released 3/7/2025

Jason Paone discusses the insights readers can obtain from reading the biblical commentaries of St. Thomas Aquinas. Paone explains how many scholars overlook St. Thomas’s commentaries as they study his philosophical and theological works and appropriate his wisdom in the interest of confronting aspects of modern thought. But Paone argues that St. Thomas’s Summae are best understood in light of his spiritually rich biblical exegesis. Paone focuses especially on St. Thomas’s love of the Gospel of John, which he views as a microcosm of all the Gospels — portraying Christ as the source of grace (as in the New Testament collectively), the power of Christ’s grace (emphasized in Paul’s epistles), and the effect of that grace (summarized in Revelation). Paone explains how reading St. Thomas’s commentaries can give readers a feel for the saint’s personality, his rhetorical flair, and the Christocentric vision that underlie all his work. Jason Paone is the editor of Thomas Aquinas, Selected Commentaries on the New Testament (Word on Fire, 2022).

24 minutes

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