. (ca. 1224–1274). The only medieval philosopher whose ideas command an active following in the 20th century. The symmetry of Thomas’s methodical synthesis of traditional Christian (Augustinian and Platonist) theology with Aristotelian methods and categories may be thought of at once as the zenith of medieval scholastic thought and its downfall. Thomas’s apparently comprehensive, even-tempered certainties, the product of method and reason, continue to attract those seeking answers to the problems of faith.
Thomas was born in Roccasecca, near Monte Cassino, Italy, the youngest son of Count Landulf of Aquino, a relative of the emperor and the king of France. He was schooled at Monte Cassino, where his family hoped he would become abbot, and later (1240) studied arts at Naples. Thomas’s love of Christian learning urged him to join the Dominican order. His family opposed his becoming a mendicant, when the wealth of the Benedictines beckoned, and kept him prisoner, fruitlessly, in Roccasecca for fifteen months. In April 1244, he joined the Dominicans and was sent to Paris (1245–48) to study theology with Albert the Great. In 1248, he accompanied Albert to the new Dominican studium at Cologne, but by 1252 he was back in Paris as lecturer at Saint-Jacques, the Dominican convent. Here he defended mendicant poverty against the attacks of William of Saint-Amour and his followers, writing Contra impugnantes Dei cultum. He became master of theology (his formal degree having been delayed by the dispute) in 1256. From 1259 to 1269, he taught at Dominican houses in Italy: Anagni, Orvieto, Santa Sabina and the studium generale in Rome, and Viterbo. In 1269, just before the condemnation of Aristotelian errors by Étienne Tempier, he returned to Paris but was moved once more, to establish a Dominican studium in Naples, in 1272. He was traveling again, to the Second Council of Lyon, when he died at Fossanuova, on March 7, 1274.
Thomas, known as Doctor angelicus and Doctor communis, is renowned for his massive output, which was remarked upon in the evidence for his canonization. He was said to dictate seamlessly to several secretaries at once, each writing a different work. He wrote biblical commentaries, at least one commentary on the Sententiae of Peter Lombard, commentaries on much of Aristotle and the liber de causis, disputed and quodlibetal questions, and other works common to a Paris master, as well as short tracts in answer to specific questions, whether in opposition to the Averroists or Avicebron, for instance, or in reply to the duchess of Brabant on government. Aware of the inadequacy of western knowledge of Aristotle, he had William of Moerbecke (1215–1286) translate or retranslate many of his works, leaving a valuable legacy for later scholars. But Thomas’s name is almost synonymous with his Summa theologica (or Summa theologiae), which, together with the earlier Summa contra Gentiles, is a massive statement of the whole of Christian theology. The Summa is in three parts, the first (prima) dealing with God in se, the second dealing first (prima secundae) with God’s relations with humanity and second (secunda secundae) with humanity’s relations with God, and the third (tertia) with Christ and the sacraments as the path for the human return to God. (The plan is similar to Peter Lombard’s Sententiae but in three unequal books rather than four.)
Although Thomas’s place in the hierarchy of medieval philosopher-theologians is secure, he is perhaps recognized today more for his system and clarity than for his originality of thought. As we learn more about earlier 13th-century scholastics, we see Thomistic ideas in prototype or isolation. His gift was in a synthesis of what had previously tended to the imposition of Aristotelian categories of thought within a Platonist Christian worldview. He brought the so-called scholastic method of argument and truth seeking to its finest honing.
Although Thomas is not generally remembered for his spirituality and is not a mystical theologian in the style of Bonaventure, he was nevertheless revered in his lifetime for his holiness, simplicity, and devotion. Quiet (he was nicknamed “the dumb ox”) and unassuming, he had powers of concentration that took on a semimiraculous quality for the secretaries who worked with him. He was canonized in 1323.
Thomas was not without his critics. Some of his positions were condemned by Bishop Étienne Tempier in 1270 and 1277, by Robert Kilwardby in the latter year, and by John Peckham in 1284; but his opinions were officially imposed on the Dominican order in 1278. The Roman Catholic church considers his teaching an authentic expression of doctrine, and canon law makes study of his works the accepted basis for theology.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa theologiae, ed. Dominican Fathers of the English Province. 60 vols. Cambridge: Blackfriar’s, 1964–76. [Latin text and English translation, introductions, notes, appendices, and glossaries.]
——. Quaestiones quodlibetales 1–2: English Quodlibetal Questions 1–2, trans. Sandra Edwards. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983.
——. Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, trans. Anton Pegis. 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1945.
——. On the Truth of the Catholic Faith (Summa Contra Gentiles), trans. Anton C.Pegis, James Anderson, Vernon J. Bourke, and Charles J.O’Neil. 5 vols. Garden City: Hanover House, 1955–57.
Chenu, Marie-Dominique. Toward Understanding Saint Thomas, trans. Albert M.Landry and Dominic Hughes. Chicago: Regnery, 1964.
Farrell, Walter. A Companion to the Summa. 4 vols. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1941–42.
Glorieux, Palémon. Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle. 2 vols. Paris: Vrin, 1933, Vol. 1, pp. 85–104. [Complete listing of works.]
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