Saturday, May 31, 2008

Gennadios Scholarios on Thomas Aquinas

The author of these books is a Latin by birth and so he adheres to the dogma of that church as an inheritance; this is only human. But he is a wise man, and is inferior to none of those who are perfect in wisdom among men. He wrote most especially as a commentator of Aristotelian philosophy, and of the Old and New Testaments. Most of the principal conclusions of both Sacred Theology and philosophy are seen in his books, almost all of which we have studied, both the few which were translated by others into the Greek language, and their Latin originals, some of which we ourselves have translated into our own tongue....In all the aforesaid areas this wise man is most excellent, as the best interpreter and synthesizer in those matters in which his church agrees with ours.


The reason for that last phrase is that Gennadios, of course, being Orthodox rather than Catholic, sticks to the Orthodox line on (he says) "those things wherein that church and he differ from us-they are few in number-namely on the procession of the Holy Spirit and the divine essence and energies."

I take it that the translator of the quotation is Fr. Hugh Barbour; I found the quote in the reproduction of a talk of his at "Eirenikon."