Christ the Light: The Theology of Light and Illumination in Thomas Aquinas

Light is one of the most ancient and significant metaphors adopted by Christianity by which to understand the significance of Jesus Christ. The Easter liturgy, for instance, is marked by beautiful and powerful rituals proclaiming Christ as the light of the world in his death and resurrection. That understanding developed over subsequent centuries into a larger doctrine of illuminationhow Christians come to understand and know God through Christ the Light. In this work, David Whidden takes up that theme in contesting a standard paradigm of interpretation that asserts that Aquinas eliminated the doctrine of illumination in his theology.

In Christ the Light, Whidden argues that illumination is a critical systematic motif in Aquinas theology, one that involves the nature of truth, knowledge, and God; at the root, Aquinas theology of light, or illumination, is christological, grounding human knowledge of God and eschatological beatitude. This volume establishes the theological network formed by the crucial motif of light/illumination in Aquinas, from how theology operates to the systematic, sacramental, and moral coordinates in Aquinas theology. Christ the Light thus provides a much needed and illuminating retrieval of the one of the most important and creative theologians in the western Christian tradition.

Author: David L. III Whidden
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 07/01/2014
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.18w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9781451470130

About the Author
Whidden, David L., III: -

David L. Whidden III is assistant professor of theology at Our Lady of the Lake College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the author of several articles in peer-reviewed publications, such as Nova et Vetera. This volume is a revision of his dissertation completed at Southern Methodist University under the direction of Bruce Marshall.

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