Thomas Aquinas dramatically altered the course of the Western intellectual tradition. Detailed in a massive philosophical and theological oeuvre and epitomized in his landmark Summa theologiae, Aquinas’s understanding of the world has compelled the attention of philosophers and theologians—and of ordinary religious believers—from his generation to the present.
Aquinas grounded his ambitious enterprise in the Christian scriptures, established Christian doctrine, and the settled theological traditions of his time. To these materials he applied tools derived from his intimate engagement with the philosophical heritage of the ancient world and methods developed in the newly emerging universities of his own day.
The result of his efforts is an original and profoundly sophisticated account of reality that articulates the nature of the divine and of the created world, and—of special importance—the relations between God and the “particular creature,” which is the human being, whose nature is fulfilled in understanding and loving a God who is beyond comprehension. Aquinas scholar Scott MacDonald, professor of philosophy and Norma K. Regan professor in Christian studies at Cornell University, explores some of the bold and perennially relevant ideas fundamental to Aquinas’ distinctively philosophical theology.
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