Tithes properly speaking are neither sacrifices nor offerings, because given not directly to God but to the ministers who serve him. Everyone is obliged to offer God the primary interior sacrifice of a devout mind. As to external sacrifices that are simply signs of subjection to God and nothing more: those bound by God’s Old or New Laws must offer the particular sacrifices laid down by those laws, whilst those not so bound must offer things in accord with the customs of the people they live among. (Ref. Thomas Aquinas, Summae Theologica, XI, 85, 3-4).
Thomas Aquinas on offerings
Amongst the wide range of issues explored in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica is that of sacrifice and offering. Quaestio 85 (in four articles) debates the question, with specific comments on offering of tithe and the mediation of the clergy in articles 3 and 4.
Saint thomas Aquinas, panel painted 1476 by Carlo Crivelli as part of the large Demidoff Altarpiece made for the high altar of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, east central Italy. Source: Wikipedia Commons.
Published Sep. 24, 2014 6:54 PM
- Last modified Mar. 5, 2021 8:25 AM
This is in a fascinating context of the mediation of ministers.
Commenting is disabled on this resource.