Does God’s Providence Know Particulars? How Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Job Engages Jewish and Islamic Debates
Does God’s Providence Know Particulars? How Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Job Engages Jewish and Islamic Debates

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the historical originality of Thomas Aquinas’s (c. 1225–1274) Expositio in Iob ad litteram, revealing that it is a self‑claimed literal exegesis of Scripture that breaks with the tradition of interpretation of the book of Job initiated by Gregory’s Moralia and carried forward by the Carolingians. Following Maimonides, Thomas mobilizes the biblical text of Job for addressing concerns that emerged from philosophical currents beyond the Latin Christian West. At stake is the Jewish and Islamic question of whether God may possess knowledge of particulars, and more broadly, the problem of God’s interaction with singulars within the Peripatetic depiction of reality that Thomas partly adopts. In the Super Iob, Thomas constructs a distinct paradigm in which divine providence and divine knowledge are articulated, allowing scriptural milestones to chart the course of his reflection. This paradigm is based upon the depiction of God’s relationship to the world not primarily as a creator but as a governor and judge, whose providence extends to the most particular details of reality, including singular evils to judge them.

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