St. Thomas Aquinas by Ralph McInerny
After a brief biographical survey, Ralph McInerny presents an overview of Thomas Aquinas's philosophical ideas. Thomas was a Dominican living in the 1200s. The great philosophical revolution of the age was the reintroduction of Aristotle's works to Europe. The writings had survived in Muslim countries and came back west with their conquests around the Mediterranean Sea. Aristotle was controversial because many university teachers took his writings as gospel even to the point of contradicting the Gospel. Thomas made a careful analysis of Aristotle's works and showed ways it was and was not compatible with Christian theology. He used Aristotle to clarify his own understanding of God.
The book also describes Thomas's anaylsis of Boethius, a sixth-century Christian philosopher, and Platonism. McInerny gives a fine overview of those philosophies and how Thomas critiqued them. The book finishes with a deep analysis of Thomas's ideas around knowledge, belief, and faith, especially as they relate to things knowable through plain reason (e.g. the existence of God) and those knowable only through revelation (e.g. that God is three Persons in one Being).
The book is not very long (under 200 pages) so it is not completely comprehensive. It does present main points and develops them in some depth. I don't think I would recommend this as an introduction to Thomas and his thought, since it is often technical and does assume some familiarity or experience with philosophical concepts. I enjoyed it and found the final analysis very rewarding.
Recommended, especially for those "in the know."
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