God's Grace and Human Action 'Merit' in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas [Paperback]

Offering a fresh approach to one significant aspect of the soteriology of Thomas Aquinas,God’s Grace and Human Actionbrings important scholarship and insight 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, revealing 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.

“In his scholarly studyGod’s Grace and Human Action,Joseph Wawrykow seeks to remedy the failures of his predecessors. Wawrykow is sensitive to Aquinas’s intellectual development and offers useful insight into the reasons Aquinas altered his views as he matured as a theologian. What emerges is a ‘big picture’ of Aquinas’s discussions of grace and merit, not just as independent treatises, but as contributions to a larger theological project.”

“Recommended with great enthusiasm to historians of medieval and Reformation theology.”

“There is much to be learned from this very intelligent book. The author’s insistence on the evidence for development in Thomas’s understanding, his broad reading, his alertness to the interconnectedness of Thomas’s ideas, and his willingness to grapple with the details of a text all combine to yield a wealth of insights. Wawrykow has gone a long way toward recovering the ‘essential spirit’ of Thomas’s notion of merit, and any serious discussion of the doctrine of merit or of Thomas’s theology of grace will have to come to terms with his achievement.”

Joseph P. Wawrykowteaches medieval theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author ofThe Westminster Handbook to Thomas Aquinas(2005), and co-editor ofChrist Among the Medieval Dominicans(1998) andThe Theolãu