The Thought of Thomas Aquinas

Abstract The aim of this book is to give a general and introductory overview of the teaching and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1224–26 to 1274), a Dominican friar, and one of the greatest Western philosophers, and Christian theologians. Books on Aquinas invariably deal either with his philosophy or his theology; Aquinas himself, however, made no such arbitrary division, and this book allows him to be seen as a whole, in introducing almost the full range of his thinking, and relating this to writers both earlier and later. The author points out that all Aquinas’ major conclusions can be found in his first important work – Commentary on the Sentences, and that he did not change his mind radically throughout his writings, although some emphases shifted. Nevertheless, in this book, Aquinas’ thinkings are followed broadly in accordance with the scheme he provides in Summa Theologiae, which is considered to be his greatest achievement and is the best‐known synthesis of his thinking. Ways in which the thinking in Summa Theologiae differs from his thinking presented elsewhere are noted, and some of the treatment is selective (for example politics and aesthetics are not dealt with directly). Discussion is also omitted of Aquinas’ contribution to thirteenth‐century debates on the legitimacy and running of certain religious orders in the Catholic Church, which is now merely of historical interest.