Abstract

Although nearly 30% of Aquinas' extant work comprises commentaries on Scripture, very little scholarly attention in the twentieth century has been devoted to this aspect of his work. This study addresses the question of what Aquinas conceived the literal sense to be, on the theoretical level, and further explores both the philosophical foundations of his doctrine and its theoretical implications. ;The question about the nature of the literal sense has its beginnings not with Thomas but with the early Fathers. I begin this study with a consideration of Aquinas' predecessors because it is with them that the problem receives its essential formulation. I argue that the pressures that Aquinas seeks to relieve and balance are fundamentally defined by the experience and work of Origen, Jerome and Augustine, and that Aquinas' position is more difficult to understand unless it is set off against these patristic influences. Furthermore, Thomas' doctrine is shown, through a brief survey of some of his medieval predecessors, not to be so original as has previously been thought. ;At the heart of Thomas' position is his definition of the literal sense as that meaning which is signified by words, as opposed to the spiritual sense, which signifies through realities intentionally ordered to signifying. As he elaborates on this definition it becomes apparent that the terms "word" and "speech" acquire precise meanings in this context, so that the literal sense comes to be understood as an inner word in the mind of the author which is signified through speech . Through a careful investigation of the meaning of verbum and vox a Thomistic doctrine of signification emerges which illuminates his doctrine on the literal sense and reveals its philosophical foundation in the logic and psychology of Aristotle. ;This more precise understanding of Thomas' doctrine, which excludes the intention of the author from the definition of the literal sense, is brought to bear on the questions of an extended literal sense, of the inclusion of metaphor within the literal sense, and of the possible multiplicity of the literal sense