Entry 0368: Dating of the Texts in which Aquinas
Uses the Expression actus essendi
Aquinas uses
the expression actus essendi in the Summa theologiae only once in part I, question 3, article 4, ad 2.
And Torrell points out that “It seems certain
that during the time he was at Rome [from 1265] until September 1268, Thomas
composed the Prima Pars in its entirety and that this portion [of the Summa theologiae] was in circulation in
Italy even before his return to Paris [in 1269]” (Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint
Thomas Aquinas: The Person and His Work - Volume 1, trans. Robert Royal
[Washington. D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Text no. 10: Summa theologiae, part I, question 3, article 4, ad 2.
Concerning
the dating of the Prima Pars, there
seems to be very little doubt that Aquinas wrote it in Rome
Wippel
writes that “Thomas returned to Italy in 1259 and served there at various
Dominican houses of study as Lecturer or as Regent Master, continuing to teach
and to write at a rapid pace. During this period he completed his Commentary on
the De anima, thereby commencing a series
of intensive studies of Aristotle which would eventually result in partial or
total commentaries on twelve works by the Stagirite. He completed his Summa contra Gentiles (1259-1265) and
the Prima Pars of the Summa theologiae (1266-1268). Also
dating from this period are his Exposition
on the Divine Names (of Pseudo-Dionysius), Disputed Questions on the Power of God (De potentia), Disputed
Questions on Spiritual Creatures, Disputed
Questions on the Soul, and many other works of a theological or religious
nature” (John F. Wippel, The
Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas [Washington , D.C.
In 1259 Aquinas
took part in the General Chapter of the Dominicans in Valenciennes , France
Soon after that, Aquinas returned
to Italy .
From 1261 to 1265, he was in Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV, who had high esteem
for Aquinas, commissioned him to compose the liturgical texts for the Feast of
Corpus Christi , the feast which, in addition to Holy Thursday, commemorates the institution of
the Eucharist.
From 1265 until 1268 Thomas
Aquinas lived in Rome
where he directed the Study House of the Dominican Order. And in 1269 he was
recalled to Paris
for a second cycle of lectures.
Franklin T. Harkins reports more
precisely that “From his inception at Paris in the
Spring of 1256 until he stopped writing
in Naples on 6
December 1273, Thomas Aquinas was—above all else—a teacher of sacred doctrine,
a master of theology. (See Josef Pieper, Guide
to Thomas Aquinas, trans. Richard and Clara Winston [Notre Dame, IN:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1987], 89-102.)
“On 8 September 1265, not quite a
decade into his teaching career, Thomas
was charged by his Dominican provincial chapter at Anagni ‘for the
remission of his sins’ with establishing and directing a studium at Rome
for the education of select friars. (See
Leonard E. Boyle, The Setting of the Summa
theologiae of Saint Thomas [Toronto :
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1982], 8-15; Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1: The Person and His Work, rev. ed., trans.
Robert Royal [Washington , D.C. Toronto :
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1998), 278-306.])
“Having served the previous four
years as conventual lector at Orvieto where he was responsible for the pastoral formation of the fratres communes, Aquinas had by this time become quite well aware of the deficiencies then characterizing Dominican education,
particularly its narrow emphasis on
applied and moral theology. (See Mulchahey, ‘First the Bow is Bent in Study…. ‘,
184-203; Boyle, The Setting of the Summa
theologiae, 1-8; and Torrell, Saint
Thomas Aquinas 1, 117-20.)
“As head of his studium at Santa Sabina in Rome Master
Thomas took terrific advantage of the opportunity to devise a new, more
comprehensive theological curriculum for his young Dominican students by beginning
to compose—and presumably teach—the Summa theologiae. (See Boyle, The Setting of the Summa theologiae.)”
This passage is from Franklin T.
Harkins, “Primus doctor Iudaeorum: Moses as Theological Master in the Summa theologiae of Thomas
Aquinas,” The Thomist 75 (2011): 91-92.