The theology of merit holds evident significance in the history of doctrinal controversies and confessional divisions. The theme's close connection to questions about the nature of grace, human freedom and divine predestination also makes it a veritable doctrinal crossroad. A historical analysis of the theology of merit and its twin theme of divine reward promises to be a highly effective way of entering into the heart of a medieval theologian's anthropology.

Shawn Colberg's exploration of divine reward in Bonaventure and Aquinas stands out as systematically stimulating and historically well-informed. His rich analysis of these two mendicant thinkers not only renders a valuable service to systematic theologians, but also fills notable gaps in the historical scholarship, especially in Bonaventure studies. Colberg's book stands out as the most detailed work on divine reward and human merit in Aquinas since Joseph Wawrykow's monograph, God's grace and human action: ‘merit’ in the theology of Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, In 1995), and (to my awareness) also constitutes the most thorough historical/systematic study of those themes in Bonaventure available today.

Colberg approaches the theme of merit somewhat indirectly, by focusing on the more biblical theme of divine reward. This wise move allows him to make greater use of the two mendicants’ biblical commentaries than do existing studies of reward and merit. The author structures his work around genres. He first studies Bonaventure's and Thomas's systematic works, before turning to their Gospel commentaries, and finally their polemical tracts on religious life. An appendix on Aquinas's Pauline commentaries completes the book (we have none from Bonaventure's hand, so that a comparison is not possible). Colberg's division of chapters is an excellent choice, as it helps him to bring out the uniqueness of each thinker. The author offers a rich selection of brief quotations and paraphrases, so that the reader always remains close to the primary text. One laments the absence of the Latin text in the footnotes, though this reviewer cannot assume that it was the author's preference, given publishers’ unfortunate aversion to this type of reference material. The author's analysis of the key texts on divine reward stands out for its accuracy, clarity and depth of insight. The evaluation of both friars is balanced and just: neither is judged according to the other's teaching, while ambiguities and tensions are not papered over. In the end, the complexity and overall coherence of their thought shines forth.

The author's focus consistently remains on the two mendicant friars. That is, he helpfully abstracts from later polemics, but he also does little to explore the Augustinian and other patristic sources for Bonaventure and Aquinas. Given the importance of Augustine for the late Aquinas's theology of grace, this lacuna seems noteworthy. Colberg also does little with Bonaventure's and Aquinas’s contemporaries. Perhaps a summary of the state of the theological discussion in the time of Peter Lombard and in mid thirteenth-century scholasticism at Paris would have been helpful.

The themes of human action, freedom, actual and habitual grace as well as predestination receive ample treatment. This allows the reader to situate the two mendicants’ positions on divine reward within their broader theological anthropologies. That study would be enriched by greater attentiveness to Christ's merit as it relates to human merit and reward, especially given later controversies. Finally, Thomas's evolving understanding of human freedom and primary/secondary causality deserves greater mention in this type of study, especially given the stark contrast between Thomas's vision of divine and human action and some late medieval nominalist theologies that would directly inform Martin Luther's thinking.

Overall, Colberg's use of historical scholarship to present Bonaventure's and Aquinas's lives and the corpus of each strikes me as sound, though I was surprised by the absence of Jean-Pierre Torrell's thoroughly revised second edition of Initiation à saint Thomas d'Aquin (Paris 2015).

Colberg's work should help to give Bonaventure a more prominent place in the revived intra-Catholic and Catholic-Protestant discussions on justification, grace and predestination. His study surely enriches the growing scholarship on medieval exegesis and thirteenth-century Franciscan scholasticism, and better situates Aquinas's theology of merit in relation to Scripture. Colberg also offers young scholars a model of historical theology, especially by his use of genres, his synthetic eye and the constant proximity to the primary texts. Finally, this book would serve well in graduate seminars on medieval doctrines of grace, as background to the study of the great sixteenth-century theological controversies, or in an advanced course on the systematic theology of grace and justification.