Customer Reviews

St Thomas Aquinas (Chesterton's biographies)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I first read this book 5 years ago when taking an undergraduate course in mediaeval philosophy. At that time I was only passingly familiar with Chesterton and, despite faithful attendence in class, only noddingly familiar with Aquinas. Since that time I have come to understand both men in more depth, and since that time this little book has grown and shimmered until, much to my surprise, it has became one of my favourite books of all.

All of the usual caveats about Chesterton's writing apply here: he cannot resist a digression, he cannot resist an alliterative allusion, he cannot resist a pun. He is so full of life that he is constantly threatening to spin out of control. He is not a scholar, he is not writing a sober appraisal, he is probably not sure of most of the biographical details of his subject (and he candidly admits to this dearth of dates and details).

In spite of these defects, the book is a triumph. Toast it with your best wine. Chesterton, for me, is the embodiment of "A Man in Full"; he is the polar opposite of C.S. Lewis' "Men without Chests". He is so full of good sense, penetrating insight, sound moral judgement, and the joy of life that it is all spilling out in every direction. This is criticism in an old key; it is appreciative criticism; it is an encounter with a writer by an entire man, and not just by a theory. It is wonderfully refreshing. I don't know of anyone writing today in a similar vein.

He brings all of his larger-than-life presence to bear on this account of the life (sort of) and thought of one of history's great minds. And on just what aspect of Thomas' thought does he focus? In one diabolically politically incorrect section near the end of the book he bellows out that "on a map like the mind of Aquinas the mind of Luther was barely a speck", and I'm sure that he would hasten to add that his little book suffers the same ignoble comparison. There is a great deal to Thomas that he, of necessity, leaves out. But what he does include is very astutely chosen, for he understands the basic structure of Thomas' thought and emphasizes the essentials. Thus there is a chapter on Thomas' argument with the Manicheans and his affirmation of the goodness of the world. He treats with great aplomb Thomas' notion of "being" and its relation to God. He does great honor to Thomas' mode of argumentation, to his sober balance and fair treatment of opponents. He is appreciative of the devotional side of Thomas, which does not come through explicitly in his philosophical writings but is important for an understanding of the man.

I suppose it must be granted that the book is as much about Chesterton as it is about Aquinas. Those wanting a more straight-forward treatment should seek out one of Josef Pieper's books on Aquinas. But if you have any adventurous spirit, by all means read this book. It is written by a man who loves and understands his subject in his very bones, and who brings his subject to life in a way that is most uncanny. Five stars.

One of Chesterton's highly acclaimed short biographies, writing just before WWII he called this 'a popular sketch of a great historical character who ought to be more popular'. St Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) was born into an aristocratic Italian family and forsook his privileged position, took a vow of poverty, and became a Dominican monk. A brilliant thinker, and revolutionary in his day, he proceeded to become one of the most influential philosophers and theologians that has lived. It explains how Aquinas' influenced thinkers in his day and how that thought is an influential strand in our modern worldview.

Several experts on Aquinas have acclaimed this very enjoyable book as the finest introduction to the man and his works. It introduces the man himself and some of his philosophy, which is modern and scientific in tone. This is not to be surprised at when we consider that his university professor was Albertus Magnus, who paved the way for modern science by taking certain elements of Aristotle more seriously than anyone before. Aquinas' theology is not covered on grounds of space and complexity. Chesterton is writing at his best, and while he assumes a fair degree of knowledge on the part of the reader he covers a great deal of ground in a short space. His usual paradoxical sense of fun and wordplay is to the fore. Chapter seven, 'The Permanent Philosophy' is excellent, and at only twelve pages would serve as a good primer of philosophy, something to read before and alongside Bertrand Russell's 'The Problems of Philosophy' perhaps.

Chesterton displays his genius for insight forcefully in this distillation of St. Thomas's thought. He focuses on a very few key ideas of St. Thomas's and shows how these underly a philosophy that could encompass common sense, reason, intuition, and Christian revelation. You will probably not find another such introduction, as it represents distinctively Chesterton's views and does not aim for comprehensiveness or the slightest pedantry--the quoting of other critics, for example. But his views have withstood the scrutiny of many scholars.

The manner of its writing shows Chesterton's genius. According to his biographer Maisie Ward, when Chesterton decided to write a book on Thomas Aquinas he simply began to dictate it aloud to his secretary, as he had so many other books. Then he asked her to go to the library to borrow some books on St. Thomas. "Which books?" she asked. Any books, he replied. She brought him a stack. "He flipped them rapidly through" and then dictated the second half of the book. Of the result, Thomist scholar Etienne Gilson said "Chesterton makes one despair. I have been studying St. Thomas all my life and could never have written such a book."

This is an insightful exploration of Thomas Aquinas the man and his philosophy. But Amazon scanned the text for the Kindle version and made no attempt whatsoever to edit it -- even pre-edit clean it up. Bizarre punctuation, bizarre computer-read spellings: "he" often seen as "lie" is just one example. Few pages are without several errors and most pages have many errors. This may be the pit of western publishing as we know it. Very disturbing. Hire me, Amazon, I'll clean it up for you. / You can google this book and find it online -- properly edited.

G. K. Chesterton has written a brilliant introduction to a medieval philosopher who used to give me the horrors (for no particular reason other than youthful ignorance.) Whether you love him or hate him, it is clear that Thomas Aquinas was one of the towering geniuses of human history -- right up there with Einstein and Newton. In addition to that, this "Dumb Ox" seems to have been a genuinely sweet and friendly man, who couldn't be too friendly because his mind was always beckoned back to the enchanted fields of philosophy. There seems no doubt that he was the greatest philosopher since Aristotle, and maybe the greatest ever.

He's also highly reliable, much to my surprise. Mortimer Adler has published an interesting book called "Ten Philosophical Mistakes," and it's interesting to note the first one, too complex to explain here, is a mistake which Aquinas DOES NOT MAKE. Unlike amateurs such as the Baron d'Holbach, Thomas is well aware that man has free will, a conscience, and a moral duty. Again, unlike Holbach, Aquinas is quite sure that God exists, that man has a soul, and that the soul is immortal. Unlike the Baron, however, Aquinas explains why he believes each of these things, in impeccably clear language. (If he gets too complicated for you to understand, that's because he is discussing extremely complicated things.) He is so good that one is tempted to throw in the towel and regard all subsequent philosophy as a lot of egotistical, academic, boring chatter. And, amazingly enough, you can reach this conclusion without even being a Christian! (I'm not.)

Chesterton manages to deal with all this in a short, fascinating book. The only complaint I have is about this particular Kindle edition, which is riddled with typos generated by the lousy OCR software used, plus evidently a complete lack of editorial overview. These typos average as high as three or four to a page, which is really kind of ridiculous. I finally ordered the book, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi: With Introductions by Ralph McInerny and Joseph Pearce just to have these two small masterpieces as a book for my library.

Chesterton had converted to Catholicism in 1922 and in 1923 had published a book on St Francis of Assisi. He is clearly a partisan for Catholicism against Protestantism and the modern world; for the `living' Middle Ages against the Renaissance `which was a resurrection of old things discovered in a dead thing'; and for the Aristotelian view against the Platonic, neo-Platonic, and what he calls the neo-neo-Platonic view of the Renaissance. And he lays about himself lustily against thinkers with whom he disagrees: Francis Bacon, for example was `third-rate' and Hegel was `mad'. Soberly abstract though St Thomas often is, his abstractions, according to Chesterton, are never cloudy nonsense and are always rooted in Common Sense.

The brilliant opening chapter of the book is built around a comparison between St Francis and St Thomas - very different in character, appearance and in the aspects of Christianity which they developed; but Chesterton stresses that, though they were both accused by their detractors of corrupting Christianity by importing into it a pagan goddess (Nature) or a pagan sage (Aristotle), both actually expanded the possibilities and implications of Christian doctrine from within, "depending on external things only as every living and growing thing depends on them; that is, it digests and transforms them, but continues in its own image and not in theirs", so that "St Thomas did not reconcile Christ to Aristotle; he reconciled Aristotle to Christ."

The book is sometimes quite difficult: it assumes some familiarity with philosophy and theology (though it delights in showing that those who think they are familiar with them often labour under vulgar misconceptions). Actually it even assumes that the reader is familiar with St Thomas' ideas; for this is no way a text-book that gives a clear or methodical account of what St Thomas actually wrote. It occasionally makes comparisons with modern times with which a reader of the 1930s was perhaps more familiar than a reader of today. Many pages are a bit windy. But Chesterton's style is a delight to read: it is mixture of Carlyle and of a more modern version of Gibbon in that it delights in apparent paradoxes and in witty confrontations of opposite verbal phrases. His admiration for St Thomas is unbounded; but even those who do not share the faith of St Thomas (or that of Chesterton) will still find some formulations throughout this book which are as wonderfully happy as they are wise, insightful and thought-provoking.

I can't say this is a bad book because I didn't understand it well enough to make that judgment. The parts I did understand were wonderful and suggest that any lack of appreciation for the book is the fault of the reader and not the text. So I'm giving it 5 stars. However, this is certainly not a "biography" in the standard sense of the word, and is certainly not a good introduction to Aquinas unless you're already a philosophy student (or a student of philosophy, not quite the same thing). Chesterton jumps right into explaining Aquinas' positions without providing sufficient (or sometimes any) context for the uninformed, even if intelligent, reader. There were some gems in the text, Chesterton writes well, but be prepared to do a lot of outside reading if you're not already well-versed in the philosophy of Aquinas and his opponents and want to make sense of the book.

This is a great book, but unfortunately this version is filled with typos throughout. I have found myself on more than one occasion trying to decipher the meaning of a sentence due to grammatical and spelling errors. If this book were free, I would not complain, but even paying just 99 cents for this edition is frustrating.

This is not a book, just a string of characters. There is no table of contents, no breaks for chapters or chapter titles. You can get a download with all the above elsewhere on the internet. Amazon it is not right to call this a book.