January 28 is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas. In honor of the Angelic Doctor, beginning today, I will be posting excerpts from his works, including the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. I will also be posting other entries that concern the work and life of St. Thomas. This week I began reading G. K. Chesterton's marvelous biography of St. Thomas, Saint Thomas Aquinas: "The Dumb Ox" (Sheed & Ward, 1933). I highly recommend it. For those who want to begin studying St. Thomas, I recommend these works:
For Beginners:
- Ralph McInerny, A First Glance at St. Thomas Aquinas: A Guide for Peeping Thomists (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990)
- Peter Kreeft, A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993)
- Norman L. Geisler, Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991)
- Edward Feser, Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009)
- Ralph McInerny, Aquinas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004)
- Ralph McInerny, "Saint Thomas Aquinas," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online resource)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, A Summa of the Summa, edited and annotated by Peter Kreeft (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, The Aquinas Catechism: A Simple Explanation of the Catholic Faith by the Church's Greatest Theologian (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2000)
- Romanus Cessario, O. P., A Short History of Thomism (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003)
Advanced:
- St. Thomas Aquinas, On Human Nature, ed. Thomas S. Hibbs (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999)
- Etienne Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. L. K. Shook, C.S.B. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Press, 1994; originally published in 1956)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation, ed. Timothy McDermott (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics from Ave Maria Press, 1989)
2 comments:
Many thanks for the kind recommendation, Frank!
I might add for any interested readers, though, that there is a great deal in my book that should be of interest to intermediate and advanced readers. (Indeed, the "Beginner's Guide" subtitle is not so much a reflection of the actual content as of the fact that the publisher decided to fold their "Oneworld Thinkers" series -- for which Aquinas was actually written -- into their "Beginner's Guide" series.)
You're welcome, Ed.
I've switched your book to "intermediate."
Post a Comment