Perhaps the greatest strength of Min's project is its sheer originality. I can hardly think of any journal articles, let alone books, that attempt to engage Aquinas from the perspective of contemporary liberation theology. Min has given us a distinctive and welcome addition to the literature on Aquinas, which should spark a lively debate among Thomists and liberation theologians alike. --Bruce D. Marshall, Southern Methodist University
Paths to the Triune God is a work of theology of the first rank. It brings, in a clear and exact manner, Aquinas's sapiential theology to bear on issues of pressing contemporary concern and, in so doing, brilliantly makes the case for a renewed engagement with a central figure in the Catholic theological tradition. --Joseph P. Wawrykow, University of Notre Dame
In Paths to the Triune God, Anselm K. Min brings the theology of Thomas Aquinas into mutually critical dialogue with contemporary theological concerns. Min defends Aquinas's Trinitarian theology of reason and creation against modern detractors of natural theology while also calling attention to the lack of historical consciousness in Aquinas's writing. Min discusses Aquinas's affirmation of the salvation of the non-Christian through a moral life but also criticizes his sometimes naive approach to salvation history. Min presents Aquinas's Trinitarian theology of salvation through the incarnation and the possibility of a sacramental theology of religions for today while also taking seriously the scandal of his doctrine of reprobation. Min highlights Aquinas's contemplative conception of theology against contemporary preoccupations with praxis while also criticizing his intellectualist interpretation of human existence. Min also offers a substantive presentation of Aquinas's Trinitarian theology and a full-scale analysis and critique of the views of such contemporary social Trinitarians as Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., all in light of Aquinas. He concludes that neither the purely sapiential theology of Aquinas nor the purely prophetic theology of contemporary liberation movements is adequate, arguing that contemporary theology must methodologically incorporate into its content a tension between wisdom and praxis.
