God's Grace and Human Action: 'Merit' in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas

by Joseph P. Wawrykow

Offering a fresh approach to one significant aspect of the soteriology of Thomas Aquinas, God’s Grace and Human Action brings important scholarship and insight to the issue of merit in Aquinas’s theology. Through a careful historical analysis, Joseph P. Wawrykow delineates the precise function of merit in Aquinas's account of salvation, revealing that the attainment of salvation through merit testifies not only to the dignity of the human person but even more to the goodness of God.

392 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Lyndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable contribution to our understanding of the role and nature of grace and merit in 'early' and 'late' Aquinas. Wawrykow leaves virtually no stone unturned in his quest to map the grammar of merit in Aquinas so as to unveil the richness of God's activity in saving, redeeming and ultimately, divinizing the human subject by the merits of one like us, Jesus of Nazareth.