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Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Person and His Work
The presentation of the life and work of any great thinker is a formidable task, even for a renowned scholar. This is all the more the case when such a historical figure is a saint and mystic, such as Friar Thomas Aquinas. In this volume, Fr. Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP, masterfully takes up the strenuous task of presenting such a biography, providing readers with a detailed, scholarly, and profound account of the thirteenth-century theologian whose works have not ceased to draw the attention of both friend and foe! In this volume, Fr. Torrell, an internationally renowned expert on St. Thomas, speaks to neophytes and experts for those new to Thomas's works, he paints an engaging human portrait of Friar Thomas in his historical context; for specialists, he provides a rigorous scholarly account of contemporary research concerning Thomas's life and work. This new edition of Fr. Torrell's widely-lauded text involved significant revision, expansion, and bibliographical updates in light of the latest scholarship. The Catholic University of America Press is pleased to present such an eminent specialist's mature synthesis concerning Friar Thomas Aquinas.
576 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 24, 2021
Excellent scholarly biography! If you have ever wondered about the scholarly consensus on exactly where, when and why St. Thomas wrote each of his works, this is the book for you. There are a number of beautiful and interesting anecdotes, but it is certainly not a work I’d recommend for casual reading. The authors presumes the reader is at least generally familiar with St. Thomas’ corpus and serves the purpose of situating his work in history.
February 15, 2020
Complete, easy read, good references for further study and research.
November 20, 2016
Please give my review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/review/R1VPW1O...
This is a very academic text provides a comprehensive accounting of St. Thomas Aquinas's activities during his short life. The emphasis of the book is on nailing down the dates that Aquinas wrote his various works, with rather less emphasis on Aquinas's life, and even less emphasis on the social and cultural background of his life.
This is not to say that the reader of this book will not gain a valuable insight into Aquinas's life. Torrell offers some insights into Aquinas's family background and into Aquinas' early teaching years in Paris. I've just finished Shadia Drury's execrable book, Aquinas and Modernity, and the information here about the Mendicant Controversy provides a useful mind cleanser for positive misinformation of that book. From Torrell, we learn something about the general strike of students and the desire of the masters of the University of Paris to protect their turf. Interestingly, I just finished Kressman Taylor's "Day of No Return"https://www.amazon.com/Day-No-Return-... where the main character emphasizes the non-interference policy of the city police at the University of Berlin in the 1930s.
Torrell makes an offhand comment that Aquinas's Commentary on Job and Romans can "be ranked among the most fully finished and most profound" that Aquinas has left us. (p. 201.)
Torrell also makes the interesting point that Aquinas' productivity involved his assistants or students who worked intimately with Aquinas to put his drafts into proper form:
"Every professor who has benefitted from the collaboration of a competent assistant will easily understand the procedure. We would not be going too far, therefore, we believe, in portraying Thomas's collaborators as organized into a veritable workshop for literary production - according to the well-known example of the schools of painting, to say nothing of the "ghost-writers" well known in literary circles. There is hardly any other plausible way to explain Thomas's productivity." (p. 243.)
Torrell also provides good information on Aquinas's final days and on the 1277 condemnation of certain propositions of Aquinas by the Bishop of Paris, Stephen Tempier, and on the politics that led to the walk back of that condemnation.
I found it interesting that we have manuscripts in Aquinas' handwriting. These manuscripts allow us to form a deeper understanding of Aquinas' thought.
This book is a tough slog, probably not for the novice, and, yet, I found it interesting.
This is a very academic text provides a comprehensive accounting of St. Thomas Aquinas's activities during his short life. The emphasis of the book is on nailing down the dates that Aquinas wrote his various works, with rather less emphasis on Aquinas's life, and even less emphasis on the social and cultural background of his life.
This is not to say that the reader of this book will not gain a valuable insight into Aquinas's life. Torrell offers some insights into Aquinas's family background and into Aquinas' early teaching years in Paris. I've just finished Shadia Drury's execrable book, Aquinas and Modernity, and the information here about the Mendicant Controversy provides a useful mind cleanser for positive misinformation of that book. From Torrell, we learn something about the general strike of students and the desire of the masters of the University of Paris to protect their turf. Interestingly, I just finished Kressman Taylor's "Day of No Return"https://www.amazon.com/Day-No-Return-... where the main character emphasizes the non-interference policy of the city police at the University of Berlin in the 1930s.
Torrell makes an offhand comment that Aquinas's Commentary on Job and Romans can "be ranked among the most fully finished and most profound" that Aquinas has left us. (p. 201.)
Torrell also makes the interesting point that Aquinas' productivity involved his assistants or students who worked intimately with Aquinas to put his drafts into proper form:
"Every professor who has benefitted from the collaboration of a competent assistant will easily understand the procedure. We would not be going too far, therefore, we believe, in portraying Thomas's collaborators as organized into a veritable workshop for literary production - according to the well-known example of the schools of painting, to say nothing of the "ghost-writers" well known in literary circles. There is hardly any other plausible way to explain Thomas's productivity." (p. 243.)
Torrell also provides good information on Aquinas's final days and on the 1277 condemnation of certain propositions of Aquinas by the Bishop of Paris, Stephen Tempier, and on the politics that led to the walk back of that condemnation.
I found it interesting that we have manuscripts in Aquinas' handwriting. These manuscripts allow us to form a deeper understanding of Aquinas' thought.
This book is a tough slog, probably not for the novice, and, yet, I found it interesting.
July 9, 2015
Torrell's work is undoubtably of enormous benefit to scholars already intimately familiar with the life and work of Thomas Aquinas, but for those looking for an introduction to the Angelic Doctor's life and thought, the book is a disappointment. Part historiography, part biography, part theological and literary analysis, the book feels disjointed. The minutia explored at length regarding the date of composition of the various works discussed is tedious at best. There are, however, real gems to be mined from this work. Torrell's treatment of the plan of the Summa Thoelogica and the Summa Contra Gentiles is exceptional - clear, concise, and accessible.
I'm glad to have this book, and I suspect that it will prove a useful reference tool in the future, but as a biography of Thomas Aquinas, I am confident that there are better options available.
I'm glad to have this book, and I suspect that it will prove a useful reference tool in the future, but as a biography of Thomas Aquinas, I am confident that there are better options available.
August 13, 2013
An intellectual biography. The narrative became rather choppy at many points when Torrell takes time to give multiple positions from this and that scholar's interpretation of a book's dating, and so on. This would be beneficial more as a reference book than a biography that reads well and is engaging to the reader (cf. Marsden's Edwards or Brown's Augustine of Hippo).
October 2, 2008
Unbelievable! This book is an indispensible for anyone interested in St. Thomas.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews