Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-12, Section: A, page: 4470.

Directors: Marilyn McCord Adams; Wayne A. Meeks.

This dissertation argues that Thomas Aquinas in his Commentary on Romans uses predestination and election as hermeneutical keys to understand Rom 9--11 and to sustain a positive theological view of the Jewish people.

First, the dissertation demonstrates that the status and role of the Jewish people are central to Thomas' exegesis of Rom 9--11 and that the doctrines of predestination and election are crucial to his argument.

Ecclesial policies regarding Jews and Judaism are then examined in order to ascertain the socio-historical context in which Thomas found himself writing. After establishing the ways in which Thomas' predecessors and contemporaries treat the Jews, the dissertation compares Thomas' positions in the Summa Theologiae on significant policy questions of his time regarding the status of Jewish belief, tolerance of Jewish rites, Christians' association with Jews, Jewish dominion over Christians, and coerced or forced baptism of Jews.

Since predestination and election function as the controlling doctrines for his exegesis of Rom 9--11, the dissertation will then integrate the more systematic treatment of these hermeneutical keys in the Summa Theologiae with their use in the Commentary on Romans .

Next, a comparison between Aquinas' reading of Romans with Augustine's Propositions from the Epistle to the Romans, Unfinished Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, and his Tractatus Adversus Iudaeos delineates the similarities and differences between these two commentators. In light of these preparatory studies, the dissertation will then analyze Aquinas' unique exegesis of Rom 9--11 and his understanding of the role of the Jewish people.

Thomas' way of reading Romans 9--11 not only corrects and develops the received tradition but also sustains a positive theology of Judaism and therefore, the dissertation argues that he merits engagement by traditionalist and revisionist exegetes in the contemporary debate on Rom 9--11 and the status of the Jewish people.