Bound for Beatitude

Reinhard Huetteris ordinary professor of fundamental and dogmatic theology at The Catholic University of America.

"An enormous contribution to Thomistic theology, and a genuinely innovative contribution to Thomistic moral theology. Hutter is an exquisite reader of Aquinas, and has grand command of the scholarly literature on topics he addresses."--William C. Mattison III, University of Notre Dame"Building on Aquinas's profound theological anthropology, Htter develops a rich account of the beatitudes within an Aristotelian-Thomist grammar of proximate and ultimate ends. He also makes a compelling case for why a retreat from these metaphysical questions into a purely immanent frame dominated by 'practical' concerns would greatly impoverish theology and, indeed, the faith itself. Immensely learned and unfailingly probing, the arguments presented will establish ound for Beatitude as the benchmark for all future exploration of Christian soteriology and eschatology."--Thomas Pfau, Duke Divinity School "Like Ariadne's thread, this richly documented and clear-sighted work guides the reader through a maze of newer and older controversies clustered around the manifold ties connecting the first-and-last things to the search for the best approaches to them in our earthly Christian existence. It locates the concerns where intra-Thomistic debates intersect and interact with the wider theological and philosophical spectrum of quaestiones disputatae et disputandae."--Richard Schenk, OP, University of Freiburg "We are called to eternal happiness. As the Gospel spirituals proclaim, we are bound for glory and the joys of Canaan Land. Reinhard Huetter, nourished by an evangelical love of Scripture and trained in the best of Catholic tradition, employs the insights of Thomas Aquinas to present the implications for the Christian life (and for moral theology) of the universal call to beatitude. Huetter illustrates the difference that beatitude makes. We are pilgrims on the way (viatores), sustained by the sacraments and fortified by the virtues. By restoring to moral theology the eschatological urgency of St. Thomas's understanding of beatitude, Huetter has done theology a tremendous service."--Michael Sherwin, OP, author of On Love and Virtues: Theological EssaysP>"Aquinas's theology is at once intricately analytical and authentically mystical. These dual elements are captured wonderfully in this major work. Bound for Beatitude is an extensive and coordinated study of the moral teaching and virtue theory of Aquinas, always with an orientation toward eschatology. Reinhard Huetter is one of the leading voices in Thomistic studies today, and this book marks a milestone in his articulation of a living Thomistic theology, one simultaneously rooted in historical principles and engaged with contemporary questions."--Thomas Joseph White, OP, Director, Thomistic Institute, Angelicum, Rome