Thomas Aquinas
Reason together toward the good.
This vast inquiry, arranged in questions and articles, examines God, creation, human action and Christ. It stages objections and replies within a carefully structured teaching format.
How can reason, faith and the common good be brought into conversation?
Biography
Born around 1225 into a noble family near Roccasecca, Thomas was initially destined for an ecclesiastical career associated with Monte Cassino. At Naples he encountered a university milieu where translations of Aristotle circulated and met Dominican friars. His decision to join the mendicant order provoked family opposition and a period of confinement before he could resume his education. These beginnings placed him within the social and intellectual transformations of Europe’s new universities.
02 /Philosophy
Reason investigates causes and arguments open to public examination; theology also examines revelation. Their domains are neither identical nor simply enemies.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Read a question in the Summa
This vast inquiry, arranged in questions and articles, examines God, creation, human action and Christ. It stages objections and replies within a carefully structured teaching format.
Summa TheologiaeDistinguish essence and existence
This short treatise distinguishes what a thing is from its act of existing and examines genus, species and individuals in material and immaterial substances.
On Being and EssenceWho thinks? A medieval controversy
Aquinas disputes the thesis that all human beings share numerically one possible intellect. His case joins an interpretation of Aristotle to an account of personal action.
On the Unity of the Intellect against the Averroists