Truth in Aquinas

147 Pages·2000·1.07 MB·English

by  John Milbank

Truth in Aquinas
A wide-ranging and unusually accurate account of Aquinas on truth,
human understanding and ontology that responds to current philosophical
and theological concerns….
John Inglis, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Dayton
In this book, Milbank and Pickstock present a wholesale re-evaluation of the thought of
Thomas Aquinas. They claim, against many received readings, that Aquinas’s
philosophical account of truth is also an entirely theological one. His understanding of
truth as adequatio is shown to be inseparable from his metaphysical and doctrinal
treatment of the participation of creatures in God as esse; from his theory of the
convertibility of the transcendentals as mediated by the transcendental ‘beauty’; and from
his Christology and theology of the Eucharist. This vision is remote from the assumptions
undergirding modern accounts of truth as correspondence or coherence or redundancy.
Since these accounts are all in crisis, Milbank and Pickstock ask whether Aquinas’s
theological framework is not essential to the affirmation of the reality of truth as such.
Compelling and challenging, Truth in Aquinas develops further the innovative
theological project heralded by the publication of the seminal Radical Orthodoxy
(Routledge, 1999).
John Milbank is the Frances Myers Ball Professor of Philosophical Theology at the
University of Virginia. His previous publications include Theology and Social Theory
and The Word Made Strange. Catherine Pickstock is a Lecturer in Philosophy of
Religion at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College,
Cambridge. Her previous publications include After Writing: On the Liturgical
Consummation of Philosophy. They are the editors, with Graham Ward, of Routledge’s
Radical Orthodoxy series.
Radical Orthodoxy series
Edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward
Radical orthodoxy combines sophisticated understanding of contemporary thought,
modern and postmodern, with a theological perspective that looks back to the origins of
the Church. It is the most talked-about development in contemporary theology.
Cities of God
Graham Ward
Divine Economy
D.Stephen Long
Radical Orthodoxy
edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward
Truth in Aquinas
John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock
Truth in Aquinas
John Milbank and Catherine
Pickstock

London and New York
First published 2001
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or
Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2001 John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-46792-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-77616-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-23334-8 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-23335-6 (pbk)
For Fergus Kerr O.P.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling
St Thomas Aquinas
Ecce! Panis Angelorum

Contents
Preface xi
1 Truth and correspondence 1
2 Truth and vision 17
3 Truth and touch 52
4 Truth and language 76
Notes 96
Bibliography 119
Index 126