St. Thomas Aquinas
for Beginners
St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!
“We exhort you, venerable brethren, in all earnestness to restore the
golden wisdom of St. Thomas, and to spread it far and wide for the defense and
beauty of the Catholic faith, for the good of society, and for the advantage of
all the sciences.”
These words of Leo XIII are no less certain today than when the Holy
Father promulgated them 150 years ago. Indeed, while the neo-scholastic revival
flourished for several decades in the wake of Leo’s encyclical Aeterni Patris, the
“golden wisdom” of the Angelic Doctor has been conspicuously absent from many
Catholic schools and even seminaries in the decades following the Second
Vatican Council.
The early years of the 21st century have seen a tremendous growth of
interest in the thought of St. Thomas, and many excellent books have been
published for both academic and popular audiences. Nevertheless, for the
average Catholic sitting in the pews of the average
parish, Aquinas remains distant and largely inaccessible in his own
writings. Technical jargon as well as the logical structure of the saint’s work
cause many to despair of understanding.
To remedy this, on the feast of St. Thomas, we herein offer a very brief
introduction to the life of this indispensable Catholic theologian, and his
most famous work the Summa Theologiae, and
pray that in so doing Leo’s exhortation may again be heeded in our own day.
A very brief introduction to St. Thomas
Saint Thomas was an Italian Catholic priest in the 13th century. Born to
a noble family, he began his education at the famous Benedictine Abbey at Monte
Cassino, near Rome, at the age of five. His aristocratic family had planned for
him to grow up to be the Abbot at Monte Cassino, a very prestigious role which
would further decorate their lineage.
The young Thomas, however, made different plans. Impelled by his love of
God, Thomas made clear his intention to join the Order of Preachers, a recently
established fraternity of wandering beggars who devoted themselves to study and
preaching the Word of God. In the early days these friars, called the
Dominicans after their founder St. Dominic, were looked upon by the nobility as
the religious hippies of their day. For the young aristocrat to join such an
order, as opposed to the prominent Benedictines, was an outright scandal to the
family from Aquino.
So opposed was his family that when Thomas set out for the University of
Paris to earn his theological master’s degree with the Dominicans, they had him
kidnapped and brought home. They kept him under house arrest for nearly two
years, hoping to break his spirit, but according to tradition the young saint
used this time to memorize the entire Bible. As a final desperate attempt to
dissuade Thomas from his vocation, his brothers hired a prostitute and sent her
into his room to seduce him, but rather than staining his
purity Aquinas chased her out of the room with a hot iron from the
fireplace. His family, so impressed by this display of virtue and resolve,
finally relented and allowed Thomas to pursue his calling with the Dominicans.
Aquinas would go on to become the star pupil of St. Albert the
Great, the greatest scientist of the Middle Ages. Together, Saints Albert and
Thomas would successfully introduce Aristotle to the medieval Church, which had
been steeped in Platonism since the time of St. Augustine. The new synthesis of
Aristotelian natural science with Christian theology, accomplished by St.
Thomas in the 13th century more than by anyone else, laid the intellectual
foundations of what we today mistakenly call the “scientific revolution” of the
16th century. Rather than revolting, the early modern scientists in the 16th
century were continuing the legacy of the St. Thomas and the
Scholastic philosophers and scientists of the high Middle Ages, notably those
who had come under the influence of Aristotle as mediated by St. Thomas. In the
history of science, Aquinas’ successful synthesis of Aristotelianism with Christian
theology is among the most important and underappreciated events.
Of course Aquinas was a theologian more than he was a
scientist, but he used natural science in the service of philosophy, just as he
used philosophy in the service of theology. His work forms an organic whole
which embodies the medieval adage that “philosophy is the handmaid of
theology.”
A very brief introduction to the works of St. Thomas
St. Thomas’ literary output was positively staggering. The collected
works of Aquinas run to 50 large folio volumes, the equivalent of
about 500 short books. In order to earn his master’s degree, like all the
Masters of the 13th century, Aquinas wrote a long and detailed
commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Then he went on
to write many commentaries on Holy Scripture and the works of Aristotle,
numerous short works devoted to specific questions in philosophy and theology,
and two large “Summas,” or summaries of theology.
The Summa Contra Gentiles was written as a systematic
exposition and defence of Christian belief for the persuasion of unbelievers,
and it ranks among the finest texts in the history of apologetics. The Summa
Theologiae, Aquinas’ undisputed magnum opus, was written
as a textbook for theology students, whose faith was already presumed.
A very brief introduction to the Summa Theologiae
The Summa Theologiae is a systematic work
comprised of three large parts. The First Part, usually referred to by its
Latin name Prima Pars, is concerned with the nature of objective
reality, starting with God as the Source of all
being. Aquinas considers the existence and nature of God as Creator
and as Trinity, the creation of the universe, and the nature of man, the crown
and synthesis of creation made in God’s own image.
The Second Part of the Summa is so large that it is subdivided into two
parts. The First Part of the Second Part, the Prima Secundae, deals
with happiness (flourishing) as the goal of human existence, the general
principles of morality which conduce to happiness, the natural law which guides
man in his quest for happiness, and human and divine government, which exist to
assist man in his quest. The Second Part of the Second Part, the Secunda
Secundae, treats the virtues as the way that man lives out the moral
principles, and the opposing vices which deter man from attaining his final
end, which is happiness with God forever. The Secunda Secundae also
treats of the various states of life, the vocations by which God calls man back
to Himself.
The Third Part of the Summa, the Tertia Pars, considers the
Person and Work of Jesus Christ, whose incarnation and atoning sacrifice
provide man with the grace to fulfil the requirements of the moral law, and
thereby to be united with God. After treating of Christ in
Himself, Aquinas turns to consider the Sacraments of Holy Church,
which is the mystical body of Christ wherein He pours out His grace to man, to
unite man to Himself in time and in eternity.
Considered as a whole, the Summa Theologiae may be
considered as a mirror of reality. It starts with God the Creator, who as Love
gives being to all things, which in their turn seek the perfection of their
created natures and thereby return to their Source. Man, as the cosmic priest
of creation, sums up all things in himself and by making a free gift of himself
back to God thereby brings all creation back to its Source. Reality is thus
likened to a vast metaphysical circulatory system, with created beings flowing
out from God Who Is Uncreated Being, unfolding their essences in time and
attaining their various ends, and thereby returning to their Source for which
they unceasingly yearn. This is the deeply biblical vision that runs through
the entire Summa Theologiae, and on which the very structure of the
text is modelled.
St. Thomas died before completing the third part of the Summa. One night
shortly after he had composed the treatise on the
Eucharist, Aquinas was praying in his chapel and heard a locution
from the crucifix on the wall. Christ spoke to him, “Thomas my son, you have
written well of me. What will you have as your reward?” The saint’s answer is
the perfect summary of his whole life and all his voluminous scholarly output.
“Non nisi te, Domine.” “Only yourself, Lord.”
Shortly thereafter one day while Aquinas was celebrating Mass
he was granted a profound grace of mystical union, which so transfixed him that
he declared he could no longer continue his writing. When his brother friars
begged him to explain himself, Thomas told them “Compared with what has been revealed
to me, all that I have written seems like so much straw.” On his deathbed soon
after, he asked his brothers to read aloud the Song of Songs, and cared not
that his greatest work was left unfinished. Later, his brother Dominicans
systematically anthologized excerpts from his earlier work to complete the last
part of the Summa, which is called the Supplementum.
How to Read the Summa Theologiae
The Summa Theologiae is a massive work. The print
edition runs to five volumes and over 3,000 pages. It’s also as dense as
it is bulky. St. Thomas never wastes words and there’s really no fat to trim
off the Summa. Furthermore, Aquinas deploys an array of technical
terminology that can leave the philosophically uninitiated bewildered. How then
ought one to approach reading this work?
There are two basic difficulties encountered in the Summa. First, the
terminology can be overwhelming without a primer, and second, the structure of
the articles themselves can be confusing to newcomers.
The jargon is the biggest obstacle to average readers approaching the
Summa. Thankfully, there are many fine introductions to St. Thomas which gloss
the main philosophical terms and concepts. Ed Feser’s Aquinas is
among the best recent such works. Mortimer Adler’s classic Aristotle for Everybody is
also an extremely helpful primer on Aristotelian philosophy,
which Aquinas largely adopts as a framework.
The second difficulty is the logical structure of Summa articles, which
are discussed below.
How to understand the Summa articles
Articles of the Summa are written in the style of a “scholastic
disputation.” These are really short, systematic debates, and once you know
your way around them they are a ton of fun to read. Sadly, most people who open
the Summa get lost in the seemingly obtuse structure of the articles, get
discouraged by this, and end up giving up on St. Thomas.
The basic structure is as follows.
- Statement of the Question,
usually in a yes/no form.
- Objections,
wherein Aquinas summarizes arguments against his
own position.
- “On the contrary,”
wherein Aquinas quotes from an authority like the Bible, a
Father of the Church, or ancient pagan philosophers like Aristotle, in
support of his own position.
- “I answer that,”
wherein Aquinas argues for his own position. This is typically
the longest part of the article and where the real substance
of Aquinas’ one view is to be found.
- “Replies,”
wherein Aquinas answers each of the previously stated objections
and explains why it’s wrong, frequently by recourse to careful
distinctions that show the objection to be partly right and partly wrong.
Reading an article from beginning to end can be frustrating, because by
the time one gets to the replies one may not clearly recall the arguments of
the objections which the replies are replying to. Many students
of Aquinas find the following re-arrangement much easier to follow.
- (1) Statement of the
question.
- (3) “On the contrary,” which
points in the direction of Aquinas’ view.
- (4) “I answer that,” which
unfolds Aquinas’ argument for his position.
- (2 and 5) Objection 1
followed immediately by reply 1, objection 2 followed immediately by reply
2, etc., through all the objections and replies.
That said, it is encouraged of all students of Aquinas, at
least some of the time, to read the articles straight through.
It is a wonderful exercise in authentic mindfulness, as you have no choice but
to really pay attention in order to not lose your way. It also helps to situate
the articles historically, because the objections
that Aquinas replies to are all real arguments that had been made by
thinkers before Aquinas, and they’re often very good arguments.
Aquinas always very charitably states his opponents’ views as strongly as
he can, never pitting himself against straw men. Reading and thinking about the
objections before reading the body of the article gives a sense of Aquinas’
brilliance, because very often you will be convinced by the objections even
though you know that Aquinas is about to refute them. This is a very
useful exercise, and allows you to read Aquinas the way his contemporaries
would have, in the context of all the previous arguments that they would surely
have already been exposed to by the time they came to study with Master Thomas.
Conclusion
The revival of Thomistic scholarship in recent years is admirable and to
be commended. There are many wonderful scholars who are rediscovering St.
Thomas after several decades of his thought being largely neglected. Our hope
in publishing this essay is that we may yet see a flowering of popular devotion
to “the golden wisdom” of Aquinas, that many lay Catholics will search
this great saint’s writings, thereby become better formed in their faith, and
ultimately grow closer to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Deep study of St. Thomas
should lead us to adopt as our own his single-minded pursuit of our Source and
Final End: “Only yourself, Lord.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!
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