What should be read to understand St. Thomas Aquinas?

[EphelDuath]

I would assume Aristotle’s Metaphysics, but is this all? He references Al-Ghazali, Averroes and Boethius occasionally, but I don’t know if understanding their beliefs are essential to understanding Aquinas’.

 

[MindOverMatter]

I would assume Aristotle’s Metaphysics, but is this all? He references Al-Ghazali, Averroes and Boethius occasionally, but I don’t know if understanding their beliefs are essential to understanding Aquinas’.

Yes Aristotles metaphysics is a good start, but you must remember that Aquinas develops and corrects some of the ideas of Aristotle. So you can’t just look to it as that which is representative of Aquinas’s thought, although allot of people think of Aquinas as being an Aristotlen. However much of what Aristotle wrote is important for understanding Aquinas.

You should read Maritain’s work, allot of which is available for free on the net in pdf format.
Also, get Fredrick Copleston’s “Aquinas”. Thats a good introduction. The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas is good because it compares Aquinas and Aristotle in respect of their differences as well as their similarities.

Thats all i can think of at the moment. There are other works that i know of, but they are very difficult.

 

[Areopagite]

I would assume Aristotle’s Metaphysics, but is this all? He references Al-Ghazali, Averroes and Boethius occasionally, but I don’t know if understanding their beliefs are essential to understanding Aquinas’.

One book that helped me was The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sr. Miriam Joseph. That lays very key philosophical (esp. metaphysical) things out nice and simple.

But maybe you’re looking more hardcore primary texts (though not generally recommended for beginners unless you’re some sort of genius). I would also recommend Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics in that case. I suppose it would be kind of important to read Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy because that sort of defined the thinking of the middle ages, it is said. But I really haven’t read any of the Arabic Philosophers and I’ve done pretty good with Thomas, I think.

If you haven’t read Plato, I would even recommend that (as an almost unrelated side-note), particularly Gorgias, Apology, and maybe Phaedo … and The Republic, I guess, just to make it official, but I think it’s a hair overrated (but many would lethally disagree).

And actually, one book I’ve come upon recently is called General Metaphysics by John P. Noonan, S.J. This defines metaphysical concepts in meticulous detail in ways that were incredibly refreshing for me. Seldom do I come upon things that rigorously clear and systematic.

Hope that helped. Good luck.

 

[nkbeth]

Aristotle (including Categories and Physics), St. Augustine, and don’t forget the Bible.

 

[EphelDuath]

Which works of St. Augustine? The City of God?

 

[nkbeth]

Which works of St. Augustine? The City of God?

Some might include: Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, On the Spirit and the Letter, On Nature and Grace, On the Predestination of the Saints, City of God

I read these in college before we started St. Thomas. (This was all many, many years ago; I ought to make more time in my life to study them again!)