St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was without question the greatest theologian in the history of the Catholic Church, and the "Summa Theologica" (1271-1274) was his masterpiece and one of the most influential theological books ever written. The goal herein is to make the thought and reasoning of this marvelous compendium of the Angelic Doctor more accessible and able to be referenced quickly. My overwhelming emphasis in collecting excerpts will be on theology itself; with far less on the topics of spirituality, ethics, and other areas. Sometimes even those of us who love Aquinas, have neither the time nor desire to read through the reasoning chain that he uses in the 3,500-page "Summa" to come to his conclusions. St. Thomas’ style in the "Summa" is a wonderful method and fabulous teaching device, but perhaps there are a lot of people like me who would also like to see concise, easily obtainable “answers” from Aquinas. I hope you, the reader, will benefit from my true labor of love.
214 topics total. The paperback is 200 pages long.
Thomas Aquinas was an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis.
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.
The philosophy of Aquinas has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church, extending to Western philosophy in general, where he stands as a vehicle and modifier of Aristotelianism, which he fused with the thought of Augustine.
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