Theology Assignment: St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

I. Identify the author/text for citations below (1 point each; 25 points total).
II. For 10 of them, briefly explain a) the central point being made in the excerpt itself, and b) its relationship to the larger argument made in the text from which it comes (5 points each; 50 points total).
1. I answer that it was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation. Even as regards those truths about God which human reason could have discovered, it was necessary that man should be taught by divine revelation; because the truth about God such as reason could discover, would be only known by a few, and after a long time, with the admixture of many errors.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
2. I know that You are my God. For You are not, You cannot be the God of those whose deeds are the most horrific proof of their militant godlessness.
* This excerpt just shows how man should submit himself to God. In relation to the main text Summa Theologica, the importance of man’s submission to God is evident in the cycle of topics the which is the existence of God, creation, Purpose of man, etc.
Zvi Kolitz, “Yosl Rakover Talks to God”
3. I began to realize that the most profound wisdom of man is preserved in the answers given by faith, and that I did not have the right to negate them on grounds of reason and, above all, that it is these answers alone that can reply to the question of life.
Leo Tolstoy A Confession and Other Religious Writings
4. Despite the loftiness of the Torah and its great importance, it is not God’s only trustworthy source…but He has two other sources of knowledge for us. The first precedes this Book and the other succeeds it. The one that precedes is it intuitive knowledge…The one succeeding it is the knowledge transmitted by God’s messengers.
Saadia Ha-Gaon, Introduction to the Pentateuch Commentary
5. In the Christian and Jewish narrative of creation, God makes humans in his own image. Immigration cannot be discussed and debated only in the abstract, as it is ultimately about individual people, created in God’s image, who are immigrants. Each of these immigrants has value to God and to people who value what God has created.
Illegal Immigration: Seeking a Christian Perspective by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts
6. In fact, [Thurmans’ grandmother’s] aural contact with the Bible left her free to criticize and reject those portions and interpretations of the Bible that she felt insulted her innate sense of dignity as an African, a woman, and a human being, and free to cling to those that she viewed as offering her inspiration as an enslaved woman and that portrayed, in her estimation, a God worth believing in.
Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation by Cain Hope Felder
7. If the Catholic Church is truly to be a “church for the poor” in the United States, it must elevate the issue of poverty to the very top of its political agenda, establishing poverty alongside abortion as the pre-eminent moral issues the Catholic community pursues at this moment in our nation’s history.
* The main point of this excerpt is discussing the social issues in the world and not only the spiritual ones that everyone experiences. In relation to the greater text, this relates to the main topic of the text which is community creation and release from oppression.
“A Church for the Poor.” By Bishop McElroy, With Pope Francis serving as his inspiration
8. It’s hard to think of boundaries when our hearts are open and full. But the book of Proverbs, and Jesus, remind us of the folly and sin of presumption, of building on a weak foundation, of spending what one has not first saved, of giving what one has not first received. They also remind us to love not only the foreigner who comes to us in need, but our neighbor, such as those in Arizona, whose needs are being ignored. One man’s “justice” ought not to be another man’s “injustice.” No one is entitled to steal from another. Lawlessness with escalating violence and incivility is not justice. Its yield is not peace. Blessing to one is not theft to another.
“On immigration, viewing the whole counsel of Scripture” by Kelly Monroe Kullberg
9. What is our final form? How has our stance regarding the sacred text shaped our exegesis? What boundaries have been fixed as a result of our canonical stance? Should these boundaries be altered? How has our situation as African Americans in an oppressive society affected the shape and form of our canon, the selective use of that canon and the interpretation of that canon?
Meyers, Hermeneutical Dilemma
10. In sum, other collectivities are not just proper objects of toleration. They have a special role to play in the divine plan: establishing a just social order. Each community does not simply go its own way, however, in pursuing the divine plan. The model of pluralism that Judaism endorses is interactive. The positive valuation of other societies paves the way, in the halakha, for legal, social and cultural interchange between Judaism and other societies.
Suzanne Last Stone, Tolerance versus Pluralism in Judaism
11. Christian feminist liberation theology is reflection on religious mystery from a stance which makes an a priori option for the human flourishing of women.
*
Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is
12. The Qur’an relates the story of a servant of God, Dhul Qarnayn, who came upon a people whom God had chosen not to protect from the sun; the context seems to imply that they were naked: ‘He came to a place of the rising of the sun, and he found that it shone upon a people from whom we had not provided a cover against it…’ (Q18:90) He simply left them as they were, and proceeded to another place where, at the request of the inhabitants, he built them a wall to protect them from their enemies (Q18:94-98). In both cases, Dhul Qarnayn proceeded on his journey—not seeking to subjugate the people to his will, nor impose upon them sartorial values he thought normative. Among the lessons that can be extrapolated from the narrative is that such an imposition would have been a violation of their human rights.
Mohammed, Islam and Human Rights
13. Was not Jesus an extremist for love…Was not Amos an extremist for justice…Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel…What not Martin Luther and extremist…So the question is not whether we will extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.
* The main point of this excerpt is that showing love and passion for one’s belief need not contain you in one type of action. The relationship of this to the main text is that this shows that in showing one’s love for Allah a believer does not need to neglect his neighbor’s rights.
MLK Jr. Letter from the Birmingham Jail
14. One cannot enter into an alliance on oath to put the next age in a position where it would be impossible for it to extend and correct its knowledge, particularly on such important matters, or to make any progress whatsoever in enlightenment.
Kant, What is Enlightenment?
15. Because God loves us, He will use difficulties to bring us to repentance, when we are not walking in obe...