The "Suffering Servant" text of Isaiah 53 is a perennial topic of debate within Jewish and Christian biblical theology. Is the Suffering Servant an individual, a group, or both? How and why did he suffer? What role did God play in his suffering? How is his suffering related to human salvation? The answers to these questions often divide Jewish and Christian readers of Scripture as well as Christians across different denominations. In particular, Isaiah 53 tends to inform different Christian accounts of the origin, nature, and saving value of Christ's Passion. The Suffering Servant in Aquinas contributes to the debate on the meaning of Isaiah 53 and its bearing upon the Passion of Christ by examining how St. Thomas Aquinas engaged this biblical text. This book examines every explicit reference to Isaiah 53 that Aquinas makes in his biblical commentaries, Commentary on the Sentences, Summa Theologiae, and Opuscula. It analyzes how and why Aquinas interprets Isaiah 53 in the ways that he does. It focuses especially upon how Aquinas draws upon Isaiah 53 to shed light on the saving mystery of Christ's Passion. Readers will see how Aquinas articulates the relationship between God's will and Christ's suffering, the diverse forms of Christ's pain, the degree to which the Passion can be considered a "punishment," and the saving functions of the Passion as example, merit, satisfaction, and sacrifice. This book makes an original contribution to the growing field of Biblical Thomism. It examines Aquinas's exegetical methods as well as the role of Scripture within his speculative theology. And it properly contextualizes Aquinas's exegesis by considering the differences between his Latin version of Isaiah 53 and contemporary renderings of Hebrew and Greek versions. Readers will see that Aquinas's Christological interpretations of Isaiah 53 are both exegetically intriguing and theologically rich.

One of this century's most eminent theologians addresses the eternal questions of the relationship of good and evil, linking the story of Job to the lives of the poor and oppressed of our world.

Published on February 11, 1984, Salvifici Doloris addresses the question of why God allows suffering. This 30th anniversary edition includes the complete text of the letter plus commentary by Myles N. Sheehan, SJ, MD, a priest and physician trained in geriatrics with an expertise in palliative care. Acknowledgments of recent episodes of violence bring the papal document into a modern context. Insightful questions suited for individual or group use, applicable prayers, and ideas for meaningful action invite readers to personally respond to the mystery of suffering.

Christians have called the Book of Isaiah a “fifth gospel” because of its striking foretelling of the principal mysteries of the life of Jesus. But how do these prophecies of a still far-off Savior relate to the circumstances of Isaiah’s own time? St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Isaiah is believed to be his first major theological work, produced as part of his academic training as a bachelor of theology. Carefully attending to the language and structure of Isaiah’s prophecy and using Scripture to shed light on Scripture, Aquinas explains how Isaiah’s message brought comfort to Israel and pointed forward to the coming of the Christ.

The areas of discussion include the nature and method of theology, Scripture and its interpretation, Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity, moral theology, and the reading and use of theological dialogue partners. The essays are written by eminent systematic theologians, theological ethicists, and biblical scholars from a wide range of Christian traditions. The contributors to this volume appraise, extend and apply different aspects of the conception of "theological theology". That theology should in fact be thoroughly theological means that theological discourse gains little by conforming to the canons of inquiry that govern other disciplines; it should rather focus its attention on its own unique subject, God and all things in relation to God, and should follow procedures that allow it to access and bear witness to these realities.

In this volume, an expert theologian addresses the key soteriological theme of atonement. Atonement and the Life of Faith provides substantive engagement with the doctrine of the atonement, including sections on the Apostles' Creed, Scripture, the history of the doctrine, constructive dogmatics, and Christian praxis. Focusing on the third part of the Apostles' Creed, it explores how atonement relates to the church, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian life. Each section offers a constructive departure from trends in contemporary works on the subject. This book shows students how to integrate theology into the life of faith and demonstrates how theological thinking is a part of Christian worship. Each unit begins with a brief section pointing readers to a familiar hymn, poem, or liturgy. The Soteriology and Doxology series consists of introductory textbooks that cover key topics in soteriology. Volumes provide substantive treatments of doctrine while pointing to the setting of theology in doxology. Series editors are Kent Eilers (Huntington University) and Kyle C. Strobel, (Biola University).