neither of these ways of reading Scripture are to be discouraged - both are recommended to us by the Church. An appreciation of the historical character of the text reminds us of the real human authorship of the Scriptures, and prevents us from seeing Scripture as an ahistorical "divine dictation". And prayer, while not a replacement for a systematic attempt to understand God's Word, is more necessary to the Christian life, and never to be despised.
But they are limited, and limiting if we restrict ourselves to them. And so we might broaden our horizons by looking at how a great saint and teacher reads the Bible. St Thomas' approach to scripture may strike us as far too systematic by half - as we shall see - but it is a sincere attempt to grasp the texts as a divinely-inspired unity, with a depth of meaning not only in the content of individual passages, but in the structure of the whole. While not agreeing with everything he might say - St Thomas, unlike the Scriptures, is not an instrument of divine revelation but a fellow traveller on the way to truth - attending to his method and conclusions may be useful for enriching our own approach to the Scriptures.
There are many books one could start with. We have St Thomas' commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and John, on the prophet Isaiah, on the letters of St Paul, and more. I have chosen to take up his commentary on the Psalms. Principally this is because, as a lay Dominican, I am called to pray the psalms at Lauds and Vespers. As such, they form an important part (some days, the only part) of my prayer-life: which is to say, the part of my life spent attending to God, with God. It will be useful, then, to attempt to understand these "songs of praise", and what God might be saying in them.
Over the next few months - or years, or however long it takes - I will be reading this commentary and periodically posting my thoughts on what I think Aquinas is saying, and whether I find it enlightening, improbable, opaque, or some combination of these. My hope is that this will enrich my understanding of the Psalms, and my approach to Scripture more generally, and I would invite anyone to join me in this.
I will be using the Latin-English text (primarily the English, as my Latin is atrocious) published by The Aquinas Institute. This translation can be found online, for free, here.
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