Companion To The Summa

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.

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

Applies cutting-edge research and in-depth critical analysis to Aquinas' most influential work, engaging with ethics, metaphysics, theology, and law.

Thomas Aquinas authored many works, but his greatest achievement is undoubtedly the Summa Theologiae, which presents his most mature thinking and the best introduction to his philosophical and theological ideas. Distinguishing itself from other secondary works on Aquinas, this volume focuses solely on the Summa, with essays by some of the best Aquinas scholars of the last half-decade. It offers a solid introduction to one of the landmarks of Western thinking. -- Back cover.

In the Summa theologiae, Aquinas attempts to set forth the whole of Christian theology in summary form. It was written, he says, for "the instruction of beginners," but few Christians today have the time or inclination to reach for the five thick volumes that comprise the standard English-language edition. In Holy Teaching, Frederick Bauerschmidt presents some choice selections from the Summa theologiae, along with commentary that unpacks the selections and places them in context. Holy Teaching is an ideal introduction to the work of Aquinas that will give students, pastors, and interested laypeople a greater appreciation for our common Christian inheritance

The Summa Contra Gentiles, one of Aquinas's best known works after the Summa Theologiae, is a philosophical and theological synthesis that examines what can be known of God both by reason and by divine revelation. A detailed expository account of and commentary on this famous work, Davies's book aims to help readers think about the value of the Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) for themselves, relating the contents and teachings found in the SCG to those of other works and other thinkers both theological and philosophical. Following a scholarly account of Aquinas's life and his likely intentions in writing the SCG, the volume works systematically through all four books of the text.

We may adapt a remark of St. Thomas Aquinas, and apply it to his own great work, the Summa Theologica: not everyone has talent to master this work; not everyone has a taste for the study it requires; not everyone has time to devote to such study. Aeterna Press

Introduction 1 AquinasÆs philosophy in its historical setting Jan A. Aertsen 2 Aristotle and Aquinas Joseph Owens 3 Aquinas and Islamic and Jewish thinkers David B. Burrell 4 Metaphysics John F. Wippel 5 Philosophy of mind Norman Kretzmann 6 Theory of knowledge Scott MacDonald 7 Ethics Ralph McInerny 8 Law and politics Paul E. Sigmund 9 Theology and philosophy Mark D. Jordan 10 Biblical commentary and philosophy Eleonore Stump