Nathan Luis Cartagena’s book has a value much greater than its title suggests. He does indeed cover, in illuminating detail, several entities rarely, if ever, brought together by scholars: the passion of fear, the Gift of Fear, the sin of fear and that of fearlessness; plus the virtues of courage and perseverance and the Gift of Courage. He also examines the way fear was present in Christ. He writes, he says, for ‘Thomas scholars, Christian moral theologians, and scholars working at the intersections of Christian theology and contemporary psychology’ (p. xiii). He does so with an empathy born of his own initial struggles with Thomas. In doing so, he provides succinct introductions to several areas of Thomas’ thought: his psychology of the passions; his virtue ethics; his theology of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; his Christology. A tutor could give these to students as leads into these areas. They would benefit from Cartagena’s close reading of Thomas’ text, which also enables him to offer a critical pointer to representative secondary literature: he often makes his reader aware of nuances other scholars have missed.
Since it is in the Summa Theologiae that Thomas brings together the themes Cartagena studies, and develops his mature account of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the book’s focus on the Summa is valid. On a few occasions, reference to other works of Thomas would have strengthened Cartagena’s points.
The first chapter describes Thomas’ account of the human psyche, with its interior senses and sense appetites. Cartagena explains, briefly, what we have in common with other animals, and how we differ from them. In this context, he sets out Thomas’ intricate account of the passion of fear, its peculiar features, its relationships with other elements in the psyche, and its effects. Resisting any temptation to oversimplify and so distort, Cartagena helps us appreciate how complex the human psyche is; this readies us to appreciate why Thomas sees the need for a panoply of virtues and Gifts to help our journey to God.
Cartagena could have enhanced the value of this chapter for readers unfamiliar with Thomas by explaining briefly some technical terms and turns of phrase that are not immediately transparent, such as ‘formal aspect’, ‘intentions’, ‘taken simply’, even ‘soul’. On page 17, ‘first act and second act’ needed more explanation, since ‘first act’ can also refer to the soul itself. On the other hand, Cartagena chooses some apt translations, such as ‘daring’ for audacia.
The introduction to Thomas’ teaching on habits and virtues with which Chapter 2 begins points out – what can be missed – that there are habits in the interior senses, and explains the Thomist claim that infused as well as acquired versions of moral virtues exist. Cartagena holds, correctly, that Thomas sees acquired virtues as real virtues; this is one of his well-grounded corrections to other authors’ accounts. The table on page 41 makes clear – what can also be missed – that the integrity in which the acquired virtues are inter-connected may be achieved gradually. A reference to De Virtutibus Cardinalibus aa. 2 and 3 would have strengthened Cartagena’s case, and reminded students not to rely exclusively on the Summa. The table also points out that growth is possible in the infused virtues. However, the supporting references given to the Summa concern Charity and the Gift of Fear; a reference to De Virtutibus in Communi a. 11 would have made explicit that all the infused virtues are subject to growth.
Chapter 3 begins with a useful account of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which render us ‘amenable’ (an apt term) to the Spirit’s instinctus (wisely left untranslated). Cartagena explains that the Creator moves us in such a way that freedom is not abolished, but sees a problem in ‘the largely coercive metaphors that Thomas employs to illuminate the Spirit-induced motion the gifts facilitate’ (p. 67). This is to neglect the interpersonal metaphors Thomas also uses: teacher-and-student (I-II 68, 1), expert medic-and-apprentice (I-II 68, 2). These metaphors ground Pinsent’s concept of ‘joint attention’, towards which Cartagena is unnecessarily negative (p. 88, n. 22).
Space does not permit a detailed review of Cartagena’s accounts of the virtues of courage and perseverance, of the Gifts of Courage and Fear, and of the sins and vices of fear and fearlessness. These are all well done and enlightening, except for a clumsy passage on pages 55 and 56. This should be expanded (chiefly with the help of II-II 48, and perhaps with the help of a table) so as to make clear that a cardinal virtue typically has (quasi-)integral, and (quasi-)potential, and specific, parts, and so as to explain what these are. This would nicely complement Cartagena’s introduction to Thomas on virtue, and allow him to explain that, because of the intrinsic specificity of its matter, Courage stands out as lacking specific parts.
In a wise move, a chapter is included on Christ’s Fear, indicating how we can forge valuable connections between Christology and moral theology. Cartagena necessarily focuses on Christ’s exemplarity, since a full account of how Christ saves us would be beyond the scope of this book. He does include an account of Aquinas’ understanding of Adam’s prelapsarian condition, since this enables him, in a particularly helpful way, to explain how God the Son assumed human nature in precisely that condition best suited to our salvation: Christ’s human nature had elements in common with Adam’s prelapsarian condition, with our fallen condition, and with the state of glory. While noting later (p. 151) that further work is needed on Christ’s Gift of Fear, Cartagena analyses Thomas’ account of Christ’s human psychology with especial care, to show that Christ really did have the passion of fear: there is no Docetism in Thomas’ Christology.
Cartagena is to be commended on a novel and illuminating approach to tracing a theme through Thomas’ writing. I am grateful for references to various passages I had not noticed and will certainly place this book on several reading lists. I hope other tutors and lecturers will do likewise.
