"The chapters of this book appeared originally as articles in Theological studies [1946-49]"

Bibliographical footnotes.

As a pivotal point in philosophy and theology, verbum ("the word") is interpreted and utilized at varios levels and in diversified contexts. In revised form, Father Burrell presents Bernard Lonegan's five verbun articles that originally appeared in Theological Studies. For Thomist students and scholars this verbun study offers a carefl appraisal of Thomist theory of knowledge as well as an introduction to the concepts found in Father Lonergan's Insight. Since the concept of verbum dynamically affects the thought of Aquinas, it is necessary to grasp this concept to understand Thomist metaphysics and rational psychology. Father Lonergan has carefully analyzed and explicitly outlined verbun–an integral part of the Thomist theory of knowledge. Verbum is examined as a tool of definition and for its impact on understanding, logical thought procession and related ideas stemming from verbum. Father Lonergan discusses "the word"and its relation to abstraction. His focus centers on St. Thomas' immediate concern in finding in Aristotle the point of insertion for Augustinian thought and in fusing a phenomenology of the subject with a psychology of the soul. The present study is divided into five parts, and the division is dictated by the different systematic contexts in which Thomistic statements about verbun are involved. The first two parts are concerned with the core of psychological fact. The third part is an attempt to cut through language barriers. Part four studies intermediate matters connecting metaphysics and psychology, such as the doctrine of abstraction from matter. The final part analyzes the trinitarian meaning of imago Dei, and here the many levels of this study converge. Included is an extensive list of concepts as well as a table of loci to the works of St. Thomas.