St. Thomas Aquinas

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Hey tgm21234!

Before you start reading St. Thomas (or any other “old folks”, for that matter), I would highly suggest you read something like “The Trivium” by Sr. Miriam Joseph. At least the grammar part. Or something similar. It will give you a much better idea of what the authors mean when they use terms such as “accidents”, “substance” or “essence”. There are more, but I can’t list them all here. Terms such as these do not always have the same meanings in their writings as we use them today. If you have already done so, ignore me!

Good luck and God bless! 👍
 
What is with everybody saying “go read this before you read St. Thomas”? He wrote for begginers. You DO NOT need to read anything before getting into Thomas’ stuff. When he brings up something from say Aristole he quotes it and goes into his explaination of it. He wrote his summa so you would not have to go and read all this other stuff. If your interested in what Thomas wrote just go read what he wrote it is not that hard. I’ve never read Aristotle or st.augustine and I understand what Thomas says just fine, becuse he wrote for begginers. His summa is like the ccc, in fact that is what it is. You do not even need to know what Christianity is becuse he explains all of that. If people really think St. Thomas is so hard they need to go and read a bunch of other stuff before getting into him, well than I can come to no other conclusion than that I’m more intelligent that I think I am or people are more stupid than I think they are. St. Thomas Aquinas is a simple down to earth theologian/philosopher who speaks in an easy to understand language. Anybody who says otherwise is either not very smart (like come on a teenager could understand what he is saying) or has been lied to and conviced they would not understand. Just pick it up and read it you will see that I speak truth. Go here and see for yourself newadvent.org/summa/
 
jpk1313 said:
What is with everybody saying “go read this before you read St. Thomas”? He wrote for begginers. You DO NOT need to read anything before getting into Thomas’ stuff. When he brings up something from say Aristole he quotes it and goes into his explaination of it. He wrote his summa so you would not have to go and read all this other stuff. If your interested in what Thomas wrote just go read what he wrote it is not that hard. I’ve never read Aristotle or st.augustine and I understand what Thomas says just fine, becuse he wrote for begginers. His summa is like the ccc, in fact that is what it is. You do not even need to know what Christianity is becuse he explains all of that. If people really think St. Thomas is so hard they need to go and read a bunch of other stuff before getting into him, well than I can come to no other conclusion than that I’m more intelligent that I think I am or people are more stupid than I think they are. St. Thomas Aquinas is a simple down to earth theologian/philosopher who speaks in an easy to understand language. Anybody who says otherwise is either not very smart (like come on a teenager could understand what he is saying) or has been lied to and conviced they would not understand. Just pick it up and read it you will see that I speak truth. Go here and see for yourself newadvent.org/summa/
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Thanks
 
jpk1313 said:
You DO NOT need to read anything before getting into Thomas’ stuff. When he brings up something from say Aristole he quotes it and goes into his explaination of it.
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I basically agree with you. 👍
I’m just speaking from my personal experience. I just found “The Trivium” quite helpful. Especially the grammar section. This is “classical” or general grammar which is a bit different from a special grammar such as English or Latin grammar.
 
tgm21234 said:
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?
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You will need some background in Aristotle. An excellent place to start is
Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy by Mortimer J. Adler.

For an expostion of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, there is Aquinas by Fr. Frederick Copleston. This is an excellent book for the beginner as well as for the more advanced student of Aquinas.

For additional resources, you may be interested in Fr. Copleston’s superlative History of Philosophy: Volume 1 covers Greece and Rome, and Volume 2 covers the Middle Ages.

It doesn’t get much better for than this for beginning resources.
 
jpk1313 said:
A form is the external shape, apperence, ect.
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That is only the first meaning. Form is the philosophical sense, as used by Aristotle and Aquinas, is a metaphysical determination of being.

Every physical thing is composed of two “immaterial” parts: form and first matter.

Form in this sense is not physical as are external shape and appearance.

Substantial form determines matter to be of a particular type, according to what a thing is to be.
 
jpk1313 said:
What is with everybody saying “go read this before you read St. Thomas”? He wrote for begginers.
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While it is true that no one perhaps writes philosophy and theology more clearly and concisely than did Aquinas, the “beginners” in his time came up through a genuine liberal arts education, the trivium and quadrivium, or seven liberal arts of the medieval university. This was a much sounder education than what is provided in the majority of modern universities. In fact, the difference is so stark, one may consider a modern college and university education not be education at all, in the sense of a true liberal education, but more akin to career training.

So, the leading Thomists of the 20th century have deemed it necessary to write expositions of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. This includes the classic, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas by Etienne Gilson.

Though I am sure they exist, I have yet to meet anyone on CAF that correctly understands Aquinas’ five proofs or demonatrations of the existence of God. Hence, the manifest need for a reliable guide to the works of Thomas Aquinas.
 
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