Customer Reviews

Guide to Thomas Aquinas

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This book is one of the essential studies of St. Thomas's life and thought. It is especially valuable because it preserves some of the profound insights of two other Thomists whose books have either never been translated into English (Grabmann) or are, alas, out-of-print (Chenu). Pieper's treatment of St. Thomas's (and Aristotle's) use of language is absolutely essential reading for beginning students of Aquinas who have not read the more thorough treatments (by Chenu and Blanche - now largely forgotten) upon which it is based. Pieper also captures better than most biographers the importance of Thomas's decision to embrace both of the apparently opposed movements of his day, the back-to-the-Bible movement of the mendicant orders and, the modern, scientific movement of Aristotelianism.

There are a few points on which I think Pieper is wrong, most importantly on the question of Thomas's "Aristotelianism." In his justifiable attempt to show that Thomas is not an unqualified Aristotelian, Pieper goes too far the other direction and leaves the reader with the impression that Thomas was a defender of Plato. Especially troubling is Pieper's citation of passages from Thomas's Commentaries on Aristotle's De Anima and Metaphysics, which he, Pieper, claims defend Plato against Aristotle's criticisms: I cannot figure out how Pieper could construe the cited passages in such a way. Also, Pieper's criticism of the Inquistion, the Dominican order's role in it, and Thomas's defense of it seems surprisingly naive coming from an author steeped in the history of the Church. But these are relatively minor flaws in an otherwise worthy study of St. Thomas.

My rating of other books on St. Thomas: (1) Josef Pieper, The Silence of St. Thomas. ***** One of the very best books on St. Thomas Aquinas; see my ... review. (2) G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox. ***** A justly acclaimed popular account of the life and work of St. Thomas; a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for student and general reader alike. (3) Marie-Dominique Chenu O.P., Toward Understanding St. Thomas. ***** THE indispensible work for every serious student; sadly, out-of-print. (4) Ralph McInerny, St. Thomas Aquinas. **** A scholarly introduction to Thomas's philosophical thought, which emphasizes Aquinas's indebteness to Aristotle and Boethius. (5) Jean-Pierre Torrell O.P., St. Thomas Aquinas: the Person and his Work. **** Currently the standard scholarly biography.

Pieper is an excellent writer and has done extensive research on Thomas Aquinas. Even though the book does not give an in-depth discussion of Thomas's philosophy, it does give an excellent account of Thomas's life and the cultural background of the Medieval period which Aquinas both embodied and transcended. It does, however, go over the most basic concepts of Thomas's philosophy (the five ways, for example).

Josef Pieper does a wonderful job of making Thomas Aquinas understandable. He does it by broadly covering several important aspects: the first is framing the time in which he lived from a historical point of view, second he presents some biographical facts about Thomas and who is was as a man, thirdly he presents the situation of the Church and the Dominicans at the time, and then he masterfully blends in the most important concepts that Thomas Aquinas contributed to the world. He doesn't go into too much depth on his theology or philosopy - this would kill the average reader like me. But his does provide enough details to start your intellect moving forward which is wonderful. It left me with the feeling I've learned a lot, yet and now thirsty for more which is very rare in a book. I would not guess this is a book for a high level theology/philosophy student unless he was in a level 101 class. That being said it's full of wonderful insights. I would say this is for an advanced lay person who is really starting to learn more about his spiritual life and also more about what has structured church thinking for centuries. A 'must have' for an advanced Catholic library in your home. Also, this is a book recommend in James Schall's "Another Sort of Learning" which is another wonderful book.

I discovered Josef Pieper's work entirely by accident while researching another modern philosopher. I'm very glad I did. Pieper's Guide to Thomas Aquinas was a short but solid read crammed with good information, one of the best such books on St. Thomas Aquinas that I've read.

Pieper interweaves examination of Aquinas's life, works, philosophy, and theology, making this short book a biography, explanation, and critical analysis at the same time. He carefully explores Aquinas's historical context, explaining the philosophical and theological temper of the time and how Aquinas was influenced by it--and eventually how he altered it forever. Pieper is extremely well-versed in the sources and it shows--he quotes liberally both from Aquinas's huge body of work and the works of other medieval philosophers--from contemporaries like Albertus Magnus or Siger of Brabant to philosophical forebears like Boethius and St. Augustine--not to mention modern scholars. Pieper writes skilfully, never letting his examination of, say, Aquinas's epistemology bog down, or his analysis overwhelm his emphasis on St. Thomas himself.

It's Pieper's portrait of Aquinas as a person that made this book especially valuable to me. Books on Aquinas tend to emphasize his intellectual output to the point of diminishing the human being behind it, so insights into Aquinas's character--his patience, intellectual voracity, dedication to God, and love and respect for ostensible enemies--were an outstanding feature.

Pieper's book is very good, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to those just beginning to study Aquinas. It's a bit difficult in places and, as a series of university-level lectures, assumes a certain about of knowledge of the medieval philosophical world on the part of the reader. In other words, the title is right--it's a guide, a book for those who already know the territory if not the trail, rather than an introduction for absolute beginners. To those looking for a good starting point, I'd recommend Aquinas for Armchair Theologians, by Timothy Renick; Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction, by Fergus Kerr; or St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox, by G.K. Chesterton. All three are readable, insightful, and go a little further in meeting the reader halfway than Pieper's otherwise excellent book.

But if you've already been introduced and are looking for further material on Aquinas's life and thought, Pieper's book is a must-read.

Highly recommended.

Pieper mastefully gets inside of the thinking of St Thomas and of the milieu. He shows how the mendicant orders were a response to a special historical situation, in particular, the advent of albigensianism and catharism, movements which, whilst heretical, underlined the importance of evangelical poverty. Pieper shows why Aquinas is great, how he synthesised revelation given through the Bible with his natural philosophy built on the foundation of Aristotle and of Plato. He wonderfully shows Aquinas a a person who is in a state of almost child like wonder at the beauty of creation. He shows also that Aquinas, through his disputatio method of penetrating the truth, was the master of dialogue. And, yet after such masterful work, Aquinas following a mystical vision, sees his whole work as merely straw and stops! A criticism made by some of Aquinas is that he foreshadows the modern atheist in that he looks to nature to seek the Divine hand at work and thus forumlates his proof of God. But, that is fairly lame criticism. There seems to be a hint in the book that Aquinas pre-empts secularism. But, it is important to remember that, for Aquinas, the answers concering the whole of being are given through both revelation and the natural world.

Pieper's book gives a very clear account of the major themes of Aquinas' thought and, equally importantly, the intellectual techniques he used. Accompanying this is a helpful explanation of the religious and philosophical controversies of Aquinas' time which gives a fuller understanding of where his thought came from, without diminishing his personal achievement - and it should be noted that Pieper is a huge fan of Aquinas. Pieper's careful thinking is always crystal clear and he expresses his conclusions in readable prose. The only somewhat difficult section is the final chapter on the relationship of philosophy and theology.

However the book does have a curiously defensive air. Pieper misses few opportunities to take jabs at various modern ideologies and patterns of thought, Marxism in particular. Perhaps these worked better when delivered in person - the book is drawn from a lecture series - than they do in print.

There is, though, a deeper problem. An important part of Pieper's reason for writing is to defend Aquinas - and presumably, by extension, the Roman Church - from the accusation that he just imported Aristotelian thought wholesale into Christian belief. Pieper makes a coherent argument that Aquinas used Aristotle and other thinkers where they pointed him to a deeper truth rather than just citing them as authorities valuable in themselves. Aquinas' achievement was to combine the Greek quest for rational knowledge of the world with what Pieper identifies as the Biblical injunction to pursue voluntary poverty, producing "the principle which expresses the essence of the Christian West."

A study that makes such fundamental claims about Christian belief might have been expected to refer more to the religion's founder: in fact the word "Jesus" appears just once, in a footnote, and "Christ" only a handful of times, mostly referring to an abstract idea.

Despite his goal of defending Aquinas, Pieper in fact ends up justifying an institution with focuses that would have been very familiar to Greek thinkers. The emphasis on philosophical and theological inquiry is entirely in line with Aristotle's belief that the exercise of the mind in science and philosophy is path to the highest human happiness. Meanwhile, voluntary poverty adopted by those in a position to choose echoes the warnings about the corrupting effect of riches regularly voiced by Greek and Roman advocates of the republican ideal. Both may be commendable goals, but the Jesus who mocked the highly learned Pharisees and identified with the truly, inescapably poor and other outcasts from respectable society is nowhere to be seen.

This is a very difficult book that will help you to understand St Thomas philosophy. It turns very slow, sometimes.

I had to read this book for my college philosophy class, and for a book thats suppose to be made for beginners in philosophy, it was quite hard to read and understand. Philosophy isnt my strongest subject nor is it something Im interested in so focusing while reading was extremely hard.