Thomas Aquinas
THOMAS AQUINAS
THOMAS AQUINAS (Tommaso d'Aquino, 1225–1274), Italian Dominican theologian, doctor of the church, patron of Roman Catholic schools, and Christian saint. One of the most important and influential scholastic theologians, Thomas is seen by the Roman Catholic church as uniquely "her very own" (Pius XI). He has been honored with the scholastic titles Doctor Communis (thirteenth century) and Doctor Angelicus (fifteenth century), among others.
Life and Works
The youngest son of Landolfo d'Aquino, lord of Roccasecca and Montesangiovanni and justiciary of Emperor Frederick II, and his second wife, Teodora of Chieti, Thomas had five sisters, three older brothers, and at least three half brothers. The family castle of Roccasecca, where Thomas was born, midway between Rome and Naples, was on a mountain in the northwest corner of the kingdom of Sicily. Sicily was ruled by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederic II (1194–1250), who was in almost continual warfare with the papal armies of Honorius III (1216–1227), Gregory IX (1227–1241), and Innocent IV (1243–1254). Divided political and religious loyalties rendered the position of the d'Aquino family precarious.
Thomas spent his first five years at the family castle under the care of his mother and a nurse. As the youngest son of the family, Thomas was given (oblatus, "offered") to the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino by his parents at the age of five or six in the firm hope that he would eventually choose the monastic life and become abbot. His earliest training was in the spiritual life, mainly through the Latin psalter, and in the rudiments of reading, writing, and mathematics. The struggle between the pope and the emperor reached a climax in 1239, when Frederick was excommunicated a second time. The imperial troops occupied the abbey, foreigners were expelled, and the young students were sent to one of the Benedictine houses in Naples to attend the imperial university founded in 1224 as a rival to Bologna. At the university, where Thomas remained until 1244, he studied under Master Martin (grammar and logic) and Peter of Ireland (natural philosophy). It was there that he was introduced to Aristotle's philosophy.
By 1243 Thomas was attracted to the Dominicans living nearby at the priory of San Domenico. This order of mendicant friars, founded by Dominic (1170–1221) and confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1216, was devoted to preaching, study, and the common life. Impressed by their apostolic zeal, poverty, and simplicity and free from obligation, Thomas received the habit in April 1244 at the age of nineteen. Under normal circumstances he would have made his novitiate at San Domenico, but because the friars feared that Thomas's family might intervene forcibly to prevent his entrance to the order, he was sent to Rome. At Rome it was decided that he should go to Paris, and so early in May 1244 he left Rome in the company of John of Wildeshausen, third master of the order, and John's companions, who were traveling to Bologna for the general chapter that met annually at Pentecost.
Learning of her son's entry into a begging order, Teodora, now head of the family, hastened to Naples, then to Rome, only to learn that her son had departed for Bologna. She sent orders to her older son Rinaldo, who was with Frederick's army north of Rome, to intercept Thomas and bring him home by force if necessary. Rinaldo and his escort intercepted the travelers near Acquapendente, north of papal territory, and forced Thomas to return on horseback. Stopping for the night at the family castle of Montesangiovanni in papal territory, the soldiers secured the services of a local prostitute to seduce Thomas, but to no avail. The next day the group rode to Roccasecca, where Thomas was restricted to the castle until Frederick II was excommunicated and deposed by the Council of Lyons on July 17, 1245. By then Teodora and her daughters saw that further attempts to change Thomas's resolve were useless and allowed him to rejoin the friars in Naples, from whence he was sent to Paris.
Arriving at the priory of Saint-Jacques by October 1245, Thomas began his studies at the University of Paris under Albertus Magnus, who was then lecturing on the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite. After three years of study in Paris, Thomas and others accompanied Albertus to Cologne, where a new studium generale was to be established, as decreed by the general chapter of Paris in 1248. For the next four years Thomas continued to attend and write down Albert's lectures on Dionysius and his questions on Aristotle's Ethics. As Albert's junior bachelor (1250–1252), Thomas lectured cursorily on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations.
The position of the mendicant friars at the University of Paris came under increasingly severe attack from secular masters, particularly William of Saint-Amour. By 1252 the Dominican master general was eager to send promising young men to the university to prepare for inception as master (full professor). Albert convinced the master general to send Thomas, despite his young age, to study for the university chair for non-Parisians. Thomas began his studies under Elias Brunet de Bergerac in the fall of 1252, lecturing on Peter Lombard's Sentences for four years. His originality and clarity of thought were conspicuous in his teaching and writing, notably in his commentary on the Sentences; On Being and Essence, on the meaning of certain metaphysical terms; and in a short treatise entitled Principles of Nature. In the latter work he unequivocally defended (1) a real distinction between essence and existence (esse ) in all creatures, (2) the pure potentiality of primary matter, (3) absence of matter in spiritual substance (substantia separata ), (4) participation of all created reality, material and immaterial, in God's being (esse ), and (5) the Aristotelian dependence of abstracted universals on individually existing material things.
Under tense circumstances in the spring of 1256, Thomas, though underage, was given license to incept by an order of Pope Alexander IV dated March 3. When finally he was allowed to incept, by an order of the pope dated June 17, he and his audience had to be protected by soldiers of Louis IX because the animosity of the town and some students against the mendicants was so great. William of Saint-Amour's antimendicant book On the Perils of the Last Days, sent to Rome by the king for examination, was condemned by the pope on October 5, and William was permanently exiled from Paris by the king. Thomas's reply to William's charges (Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem ), completed in late September or early October, arrived in Rome after the pope had made his decision and, therefore, did not influence the outcome.
Enjoying a respite from the antimendicant polemic, Thomas lectured from 1256 to 1259 on the Bible, held scholastic disputations (Quaestiones disputatae de veritate ) over three years, preached, and began composing his Summa contra gentiles (1259–1264), apparently for Dominican missionaries in Spain and North Africa. This systematic summary in four books is an arsenal of sound and persuasive arguments "against the gentiles," that is, nonbelievers and heretics.
Having served the order's interests in Paris, Thomas returned to Italy where he taught, wrote, and preached from 1259 to 1268. After spending two years in his home priory of Naples, he was assigned to teach at Orvieto (1261–1265), where he lectured to the community on Job and was of great service to Pope Urban IV. At the pope's request, he composed the liturgy for the new Feast of Corpus Christi and expressed his views in Against the Errors of the Greeks on doctrinal points disputed by Greek and Latin Christians. Having thereby discovered the richness of the Greek patristic tradition, he also began compiling a continuous gloss, or exposition, of the Gospels (Catena aurea ), made up almost entirely of excerpts from the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers, dedicating the commentary on Matthew to Urban IV. In June 1265, the provincial chapter of Anagni assigned Thomas to open a school of theology at Santa Sabina in Rome. Soon realizing that Peter Lombard's Sentences, then in common use, was unsatisfactory for young beginners, Thomas projected a three-part survey of Catholic theology (Summa theologiae ) that would be simpler, more orderly, and more inclusive than other works available. The first part was completed and in circulation by 1268. More subtle questions were disputed in the Roman school in a special series on the power of God (De potentia ) and on evil (De malo ). In addition, Thomas lectured on the Bible during this period.
By the end of 1268, Thomas was ordered to return to Paris, as was the Frenchman Peter of Tarentaise (the future Pope Innocent V), to counter a revival of antimendicant sentiment among secular masters. When Thomas and his secretary Reginald of Piperno arrived in Paris early in 1269, Thomas realized that the situation was far more complex and serious than he had assumed. Almost single-handedly he was required to fend off attacks on three fronts: with all mendicants against secular masters opposed to mendicants' being in the university; with a few of his confreres against most of the Dominicans, Franciscans, and secular theologians, opposed to using Aristotle in theology; and with most theologians against young philosophers who tended to promulgate heretical views under the name of Aristotle or his commentator Ibn Rushd (Averroës). Over the next five years Thomas fulfilled his university obligations to lecture on the Bible, to hold disputations, and to preach, while also carrying on a vigorous polemic against the antimendicants, expounding all the major works of Aristotle, writing his Summa theologiae, and replying to numerous requests for his opinions.
Revival of the antimendicant controversy under Gérard d'Abbeville and his colleagues at Paris (encouraged by the exiled William) centered largely on the role of evangelical poverty in the spiritual life and on the practice of admitting young boys into their novitiate. Thomas attacked the views of Gérard in his quodlibetal disputations (1269–1271), in two polemical treatises on Christian perfection, and in his Summa (2.2.179–189). This phase of the controversy ended with the death of its chief protagonists, William of Saint-Amour on September 13, 1272, and Gérard at Paris that same year on November 8.
On December 10, 1270, thirteen philosophical propositions opposed to the Catholic faith were condemned by Étienne Tempier, bishop of Paris. To prevent such views from developing in the classroom, Thomas undertook a detailed literal commentary on all the main texts of Aristotle then in common use at the University of Paris. It is possible that Thomas began his commentary on De anima in Italy, but all the others were written after his return to Paris in 1269, namely, the commentaries on Physics, On Interpretation, Posterior Analytics, Ethics, Metaphysics, Politics, and certain others left unfinished at his death. Because all these works of Aristotle were used as textbooks in the arts faculty and had to be taught by the young masters whose best guide to date had been Ibn Rushd, Thomas therefore felt a particular urgency in writing his own commentaries that remained closer to the original sources and within the context of Christian faith. His unfinished expositions of Aristotle's De caelo, De generatione, and Metheora were among his last writings at Naples.
The extensive second part of the Summa theologiae was entirely written at Paris during the intense years 1269 to 1272. This part, later subdivided into two parts, discusses the ultimate goal of human life, namely, eternal life (2.1.1–5) and the means of attaining it, namely, human acts, reason (law), grace, and all the virtues considered in general (2.1) and in particular (2.2) as practiced in various states of life. The third part, begun at Paris, considers the incarnation and life of Christ (3.1–59) and the sacraments, and was left incomplete on the subject of penance when Thomas died.
Shortly after Easter 1272, Thomas left Paris with Friar Reginald for the chapter at Florence, which commissioned him to establish a theological studium anywhere he liked in the Roman province. He chose his home priory of Naples, where he subsequently taught, wrote, and preached. After five years of intense activity, however, Thomas had a traumatic experience while celebrating mass in the Chapel of Saint Nicholas on December 6, 1273. Although medieval biographers were uncertain about the nature of this experience, it seems that Thomas suffered a breakdown of some sort. In any case, his productive life had come to an end, and although he did remain physically mobile, he lived as if in a stupor.
Pope Gregory X personally requested that Thomas attend the Second Council of Lyons due to open on May 1, 1274. He also asked him to bring a copy of his treatise Against the Errors of the Greeks, composed for Urban IV. Leaving Naples with Reginald and others early in February, Thomas had a serious accident near Maenza in which he hit his head against an overhanging branch and was knocked down. Growing weaker, Thomas asked to stop at the castle of Maenza, home of his niece Francesca, the wife of Annibaldo, count of Ceccano. Lent had already begun on February 14, and Thomas's condition became so serious that he asked to be transported to the nearby Cistercian monastery of Fossanova, where the old abbot Theobald was a member of the Ceccano family. There he received the last rites and died early Wednesday morning March 7, 1274. Thomas's remains stayed at Fossanova until they were transferred by order of Urban V to the Dominican priory in Toulouse on Saturday, January 28, 1369, where they are today. Since the anniversary of Thomas's death always falls in Lent, the Latin church celebrates his feast on January 28.
Thomas had no immediate successors capable of grasping his originality and profundity, although he had many admirers. His labors in Paris were effectively dissipated by the condemnation of 219 various propositions at Paris on March 7, 1277, and of 30 different propositions at Oxford on March 18 that same year. Sixteen propositions of the Paris list reflected the thought of Thomas; three of the Oxford list directly concerned unicity of substantial form in material composites, a pivotal Thomistic thesis. It was not until Thomas's canonization on July 18, 1323, that a new generation of largely self-taught Thomists could begin to teach and develop his teachings freely.
Thought
Thomas Aquinas was first and foremost a theologian whose teachings have been officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic church. Since 1567 Thomas has been considered one of the doctors of the church and has been numbered among the great teachers of antiquity such as Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory I. Moreover, the Latin church has regarded Thomas as the model for all theologians, requiring that his philosophy and his theology be taught in all seminaries and Catholic colleges.
Philosophy
While giving primacy of place and importance to what God has revealed through the Jewish people and through Jesus Christ, Thomas recognized the much larger, though less important, realm of knowledge available to unaided human reason. Unlike many of his contemporaries who merged reason into faith, Thomas emphasized the distinctness and importance of Aristotelian philosophy and the sciences, even for theology. His own strictly philosophical thought is found in his numerous commentaries on Aristotle and in independent treatises. In the manner of his contemporaries in the universities, he adapted his own understanding of Aristotelian ideas, terminology, and methodology to the study of "sacred doctrine," especially in his Summa theologiae.
Thomistic "philosophy" is basically Aristotelian, empirical, and realist, or what G. K. Chesterton called "organized common sense." Thomas preferred an order of study that presupposed the liberal arts and mathematics and began with Aristotelian logic, principally On Interpretation and the Posterior Analytics ; moved through natural philosophy, involving all the natural sciences, including psychology; treated moral philosophy, including political science; and concluded with metaphysics, or first philosophy, which today would include epistemology and natural theology.
In logic the Aristotelian categories, syllogisms, and rules of correct reasoning for "demonstration" as distinct from "dialectics" and "sophisms" are considered essential for an accurate understanding of all other disciplines. Of special importance are the meaning of "scientific" knowledge based on "first principles" and the two ways in which both are acquired: experience (via inventionis ) or education (via disciplinae ).
In natural philosophy the existence of a physical world and its substantial mutability are taken as self-evident in order to establish the first principles of change: matter (potentiality), form (actuality), and privation (immediate possibility). Natural science is about natural things (not artificial or incidental), things that have within themselves "nature" either as an actual principle (form as a dynamic source of activity) or as a passive principle (matter as receptive of outside forces). The aim of natural science is to understand all natural things through their material, efficient, formal, and final causes. In so doing the naturalist discovers an ultimate, intelligent, efficient, and final cause that is not physical (i.e., not material and not mutable) and is the "first cause" and "agent" of all that is natural. The noblest part of this science is the study of the whole human person composed of matter (body) and form (soul). This study also shows that the human soul has functions, namely, understanding and free choice, that transcend the limitations of animal nature, thereby proving the soul to be immaterial, created, and immortal.
Moral philosophy for Aristotle and Thomas presupposes psychology and deals with human happiness, which is the goal of each person in this life, and the optimum (morally good) means of attaining that goal for the individual, the family, and the body politic. The foundation of both goal and correct means is called the natural law, which is knowable by human reason but open to rejection by the individual. There are four cardinal virtues, or optimum means, for use in every state of life: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The highest of these is prudence, which binds all virtues together and securely guides humanity to hap-piness.
Finally metaphysics, or speculative wisdom (natural theology), is about all being-as-such and about the First Cause as the source of all being. For Thomas the most "sublime truth" of this wisdom is the realization that all creatures are composed of a "nature" and a borrowed existence (esse ), while God's nature alone is "to exist." God is subsistent existence itself (ipsum esse subsistens ), the Necessary Being that cannot not be. As the highest science, metaphysics has the added task of ordering, defending, and safeguarding all other sciences, speculative and practical. In this role it examines the roots and foundation of all human knowledge (epistemology), natural religion, and public worship.
Theology
Thomistic "theology," which Thomas calls sacred doctrine, is distinct from pure philosophy and depends on the divine gift of faith, which involves the whole realm of revelation, divine law, ecclesial worship, the spiritual life, and human speculation about these. The realm of faith is in the strict sense "super -natural" in that its truths, values, and efficacy transcend the realm of "nature." Faith's abilities are freely given by God for human salvation and are beyond the abilities of pure nature (cf. Rom. 11:5–6). The content of faith concerns what one must believe (faith) and do (morals) to gain eternal life as revealed by God. The life of faith is a personal sharing by grace of the intimate trinitarian life of God here and hereafter. The efficacy of the life of faith is derived from the passion and death of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son. These beliefs and morals are transmitted in history through the Bible and through the living church founded by Christ on Peter and his successors.
Thomas did not divide theology into such modern disciplines as biblical and scholastic, positive and speculative, dogmatic and moral, spiritual and mystical, kerygmatic and academic, and so on. In his day, however, each master in sacred theology lectured on the Bible, presided over scholastic disputations on specific points, and also preached regularly to the university community. Thomas wrote his Summa theologiae not as a replacement for the Bible but as an extracurricular aid for beginners who needed an overview of "sacred doctrine." Although the Summa is divided into three parts, its conceptual unity is the Dionysian circle of the exitus ("going forth") of all things from God and the reditus ("return") of all things to God. The First Part considers God and the coming forth of all things from God. The Second and Third parts consider the final goal of human life and the actual return of all things to God. The two parts of the Second Part consider the intrinsic means such as virtues, law, and grace, while the Third Part considers Christ and his sacraments as indispensable extrinsic means to salvation. Without doubt Thomas's most original contribution to theology was the large Second Part, on the virtues and vices, inserted between the original exitus and reditus found in all contemporary summae of theology. The "Supplement" to the Summa fills out what Thomas left unfinished when he ceased writing on December 6, 1273. It was compiled with scissors and paste by Reginald and other secretaries from Thomas's earlier commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences (4.17–46). Certainly if Thomas had lived to finish the Summa, many more developed views would have been written than are now expressed there.
Because theology concerns mysteries revealed by God, it can in no way "prove" or "understand" these or any other mysteries. But it can clarify the terms used, determine what cannot be said, and defend the truth of revealed mysteries against attacks from nonbelievers. Of all the revealed mysteries, Thomas considered two as absolutely basic to the Christian religion: the trinity of persons in one God and the incarnation of the Son of God as true man born of Mary.
For Thomas the supernatural gifts of sanctifying grace and the virtues (faith, hope, love, and the moral virtues) are normally conferred through baptism by water in the name of Jesus or the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But in an adult the beginnings of this supernatural life are stirred up by God before actual baptism by water. The supernatural life of grace (gratia ) experienced in this life is, for Thomas, already a foretaste of eternal life (gloria ) in heaven. The overflow of grace is expressed in good works and in the exercise of all the virtues.
Faith, hope, and love are called "theological" virtues, because they alone have God as their direct object. In the life to come, faith will give way to sight and hope will give way to the possession of God. Love, alone, which Thomas defines as friendship with God, will continue essentially unaltered in heaven in the degree of intensity achieved in this life. This divine friendship, which is none other than the indwelling of the Trinity, is initiated by baptism, nourished by the Eucharist, and increased by prayer and service to one's neighbor. For Thomas, one's place in heaven, or the intensity of beatitude, is determined by the capacity for love developed in this life.
The sources of Thomas's theology are the Vulgate Bible, the life and practice of the church, and the writings of all the available Latin and Greek fathers in Latin translation. The terminology, however, is always traditional, largely philosophical, and often Aristotelian. For this reason it is important to understand such technical terms as matter and form, substance and accidents, essence and existence, nature and operations, and soul and faculties, as well as the four Aristotelian causes, if one is to grasp the meaning of Thomas's exceptionally lucid and simple Latin.
Influence
Apart from the admiration, love, and respect accorded him by scholars and theologians, Thomas exerted little influence by the time he died in 1274. At Paris his literary and personal efforts could neither stem the tide of heterodoxy among teachers of philosophy nor abate the growing fears of Augustinian theologians against the use of Aristotle or any pagan philosopher in the schools of theology.
From 1278 onward, however, the general chapters of the Dominican order showed an increasing concern that the writings of Thomas be at least respected within the order. By 1309 the chapter required all Dominican lectors to lecture from the works of Thomas, to solve problems according to his doctrine, and to instruct their students in the same. Even before his canonization, Dominicans were obliged to teach according to Thomas's doctrine and the common teaching of the church. In 1279 the Parisian Franciscan William de la Mare compiled a "correctory" (Correctorium ) of Thomas's writings, indicating therein where Thomas differed from Bonaventure and Augustine. In May 1282 this correctory was made mandatory for all Franciscan teachers, but by 1284 there were five defensive replies by young Dominican teachers, three of whom were Oxonians influenced by the brilliant Thomas Sutton, a self-taught Dominican Thomist. The canonization of Thomas on July 18, 1323, and the lifting in 1325 of the Parisian condemnation insofar as it touched or seemed to touch Thomas removed the foremost barriers to the teaching of his ideas universally. But it was not until the sixteenth century that Thomists began to develop his seminal principles in a notable way. An exception was the French Dominican John Capreolus (1380–1444), "the Prince of Thomists," who in his Defensiones on the Sentences incisively expounded and defended Thomas's views against Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, John of Ripa, William of Ockham, and others.
In the sixteenth century four influential teachers substituted Thomas's Summa for the standard Sentences of Peter Lombard: Peter Crokaert in Paris (in 1509); Thomas de Vio Cajetan at Pavia (in 1497), author of an important commentary on the Summa, (1507–1522); Konrad Koellin at Heidelberg (1500–1511), author of a commentary on the first two parts of the Summa (1512); and Francisco de Vitoria at Salamanca (in 1526) and his many disciples throughout Spain. These Thomists were concerned not so much with defending Thomism as with replying to issues raised by the reformers, resolving new problems of an expanding civilization, and applying Thomas's principles to developments in international law and the treatment of Indians in the New World. By the time of the Council of Trent (1545–1563), most of the outstanding Roman Catholic theologians were Thomists. The influence of Thomas is clear throughout the council's decrees, notably on justification, the sacraments, and the mass. The influential Roman Catechism, published by order of Pius V in 1566, was the work of three Dominican Thomists. Pius V declared Thomas a doctor of the church (1567) and ordered that the first Opera omnia (the "Piana") be published with the remarkable index (Tabula aurea ) of Peter of Bergamo at Rome (18 vols., 1570–1571). Since the Piana edition, there have been ten editions of complete works apart from the current critical edition ordered by Pope Leo XIII in 1879 (the "Leonine").
After the Reformation and throughout the scientific and industrial revolutions, there was little interest in Thomistic philosophy or theology outside the decimated Dominican order and scattered groups in Catholic countries. However, a Thomistic revival in Italy and Spain slowly grew and reached its culmination in the encyclical Aeterni Patris of Leo XIII (August 4, 1879), urging the study of Thomas's works by all students of theology, and in subsequent legislation by Leo and his successors. This revival focused on Thomistic philosophy as a system capable of countering the effects of positivism, materialism, and secularism on Catholic beliefs and practices. This polemical intention was modified by the attitude of dialogue with the modern world that characterized the approach of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). In this spirit Paul VI, in his encyclical on the seventh centenary of Thomas's death (1974), proposed Thomas as a model to theologians, not only with respect to his teachings but with respect to his example of openness to the world and to truth from whatever the source. As a result, there has been increased study and critical reappraisal of Thomas's thought, principles, and methodology. Although Thomism in the restricted sense of a closed system seems no longer tenable, philosophers and theologians of all traditions continue to have recourse to Thomas's thought as a milestone in human thought and to develop his seminal insights in dialogue with modern thought and issues.
See Also
Bibliography
Works by Thomas Aquinas
Of the ninety or more authentic works of Thomas there have been numerous editions of individual works from 1461 to the present day, over 180 incunabula editions alone. Since the Roman edition of Pius V, Opera omnia (1570–1571), there have been more than ten editions or reprints of older standbys, but the only modern critical edition of the Opera omnia is the Leonine, 48 vols. to date (Vatican City, 1882–). Both English translations of the Summa theologiae (22 vols., London, 1916–1938; bilingual edition, 60 vols., New York, 1964–1976) are far from satisfactory, except for some volumes. Besides the older translation of the Summa contra gentiles by the English Dominicans, there is a good edited translation by Anton C. Pegis, On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, 4 vols. in 5 (New York, 1955–1957). The most convenient anthologies are Basic Writings, 2 vols., edited by Anton C. Pegis (New York, 1945); Philosophical Texts, edited and translated by Thomas Gilby (1951; reprint, Durham, N.C., 1982); and Theological Texts, edited and translated by Thomas Gilby (1955; reprint, Durham, N.C., 1982). The best single volume sampling of his writings in philosophy with good introductions by Vernon J. Bourke is The Pocket Aquinas (New York, 1960).
Works on His Life and Writings
The most complete single volume on Thomas and his writings is my own Friar Thomas d'Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Works (1974; reprinted with corrigenda and addenda, Washington, D.C., 1983) with an annotated catalog of authentic writings. Some of the more important biographical documents have been translated and edited by Kenelm Foster in The Life of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Baltimore, 1959). All modern studies of the writings must start with the pioneer work of Pierre Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de Saint Thomas d'Aquin (Fribourg, 1910), Martin Grabmann, Die Werke, 3d ed. (Münster, 1949), and some others.
General Works on His Life and Thought
Bourke, Vernon J. Aquinas' Search for Wisdom. Milwaukee, 1965. Excellent alternating biographical and doctrinal chapters that should be read carefully to savor the wisdom of Thomas.
Chenu, M.-D. Toward Understanding Saint Thomas Aquinas. Chicago, 1964. Indispensable for understanding the medieval context and genre of Thomas's writings.
Chesterton, G. K. Saint Thomas Aquinas. London, 1933. A superb appreciation of "the dumb ox" that Gilson and Pegis would have liked to have written, by a natural Thomist.
Copleston, Frederick C. Aquinas. Baltimore, 1967. Most appreciated by historians of philosophy.
Gilson, Étienne. The Christian Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Translated from the fifth edition with a catalog of authentic works by I. T. Eschmann. New York, 1956. Gilson's chef d'œuvre, frequently revised over forty years of a distinguished career with all his pet views.
Maritain, Jacques. Saint Thomas, Angel of the Schools. London, 1946. Reflections on the life and significance of Thomas by a distinguished modern Thomist.
McInerny, Ralph. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1977). Reprint, Notre Dame, 1982. The best short introduction to Thomas and his chief sources: Aristotle, Boethius, and Augustine.
Pegis, Anton C. Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas. New York, 1948. A handy volume with selections from both summas illustrating principal themes of Thomas's thought.
Pieper, Josef. Guide to Thomas Aquinas. New York, 1962. A thoughtful invitation to explore the world of Thomas for reflective students.
Sertillanges, A. G. Saint Thomas Aquinas and His Work (1933). Reprint, London, 1957. An exciting period piece by a university chaplain in Paris after World War I.
Walz, Angelus M. Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Biographical Study. Westminster, Md., 1951. A much-consulted historian's view of Thomas's life and works; see the improved French adaptation by Paul Novarino.
James A. Weisheipl (1987)