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tgm21234
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I never read any of the works of St. Thomas because I was always afraid I wouldn’t understand him.
Can you recommend an easy book to begin with?
Can you recommend an easy book to begin with?
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EphelDuath
Guest
You probably wouldn’t understand Aquinas if you hadn’t taken a course on metaphysics in college, or studied Aristotle. The only work of his that I think one could reasonably understand without doing so is the Summa Theologica.
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GeorgeSword
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There is one called the Summa of the Summa that is pretty good for beginners I believe. It’s something of a compressed version of the Summa Theologica, but it is easier to understand.
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PoliSciProf
Guest
I would suggest St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (published by Norton). It has a nice selection from Tom and has historical essays and commentary, including his place in contemporary thought and theology. It is inexpensive (12.95). Here is a link to Amazon so you can read some reviews. amazon.com/Thomas-Aquinas-Politics-Critical-Editions/dp/0393952436
Don’t worry about him being hard to understand. It is easier to dig for potatoes than diamonds but not as rewarding.
Don’t worry about him being hard to understand. It is easier to dig for potatoes than diamonds but not as rewarding.
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JP2Admirer
Guest
Perhaps try Aristotle’s *Categories *as it offers a primer on terminology. (Note, it is difficult, however.)
Aquinas gives some terminology in his “On the Prinicples of Nature,” and “On Being and Essence.”
I have studied Aquinas for about six years now (for some time at a school dedicated primarily to his thought) and believe me, it is a journey. If you stick with it, you will find him opening avenues of thought to you that you never thought you could traverse.
Nothing worthwile is easy. Terminology is the hardest part of Aquinas.
You could also look at Poryphry’s *Introduction, *which also helps with Aristotelian categories.
Aquinas gives some terminology in his “On the Prinicples of Nature,” and “On Being and Essence.”
I have studied Aquinas for about six years now (for some time at a school dedicated primarily to his thought) and believe me, it is a journey. If you stick with it, you will find him opening avenues of thought to you that you never thought you could traverse.
Nothing worthwile is easy. Terminology is the hardest part of Aquinas.
You could also look at Poryphry’s *Introduction, *which also helps with Aristotelian categories.
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Magnanimity
Guest
I agree that St Thomas Aquinas is not someone to be intimidated by. That’s certainly not a reason to stay away. It would do you a world of good to take a local college course that could introduce you to his thought, but if that’s not possible I would recommend that you get a good introductory text and then start reading the summas on your own. There is no substitute for the original texts, especially for St. Thomas Aquinas
Peter Kreeft’s work, Summa of the Summa was recommended, and it is quite good in its explanatory notes. However, it does limit itself quite a bit to the philosophical passages of the Summa Theologica. If that’s fine, then you can start there. For a more general overview of St. Thomas’ whole thought, I would recommend the very fine text by an Evangelical author, Norman Geisler. It’s called Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal. These two books will give you a lot of the prior philosophical background for understanding St Thomas.
But, don’t read any of these works in isolation to the original texts themselves. I actually believe that both of St. Thomas’ major summas are quite accessible: Summa Theologica (newadvent.org/summa/) and Summa Contra Gentiles (abridged version here: www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/gc.htm).
A main consideration that may make accessibility difficult is knowing the format/outline of the works. So, here is a brief rundown of the basic structure of the Summa Theologica (ST).
Let’s start at the beginning.
First, St Thomas introduces the basic category of thought that he’s about to explore with a title question. For example, the opening question of the ST is: “Question 1: The Nature and Extent of Sacred Doctrine.”
Second, each general question to be considered is usually going to be broken down into component parts, or various aspects of the general question. So, for example, the first sub-question under Question 1 is called Article 1. In this instance, it reads like this, “Article 1: Whether, besides philosophy, any further doctrine is required?”
With me so far?
Here is where it can get a little confusing. St. Thomas begins his treatment of the particular Article with an “objection.” Objection 1, Objection 2, etc. (What is important for you to keep in mind is that the objection is what St Thomas is going to counter later in the individual article itself. So, iow, the “objection” will be the opposite position from the one that St Thomas himself takes on the issue. St Thomas disagrees with the objection.)
After the “objection(s)” will come the “On the contrary,” where St. Thomas will usually quote some prior authoritative figure in the history of theology (eg, St Augustine) or philosophy (eg, Aristotle), and this quote will normally counter the objections. That’s why it’s a ‘contrary’ quote.
Then, St Thomas will give you the moment you’ve been waiting for with his own answer to the question by beginning, “I answer that…”
Then, he will close the article by answering however many objections were raised previously, eg., Reply to Objection 1, Reply to Objection 2, etc.
So, here’s the basic outline for the ST:
Question 1:
Article 1:
- Objection 1:
- Objection 2:
I answer that…,
- Reply to Objection 1:
- Reply to Objection 2:
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tgm21234
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I appreciate your taking the time of writing all this out for me.
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Magnanimity
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You’re certainly welcome. At least knowing the very structure of the ST will go a long way towards your comprehension of it. Beyond that is the very hard background knowledge required for a fuller understanding, which takes all of us a great deal of time and energy.
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Aaron_I
Guest
I’m not sure what level of philosophy background you have, but I found the book “A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist” by Abbot Vonier to be very excellent. Obviously it’s not by St. Thomas, but it is more or less a commentary on the Thomistic view of the Eucharist specifically and the sacraments in general. There were many times in the book that Vonier would quote St. Thomas and I would read the quote 6-8 times and not understand it, but then I’d move on and Vonier would give a clear and thorough explanation. St. Thomas really isn’t super difficult to understand, but there are certain terms he uses that have very precise meanings. Not understanding these terms can make St. Thomas much more difficult to understand, which is why I really enjoyed Vonier. It was like he was my St. Thomas tutor.
That aside, I agree that the Summa is an excellent resource. There’s a copy of it on newadvent.org (the link is at the top right of the homepage).
That aside, I agree that the Summa is an excellent resource. There’s a copy of it on newadvent.org (the link is at the top right of the homepage).
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tgm21234
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I have no background. Thank you
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Magnanimity
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Bumped for Chipperooh (see my post #6 here).
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jpk1313
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Do not be afraid of st. thomas. He wrote the summa for begginers. People just think he is difficult to understand becuse they have been told he is. You do not need any university course in aristotle. If you just take your time and look up any word you do not understand you will do fine. reading st.thomas is like reading the king james or douay reims bible, the language takes some getting used to but you adjust very quickly to it. Learning despite what they teach you in school is not hard if you truly love to learn it is very easy.
this is the prolog to the summa:Because the doctor of Catholic truth ought not only to teach the proficient, but also to instruct beginners (according to the Apostle: As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat – 1 Corinthians 3:1-2), we purpose in this book to treat of whatever belongs to the Christian religion, in such a way as may tend to the instruction of beginners. We have considered that students in this doctrine have not seldom been hampered by what they have found written by other authors, partly on account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles, and arguments, partly also because those things that are needful for them to know are not taught according to the order of the subject matter, but according as the plan of the book might require, or the occasion of the argument offer, partly, too, because frequent repetition brought weariness and confusion to the minds of readers.
St. Thomas is a very easy to read and understand theologian you just need to not be afraid and take it one word at a time. I’m currently going through the five volumes of his summa and I have very little learning in aristotle and I have no problem understanding what he is saying becuse Thomas is clear and straight forward in what he says. Just dive in and Love learning and you will have no problem what so ever.
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tgm21234
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thank you. I needed that.
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EphelDuath
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Pray tell, how would one know what Aquinas means by “quiddity,” “nature,” “goodness,” “actuality,” “potentiality,” “esse,” “concupiscence,” “virtue,” etc. without having either foreknowledge of him or of Aristotle?
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GeorgeSword
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That is why we have dictionaries and encyclopedias
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tgm21234
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amazon.com/Thomas-Aquinas-Politics-Critical-Editions/dp/0393952436/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268267921&sr=1-7That is why we have dictionaries and encyclopedias
What about this book?
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GeorgeSword
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Can’t really speak for it too much, having not read it, but I always feel nervous when I see anything that has ‘critical’ in the title, particularly if it involves religion. Sure, criticism can be good - but I find that, more often than not, it is well… critical.
That said, I think that the plain text of the book itself, the parts written by Aquinas himself, it looks like a pretty good collection of those. I just tend to shy away from anything beyond explanatory commentary.
One of the reviews, however, state that it focuses more on political science than it does on theology, and it says if you are interested in the theology this book might be better: amazon.com/Thomas-Aquinas-Selected-Writings-Classics/dp/0140436324/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268285250&sr=1-1
I would reccomend the particular one I use (a very nice, Church approved hard back selection) but it’s about 60 years old!
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RebeccaJ
Guest
It’s quite alright to ask for him to pray for you. I found myself doing that in my PHIL101 course.
Do I understand him? Better than I did before, which was, not at all.
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awatkins69
Guest
I first of all recommend that before you start Aquinas that you go for some Aristotle, Plato, and St. Augustine. Plato and St. Augustine are pretty easy and fun to read. However, Aristotle is also pretty tough. So I recommend you try some beginner’s books on him as well. These are pretty good as preliminary reading before Aquinas:
-Great Dialogues of Plato, from Signet Classics
-Confessions, by St. Augustine
-Aristotle for Everybody, by Mortimer J. Adler
-Aristotle: A Contemporary Appreciation, by Henry B. Veatch
After that, for Aquinas start off with beginner books. Look for these titles. I recommend them in an order sort of similar to this:
-Aquinas 101, by Francis Selman
-Aquinas, by Frederick Copleston
-Summa of the Summa, by Peter Kreeft
-The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, by Etienne Gilson.
If I had to recommend one book out of all these I would recommend the one by Copleston. But there isn’t much excuse, because a lot of the other ones I am pretty sure can be found either at a school or public library!
Aquinas is *really *deep (much more deep than any of the philosophers today) and requires much patience and learning beforehand. I know this seems like a lot, but it should really only take you a few months, which is relatively quick. It’d be a great project to undertake during the summer maybe? Others might be able to give you a better recommendation than I can. This is only my humble advice. But I think that if you read these books, you should be able to get into Aquinas’ works (as well as those of his intellectual descendants) and have some idea of what he is talking about. And as somebody else said, ask St. Thomas to pray for you. I am going to take him as my patron saint for Confirmation. I always ask for his intercession when I am doing philosophy. When I can’t understand a part God always comes to my aid by his prayers. Good luck and God bless. 
-Great Dialogues of Plato, from Signet Classics
-Confessions, by St. Augustine
-Aristotle for Everybody, by Mortimer J. Adler
-Aristotle: A Contemporary Appreciation, by Henry B. Veatch
After that, for Aquinas start off with beginner books. Look for these titles. I recommend them in an order sort of similar to this:
-Aquinas 101, by Francis Selman
-Aquinas, by Frederick Copleston
-Summa of the Summa, by Peter Kreeft
-The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, by Etienne Gilson.
If I had to recommend one book out of all these I would recommend the one by Copleston. But there isn’t much excuse, because a lot of the other ones I am pretty sure can be found either at a school or public library!
Aquinas is *really *deep (much more deep than any of the philosophers today) and requires much patience and learning beforehand. I know this seems like a lot, but it should really only take you a few months, which is relatively quick. It’d be a great project to undertake during the summer maybe? Others might be able to give you a better recommendation than I can. This is only my humble advice. But I think that if you read these books, you should be able to get into Aquinas’ works (as well as those of his intellectual descendants) and have some idea of what he is talking about. And as somebody else said, ask St. Thomas to pray for you. I am going to take him as my patron saint for Confirmation. I always ask for his intercession when I am doing philosophy. When I can’t understand a part God always comes to my aid by his prayers. Good luck and God bless. - Status