It has been argued that Thomas' Summa is an Eschatological Foundationalism (Jenson, ST I). That is a wonderful description and I would like to own it for my own project. I've been reading the Summa for the greater part of the last seven years. I think I am starting to see a structure and movement to it:
- Eschatological Foundationalism: Borrowing from good neo-Platonic sources, we come from God and move back towards him. God is the telos of our existence. Our knowledge is rooted in this eschatological movement.
- Theology Proper: Thomas then discusses the nature and names of God.
- Creation and Anthropology: at the risk of oversimplifying hundreds of pages of difficult argumentation, Thomas is following the standard systematics approach.
- Ethics (part 1): Thomas' approach at this point might appear different from modern systematics in that he deals with ethics in the middle of his project. Rather, Thomas' approach is normal: most systematics dealt with ethics (or at least an exposition of the Decalogue) in the middle of the project.
- Habits: This is where I am now in my reading. It's interesting that Thomas deals with habitus and virtu prior to the rest of the meatier theology (salvation in Christ, sacraments, church). I wonder why that is. I have a tentative answer: habitus is our putting on the grace of Christ. It's interesting that this comes logically prior, at least on Thomas' scheme, to salvation in Christ.
