Nicholas of Lyra's Use of St. Thomas Aquinas' Expositio Super Iob Ad Litteram in His Postilla on Job
Date of Award
Summer 2006
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Hagen, Kenneth
Second Advisor
Schmitt, John
Third Advisor
Donnelly, Patrick
Abstract
This dissertation responds to the belief of many scholars that Nicholas of Lyra simply copied material from St. Thomas Aquinas' biblical commentaries. A general reading might support this belief, because Lyra did borrow ideas and statements from his predecessor's work. A careful reading will show, however, that Lyra never appropriated the work of Aquinas without first sifting it through the filter of his own understanding of the biblical text. The work of this dissertation presents such a careful reading of Nicholas of Lyra's Postilla on Job in comparison to the Expositio super lob ad litteram of St. Thomas Aquinas. Significant portions of the texts will be critically compared and through a detailed analysis will demonstrate that even though frequent similarities exist, Lyra never simply copied the work of Aquinas. Lyra's changes range from change as little as a single word, to as much as a whole paragraph of information. In doing so, Lyra utilized his predecessor's work to advance his own interpretation of the biblical text. An extensive discussion of both Lyra's theological agenda and his literary agenda as he commented on Job will also emerge from this close comparison of the two scholars' respective work. As Lyra both actively and passively responded to Aquinas' agendas his own become readily apparent.