Revisiting the Literal Sense of Scripture, in Dialogue With Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

Brevard Childs suggests that ‘one of the burning issues in theology lies in a search to recover a new understanding of the sensus literalis’. In this article, I retrieve and commend Thomas Aquinas's account of the literal sense, using Peter's Pentecost speech in Acts 2 as a way of testing Thomas's mettle. In so doing, I address key dimensions of Thomas's presentation, namely, divine authorship and intention, arguing that such emphases are profitable for understanding the priority and expansive character of the literal sense. I conclude by briefly discussing figural reading with reference to Ephraim Radner's Time and the Word.