Mariology and the Tertia Pars
Mariology and the Tertia Pars

Summary/Abstract: This essay argues that Christology needs Mariology, and specifically that Thomistic Christology needs to integrate Mariology in a more conscious manner today. In questions 27–32 of Tertia Pars of his Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas treats such topics as the Blessed Virgin Mary’s sanctification, her virginal conception of her Son, her virginal integrity in giving birth, her perpetual virginity, and the matter from which her Son’s body was formed. These questions are relatively neglected in contemporary Thomistic Christology. By comparison, past theologians drew significantly upon these questions. One thinks of writings by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Benoît-Henri Merkelbach, and Édouard Hugon – although R. Garrigou-Lagrange’s Christ the Savior: A Commentary on the Third Part of St. Thomas’ Theological Summa leaves out questions 27–32. The present essay focuses on questions 28–32, with particular emphasis on questions 28–30. My approach will be broadly expository, but I will also bring in contemporary theological resources for defending Aquinas’s perspectives. I propose that the Tertia Pars’s Mariological questions deserve a place in contemporary Thomistic Christology because they help to underscore that Jesus Christ really was “born of a woman” (Gal 4:4) and because they highlight the eschatological signs of the inaugurated kingdom of God.

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