Book Review
East Meets Aquinas
Orthodox Readings of Aquinas
by Marcus Plested
Oxford University Press, 2012
(276 pages, $34.00, paperback)
reviewed by Vincent Rossi
Is Kipling's dictum that "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet" true for Christian theology? For many, such has been and still is the case, but signs of scholarly dissatisfaction with a perceived "theology of opposition" between the Eastern and Western Christian traditions are growing. Marcus Plested, in Orthodox Readings of Aquinas, himself invokes Kipling in addressing what he calls "the very human and time-bound construct of an East-West dichotomy." He targets this apparent theological gulf through his analysis of the "reception history" of the Orthodox encounter with Thomas Aquinas. His study of this encounter, from 1354, when the first translations of Aquinas into Greek appeared, down to modern times, makes for an engrossing intellectual detective story. But at the end of his survey, is the reader left with a satisfactory resolution of "whodunit" and, theologically speaking, of how and why?Aquinas & Palamas
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
31.5—September/October 2018
The Secular State Without the Decalogue by James M. Kushiner
33.3—May/June 2020
on the Wisdom of the Good Doctor Edmund Pellegrino by Allen H. Roberts II
28.5—Sept/Oct 2015
Remembering Angka & the Idolatry of the Khmer Rouge 40 Years Later by Les Sillars
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
