Aquinas’s Eschatological Historiography: Job, Providence, and the Multiple Senses of the Historical Event

Abstract

Drawing primarily from Thomas’ commentary on the Book of Job and the Summa Theologiae, I argue, first, that Aquinas views history and historiography in primarily eschatological terms; second, that Thomas’ eschatological reading of the events of history lead him to view those selfsame discrete punctiliar events as having multiple, providentially determined senses or meanings; and third, that despite his seeing each historical happening as a verdically layered and eschatologically drawn event, Aquinas is nevertheless preserved from collapsing history into eschatology by his privileging of “the literal sense.” I then explore the continuities Aquinas’ medieval view of history and historiography share with our own late modern accounts through their mutual deference to “the literal sense” of events. But I hope ultimately to display from both his reading of the Book of Job and the Summa the various ways in which, for Thomas, the happenings of history are, unlike modern historiographies, providentially saturated phenomena.