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Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas
Edited, with an Introduction by Anton C. Pegis with selections from SUMMA THEOLOGICA and SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
690 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1274
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742 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Aquinas
2,533 books1,099 followersPhilosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and theologian of Italy and the most influential thinker of the medieval period, combined doctrine of Aristotle and elements of Neoplatonism, a system that Plotinus and his successors developed and based on that of Plato, within a context of Christian thought; his works include the
Summa contra gentiles
(1259-1264) and the
Summa theologiae
or theologica (1266-1273).
Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.
People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."
Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.
Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.
People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."
Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 3, 2011
This was the classroom text we used for the class I took while pursuing my Master's at Villanova. Aquinas is an exceptional philosopher, both as a commentator on Aristotle, Maimonaides and Averroes and as a philosopher in his own right. This is a text that is fun to read as the last great systematic explanation of the pre-modern world.
May 15, 2012
This is a selection of readings which I found difficult because I'm not practiced in reading the scholastic style. My suggestion is that one first read Fr. Copleston's book "Aquinas". It's a very clear and stimulating summary of Aquinas' major ideas.
December 19, 2014
By the time one has finished a hundred pages of this Introduction to St, Thomas Aquinas, one understands why so many priests and ministers hate theology. This book is truly the most mind-numbing work of pedantry that I have ever tackled. It analyzes in excruciating detail the qualities of man, of nature, of his soul, his essence, his will, his habits, his unity and his appetites. St. Thomas Aquinas presents with a Christianity denuded of any good news. There is no mention our redemption obtained for us by Christ on the Cross. There is no Virgin Mary to comfort us.
I found St. Thomas Aquinas to be profoundly monotheistic (as opposed to Trinitarian) as presented in this work. His prime objective seemed to be to present God as Aristotle's prime mover. In this endeavour be borrows heavily form St. Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Averroes ,Avicenna, and even Maimonides. The product at the end is a theology that unites the three great religions that believe in the same God (i.e. Christianity, Islam and Judaism) and classical philosophy. It is a powerful system but one feels remote from the everyday Catholicism that I practice.
It should be noted that the entire work is composed of a series of articles running from one to four pages having the following structure:
1. Question is posed.
2. Statement of Antithesis and best supporting arguments.
3. Statement of Thesis and best supporting arguments.
4. Refutation of Antithesis.
As someone unfamiliar with the form, I found it loopy at first. However, ultimately it allows one to set the work aside and pick it up again easily without losing the logical flow. This allowed me to complete this taxing reading over a two month period.
I found St. Thomas Aquinas to be profoundly monotheistic (as opposed to Trinitarian) as presented in this work. His prime objective seemed to be to present God as Aristotle's prime mover. In this endeavour be borrows heavily form St. Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Averroes ,Avicenna, and even Maimonides. The product at the end is a theology that unites the three great religions that believe in the same God (i.e. Christianity, Islam and Judaism) and classical philosophy. It is a powerful system but one feels remote from the everyday Catholicism that I practice.
It should be noted that the entire work is composed of a series of articles running from one to four pages having the following structure:
1. Question is posed.
2. Statement of Antithesis and best supporting arguments.
3. Statement of Thesis and best supporting arguments.
4. Refutation of Antithesis.
As someone unfamiliar with the form, I found it loopy at first. However, ultimately it allows one to set the work aside and pick it up again easily without losing the logical flow. This allowed me to complete this taxing reading over a two month period.
November 19, 2021
2.5 stars. Pretty unclear and hard to understand at parts. Very boring overall.
April 21, 2008
St.Thomas Aquinas was one of the great sholars of the 13th century. He was a student of Aristotle, and interpreted that ancient philosophers' works to defend his positions on the way human life related to the fathers of the Catholic doctrine. He led the way to existentialist thought, by his utterly humanistic outlook. You cannot understand the Medieval period without reading his beatifully crafted logical theses, tempered by love of humanity.
December 15, 2017
Let me begin by saying that I had both this book and Peter Kreeft's Summa of the Summa and when I moved to Spain I took only the one from Pegis.
The reason I did so was because Prof. Pegis (of the Ponitifical Institute of Medieval Studies) has compiled an invaluable summary of both the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One major advantage of this book is that the questions and articles are left whole so the reader can appreciate Aquinas' answers to the objections (something Kreeft removed for the sake of brevity). Aquinas' methods takes only minimal effort to accustomate to and it has the advantage of placing Aquinas in an historical dialogue rather than simply expounding answers from on-high. The brief introduction from Pegis is wonderfully detailed and readable as well.
But I'll let Anton Pegis explain it himself:
The Table of Contents reads (I have omited the question, and article numbers):
1. God:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 3)
2. Creation:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 233)
3. Man; His Powers; His Knowledge:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 280)
4. The End of Man:
Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III (p. 429)
5. Human Acts:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 478)
6. Habits and Virtues:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 544)
7. Law:
Summa Theologica, I-II (p. 609)
8. Grace:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 651)
The reason I did so was because Prof. Pegis (of the Ponitifical Institute of Medieval Studies) has compiled an invaluable summary of both the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One major advantage of this book is that the questions and articles are left whole so the reader can appreciate Aquinas' answers to the objections (something Kreeft removed for the sake of brevity). Aquinas' methods takes only minimal effort to accustomate to and it has the advantage of placing Aquinas in an historical dialogue rather than simply expounding answers from on-high. The brief introduction from Pegis is wonderfully detailed and readable as well.
But I'll let Anton Pegis explain it himself:
I have not made my selection with an eye to the opinions of specialist; I have aimed at meeting what seemed to me the needs of the college student who is a beginner in St. Thomas. Such a student will find in this book St Thomas' mature views of the most crucial questions of natural theology, psychology, theory of knowledge and ethics.(Preface: vii)
The Table of Contents reads (I have omited the question, and article numbers):
1. God:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 3)
2. Creation:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 233)
3. Man; His Powers; His Knowledge:
Summa Theologica, I (p. 280)
4. The End of Man:
Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III (p. 429)
5. Human Acts:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 478)
6. Habits and Virtues:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 544)
7. Law:
Summa Theologica, I-II (p. 609)
8. Grace:
Summa Theologica,I-II (p. 651)
August 7, 2013
St. Thomas Aquinas is, of course, brilliant. I would've given Summa 5 stars, but it's a school book and I didn't read enough of it to truly appreciate it. Next time around (hopefully I'll get to read the whole thing sometime), Aquinas shall set the cogs of my brain turning and churning round and round in agony and delight, fighting through syllogisms and logic of unsurpassed quality.
May 4, 2013
E x c e l l e n t !
February 6, 2014
If I ever have a kid, I'm teaching him/her via disputatio.
It's Aquinas. What else do you need?
It's Aquinas. What else do you need?
December 12, 2016
Intro so far.
June 17, 2021
Lord! That was a trial!*
Aquinas has a unique way of presenting his arguments which becomes tedious very early on:
1. Present the objective
2. Present a number of objections to said objective
3. Counter objections
4. Arrival at an "answer"
5. Reply to the "answer"
6. Repeat by adding to the "reply to the answer" via a new objective
Like reading instructions 500+ times, it is massively tedious and yet, also extremely impressive.
Clearly, I do not have the same mind as Aquinas -- mine flits around, his is more robotic, and I don't mean that derogatorily; it's impressive how he's able to distill complicated ideas and break them down into minute pieces to argue through point by point.
So why doesn't this make him convincing? Interestingly, as thorough as Aquinas is, he is a product of early medieval philosophy, in so far as he hasn't separated the divine with the philosophical. This distinction is important because the divine carries with it a certain deterministic quality (God, if you believe in him, is all knowing, after all) whilst philosophy is the study of man, his thoughts, and his behaviours in relationship to the meaning the individual attributes their value in. They represent two very different aims and so many of the sections that Aquinas discusses the nature of the soul, he's almagamizing soul with faith, soul with purpose, soul with divine purpose, soul with meaning. And bizarrely, despite trying to pose all possible objections, it was sometimes alarming how many questions he didn't consider worth the time to contemplate (for example, he doesn't seem to consider there is a difference between what we call "the will" and choice, or "the will" and motivation) which I wouldn't criticise so harshly if he hadn't deliberately set up a premise that attempted to address all possible objections.
The ideas are interesting, undoubtedly. And, as someone once told me, it's important to judge the work not on the contemporary understanding of the topic but understand the limitations of their education and culture, which will allow one to appreciate the depth of insight they actually had. And this is true. It's extraordinary how Aquinas was able to go from the question: "Whether it is necessary that every being be created by God?" to "Whether evil is in good as in its subject?" to "Whether the soul (as being composed by man, who is spiritual yet contains evil) is a body?" to "Whether the soul is man?" to "Whether the intellectual principle is united to the body as its form (and thus, is it part of the soul or part of the physical body or part of the divine as being encompassed by God)", and on and on.
But insightful ideas presented as an instructional manual doesn't make it easy or enjoyable to read. Profound, sure. But for me, Aquinas had to be served in tiny chunks -- not only because each idea required time to absorb properly, but also because it's BORING.
Certainly I recommend it, if only because you can begin to see the move from faith-based to secular phenomenology, but you have been warned...
*Note. I only read the following sections: "Man; His Powers; His Knowledge," "The End of Man", "Human Acts"; "Habits and Virtues"; and "Law". I skipped: "God", "Creation", and "Grace".
Aquinas has a unique way of presenting his arguments which becomes tedious very early on:
1. Present the objective
2. Present a number of objections to said objective
3. Counter objections
4. Arrival at an "answer"
5. Reply to the "answer"
6. Repeat by adding to the "reply to the answer" via a new objective
Like reading instructions 500+ times, it is massively tedious and yet, also extremely impressive.
Clearly, I do not have the same mind as Aquinas -- mine flits around, his is more robotic, and I don't mean that derogatorily; it's impressive how he's able to distill complicated ideas and break them down into minute pieces to argue through point by point.
So why doesn't this make him convincing? Interestingly, as thorough as Aquinas is, he is a product of early medieval philosophy, in so far as he hasn't separated the divine with the philosophical. This distinction is important because the divine carries with it a certain deterministic quality (God, if you believe in him, is all knowing, after all) whilst philosophy is the study of man, his thoughts, and his behaviours in relationship to the meaning the individual attributes their value in. They represent two very different aims and so many of the sections that Aquinas discusses the nature of the soul, he's almagamizing soul with faith, soul with purpose, soul with divine purpose, soul with meaning. And bizarrely, despite trying to pose all possible objections, it was sometimes alarming how many questions he didn't consider worth the time to contemplate (for example, he doesn't seem to consider there is a difference between what we call "the will" and choice, or "the will" and motivation) which I wouldn't criticise so harshly if he hadn't deliberately set up a premise that attempted to address all possible objections.
The ideas are interesting, undoubtedly. And, as someone once told me, it's important to judge the work not on the contemporary understanding of the topic but understand the limitations of their education and culture, which will allow one to appreciate the depth of insight they actually had. And this is true. It's extraordinary how Aquinas was able to go from the question: "Whether it is necessary that every being be created by God?" to "Whether evil is in good as in its subject?" to "Whether the soul (as being composed by man, who is spiritual yet contains evil) is a body?" to "Whether the soul is man?" to "Whether the intellectual principle is united to the body as its form (and thus, is it part of the soul or part of the physical body or part of the divine as being encompassed by God)", and on and on.
But insightful ideas presented as an instructional manual doesn't make it easy or enjoyable to read. Profound, sure. But for me, Aquinas had to be served in tiny chunks -- not only because each idea required time to absorb properly, but also because it's BORING.
Certainly I recommend it, if only because you can begin to see the move from faith-based to secular phenomenology, but you have been warned...
*Note. I only read the following sections: "Man; His Powers; His Knowledge," "The End of Man", "Human Acts"; "Habits and Virtues"; and "Law". I skipped: "God", "Creation", and "Grace".
November 20, 2022
My 700-page copy contained about 200 questions St. Aquinas answers, taken from his much larger multi-volume Summa Theologica. My 1st impression after closing the book was that this was just another clergy explaining Christianity to the uncleansed. Yes . . . and no. Unlike St Augustine, for example, who while reading the Bible reflects on the progress of his life in very practical terms, Thomas Aquanis approaches divinity thru a discipline of pure reason, with the simple premise of 'God is.' In Augustine's 'Confessions' there are Bible quotes in practically every sentence, most especially the first half. St. Aquinas maybe quotes the Bible a dozen times, mostly the Old Testament, and rarely - if ever- mentions Jesus or Christ, as the author is far more interested in less practical concerns like the universe, grace, (free) will, intellectual virtues, and the soul, while referencing his favorite philosophers like 'The Philosopher' (Aristotle), Plato and Socrates often, plus scores of early European moralists.
I sometimes felt a bit removed from Christianity, drawn more into a universalist's approach to God that Jews and Muslims might embrace, too. If you're into philosophy this is a book for you.
I sometimes felt a bit removed from Christianity, drawn more into a universalist's approach to God that Jews and Muslims might embrace, too. If you're into philosophy this is a book for you.
February 19, 2025
Aquinas reads like a Mimolette. Although The Summa theologica is, admittedly, a banger, it's arguments are filled with holes. I do appreciate the attempt at linear reasoning! That's his breakthrough, as a Christian thinker. But I find it disappointing at how little he responds to, what I feel, as the most obvious criticisms. The star of this collection specifically is his arguments directly addressing the nature of God. Those are fun.
For a non christian I would sooner recommend Maimonaides. Aquinas is not writing for "the perplexed"
For a non christian I would sooner recommend Maimonaides. Aquinas is not writing for "the perplexed"
November 13, 2020
This is such a sublime book, and it is still only a compressed Introduction out of his Basic Writings! Wow! You can really learn a lot from St. Thomas's argumentations, responses, and answers. He has such a brilliant mind.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews