Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of Thomas Aquinas and his Interpreters

by Romanus Cessario O.P., Cajetan Cuddy

Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) is one of the most important thinkers in the history of western civilization. A philosopher and theologian, a priest and preacher, Aquinas bequeathed to the world an enduring synthesis of philosophy, theology, and Christian spirituality. Aquinas championed the integration of faith and action, sound doctrine and right living, orthodoxy and orthopraxy. From the thirteenth century through the present day, his legacy has served as a blessing for the church and beyond. In the nearly eight hundred years since Aquinas's death, his thought has been studied, interpreted, criticized, reinvigorated, and anointed as the exemplar of Catholic theology. Thomas and the Thomists , a new volume in the Mapping the Tradition series, serves as an introduction to the life of Aquinas, the major contours of his teaching, and the lasting contribution he made to Christian thought. Romanus Cessario and Cajetan Cuddy also outline the history of the Thomist tradition-the great school of Aquinas's interpreters-from the medieval era through the revival of the Thomist heritage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This volume affords its readers a working guide to understanding the history of Aquinas and his expositors as well as to grasping their significance for us today.

170 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2017

Reviews

[David Haines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Aquinas, and about Aquinas. This book was interesting, but should have been titled, "Thomas and the Dominican Thomists". It reads more like a history of the continuing tradition of teaching and interpreting Aquinas within the Dominican order. The authors occasionally give lip-service to non-Dominican thomists, occasionally beginning a section by noting that there were some non-Dominican thomists in such and such a time period, and they wrote this or that. They then continued the section by noting the Dominican interpreters of Aquinas and their influence. As I said, interesting, but nothing like a history of Thomism and Thomists. This book is helpful primarily for situating different Dominican Thomists in their respective times and historical situations.

[Ian Clary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very helpful historical introduction to Thomas and the Thomist tradition. I just read Cessario's earlier book introducing Thomism, so I wondered if this new book was an update or revision. As far as I could tell, it's an entirely new work, and a better one. I'm not sure how much this owes to Cessario having Cuddy involved in the writing -- I really like the work of Cajetan Cuddy. The writing style is much more engaging, it fills in more historical background, and does a good job putting Thomism in contact with other currents of thought in the various historical epochs covered. This is one of those books where even a one-off sentence sheds light on things I've been thinking about.
One of my complaints about Catholic histories of Thomism is that they typically neglect how Thomism/scholasticism shaped early Protestantism. This books moves a little towards acknowledging this, and even uses the term "Protestant scholasticism," but unfortunately sees this as being inconsistent with Thomism proper. At the very least, why could it not be a part of "eclectic Thomism"? And the authors' engagement at this level was basically left to Luther, not with Reformers like Vermigli or Zanchius. I would have thought that by now the work of people like Richard Muller would have penetrated Catholic scholarship so a more positive view could be taken. As an aside, it's funny how they would take swipes at Luther even though this is published with Fortress Press, a Lutheran publisher! They also made a funny error by calling Molina a "Protestant reformer." Woops!
Be that as it may, this book is a really great introduction to Thomism and if I were to teach a course on the subject, I would certainly use this as a textbook.

[Anthony Cabrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fathers Cessario and Cuddy paint a compelling picture of the history of Thomas's thought through the relevant persons and interpreters with fascinating depth in detail which shows both the arc of the history of the world since the 13th century, where worldly philosophy bends through the crises and tidal waves of political movements, and that of Thomist thought, which remains unshaken and stable throughout the chaos of history. This is a worthwhile read and wonderful introduction to anyone interested going in more depth into Aquinas's thought. It does much to illustrate the work of Thomas not as some antiquated scribblings of at best archaeological interest, but as deeply and consistently relevant to the theological and philosophical concerns of each age, with coherent responses which are at once deeply timely yet deeply timeless.