A Companion To The Summa Volume I

The Summa Theologiae is a work of astounding breadth and scope: five folio vol-umes of closely packed print, and more closely packed thought; incredibly, it was a work intended, not for the learned and wise, but for beginners. Walter Farrell, O.P., fully honors that intention with his four Companion volumes to the Summa, which together offer an easy guidebook to St. Thomas's greatest work. These are not simply more books about St. Thomas or about the Summa; rather, they are a distillation of the Summa into popular and accessible form, a unique introduction to the thought of the Angelic Doctor and a defense of the truths, natural and divine, by which human life is lived. Volume I: The Architect of the Universe presents St. Thomas's rich and masterly study of God, man, and the world, as found in the first part of the Summa. In neat and orderly fashion, Farrell follows the Angelic Doctor's lead, considering the universal harmony of creation and its Creator, providing the arguments of God's existence, studying the divine nature and attributes, and examining the procession of creatures from their divine Creator, the manner of their production and their distinction into angelic, corporal, and human natures. A bold rebuke of the confusions and deceptions peculiar to the modern age, A Companion to the Summa, Volume I: The Architect of the Universe powerfully illuminates the fundamental truths about the nature of the human person and the orderly planning of the divine architect.

Native Chicagoan and original member of the Dominican friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great, Walter Farrell OP, STD, STM, (1902-1951) is historically recognized as a prominent moral theologian of his era. Fr. Farrell devoted much of his study and work to developing an understanding of theology for laypersons. This well-known Dominican is especially known for his remarkable "Companion to the Summa," a four-volume masterpiece, published between 1938 and 1942. In this first volume, Fr. Farrell brings to life Summa Theologiae using a narrative style and the popular language of his day. This timeless classic is still used throughout the world to teach the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

"This whole work is not ... about the Summa, but the Summa itself reduced to popular language."--Foreword, v. 3.

Featuring essays from both specialists in Aquinas' thought and constructive contemporary theologians, this Companion provides an accessible, comprehensive guide to his main mature theological work, the Summa Theologiae. The authors demonstrate how to read the text effectively and how to relate it to past and current theological issues.

Native Chicagoan and original member of the Dominican friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great, Walter Farrell OP, STD, STM, (1902-1951) is historically recognized as a prominent moral theologian of his era. Fr. Farrell devoted much of his study and work to developing an understanding of theology for laypersons. This well-known Dominican is especially known for his remarkable "Companion to the Summa," a four-volume masterpiece, published between 1938 and 1942. In this fourth volume, Fr. Farrell brings to life Summa Theologiae IIIa using a narrative style and the popular language of his day. This timeless classic is still used throughout the world to teach the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Volume three (3) of this meagalithic work by a fellow Dominican. This work shall comprise (4) four volumes and is only now re-edited and made available for print within the last 50 plus years. This is an excellent book regarding not only Thomas, but how to use his work in today's life.

It is not hard to admire St. Thomas Aquinas immovably caught in the splendor of a stained-glass window; it is easy to pay tribute to his Summa Theologica as long as it remains high on a bookshelf giving character to a library. Under these circumstances, we of the twenty first century can read about them both, talk about them enthusiastically, but pretty much leave them both alone. To have Thomas walking among us, his book opened on our desks for serious study, now that is altogether something else.Aquinas is one who regardless of your placement on your spiritual journey. Aquinas is the basis for so much of what we have come to regard as dogma. This work is essential to not only understanding Aquinas's other works, but also our own journey. These issues, which he presents are not only fundamental, for many they are stumbling blocks, for others, they tend to be work around issues. These writings are the basics and yet essential works out of the plethora of works Aquinas has written.