The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (Five Volumes) [Hardcover]

Thomas Aquinas (Author), Fathers of the English Dominican Provinc (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0870610635 | ISBN-13: 978-0870610639 | Publication Date: June 1, 1981

The Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas' brilliant synthesis of Christian thought, has had a decisive and permanent impact on philosophy and religion since the thirteenth century. As the title indicates, is a summing up of all that can be known about God and humanity's relations with God. Divided into three parts, the work consists of 38 tracts, 631 questions, about 3000 articles, 10,000 objections and their answers. This complete edition of the work, published in five volumes, was translated into English by the Fathers of the Dominican Province and first appeared in 1911. A revised edition was published in London in 1920, and in America in 1947. The Christian Classics edition is a reproduction of the 1947 Benziger Brothers edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Latin (translation)

About the Author

Thomas Aquinas lived in the thirteenth century. He is one of the foremost theological saints in the world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 3020 pages
• Publisher: Christian Classics (June 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870610635
• ISBN-13: 978-0870610639
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.3 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

299 of 301 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Single Foremost Work of Catholic Theology in History, March 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (Five Volumes) (Hardcover)

St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica is the premier work of Catholic theology, studied at all major Catholic universities and seminaries, as well as by theologians and philosophers of religion of all denominations. Of St. Thomas' many works, this 5-volume masterpiece presents a systematic and organic treatment of several thousand important theological questions, ranging from God, the Trinity, and the nature of Christ, to the nature and psychology of the human person and the nature and mission of the Church. St. Thomas considers creation in its natural light, as well as under the operations of grace, including discussions of morality, redemption, the sacraments, and the operation of divine providence. The scope of topics is enormous, and these few hardly do justice to the contents.

The format of this work is arranged into individual articles for easy reading of St. Thomas' answers to individual questions, but there is a continuity to the way questions are raised and answered that makes the work a unified whole -- not simply a theological manual or encyclopedia, but also a profound read from cover to cover. A leading biographer of Thomas (O'Meara) has called the Summa "a cathedral of thought," which is perhaps the best description for such a short space here.

This translation has been prepared by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. This information is not evident in the on-line description, but it should be, since it is very important that the translation of the Latin is accurate and in conformity with modern usage. (I found out by searching the ISBN at the Library of Congress website). There are many translations of the Summa available, but not all are good. The English Dominican Father's translation is one of the best editions available, and widely recommended in scholarly circles.

While the Summa Theologica is available at libraries and on the internet, it is very convenient to own your own copy of such a large work. This edition is sturdily bound with decent margins for notes, with each of the 5 volumes of a portable size and weight. (The earlier two-volume editions are large and unwieldy.)

I heartily recommend this work and this particular edition of the Summa in English

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Work, Good Translation, November 7, 2006

By 

James Layne (Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, Ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (Five Volumes) (Hardcover)

The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas is without doubt one of the greatest works in the history of the Christian faith. The logical order and progression is simply amazing and the scope of the work monumental.

This translation is generally very close to the sense of the Latin original, although in a few cases I have noticed some strange differences. For example, in Pt. 1 Q.1 A. 4. The Dominican Fathers translate the Latin (which reads "Magis tamen est speculativa quam practica") as ". . . speculative rather than practical" although the Latin reads ". . . speculative MORE than practical." This is a substantial change in the meaning which ends up creating confusion in the next article when Thomas says that theology is ". . . partly speculative and partly practical". There are other variations from the Latin throughout the rest of the work, some more and less important.

I urge those who are interested in a serious study of Saint Thomas to use this text as an aid to a deeper study with the Latin. If this is not possible for you, this translation will nevertheless give you a good introduction and tool for an introductory and intermediate understanding of Saint Thomas's thought.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uni versus, god as the ultimate end of all creation, September 2, 2004

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Roberto P. De Ferraz "ferraz9" (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (Five Volumes) (Hardcover)

The Summa Theologica is the masterwork of an indefatigable outstanding man who, having what is reputed to be the most prodigious mind of his time, pursued the mind of God (mens Dei) as his philosophical goal. He could have opted instead to follow (rather lamely it must be said) a militar career as his brothers did, or a bishopric in a rich country in northern Italy near the state of his rich father, supported by his family wealth and background, being akin to the most important men of his time (he was nephew to Frederick II, privy to Saint Louis, king of France, and many others potentates of his epoch). But he decided to be simply a humble Dominican friar , sloughing of all the perquisites of wealth, to be totally devoted to settling down the most intricate points in the Catholic doctrine, to be equaled only by Saint Augustine in doctrinal preeminence, his rulings being adopted as authoritative enough to be perused by popes and religious scholars inside and outside of the church for the next centuries. His access to the library of the University of Paris, where he studied for many years and where he got the nickname the Dumb Ox, that was to be his personal trademark for eternity, was instrumental to his reading of ALL that had to be read at the time, being his mastering of Greek a plus he had against Saint Augustine, who never got familiar enough with that language.

The importance Plato had for Saint Augustine, Aristotle had for Thomas Aquinas, who respectfully called him The Philosopher (sic). The Summa Theologica is an attempt by Aquinas to solve the most troublesome points in doctrine, a monumental task tried before by many who attempted to conciliate the Greek Church and Roman Church rulings (cannons), the then powerful philosophical Arabic influence, being the Arabic philosophers the first who rescued Aristotle from the ashes of Augustianism, the efforts of Albert Magnus - who was praeceptor of Aquinas - to evolve science from Alchemy etcetera. It is interesting to note here that the name science(from scio in Latin) , as happens with many others names used in the book , had a very different meaning then , as compared with the meaning it had since the beginning of the development of modern sciences.

Using primarily an Aristotelian toolbox and terminology, but always faithfull to the Holy Scripture - and thus entangled in a rather sly explanation of Creationism - being the Bible authoritative enough to him as the own word of God, Aquinas establishes a rather apt hierarchical order in the world between all being (ens) and creatures (criaturae), some of them only possesed of material substance, some immaterial (angelus), and some with intermediate properties, being both material and immaterial (humans). To him, the soulless (sine animae) material being was always oriented to the soulful material being and then to the immaterial as its superior, e.g., stone to plants, plants to irrational animals and the latter to the rational ones, that is, to human beings, who by means of his intelect could reach na understanding of God trough His output (effects), that is, the created world.
Being both material and immaterial, homo naturaliter orientatur ist ad superiorem in the hierarchical order (ordo) that is, the angels, who were the supreme creatures of God. But what is God? Sorry, but there is no answer to this question: according to Aquinas, we only know that He is (quid est) trough His works, but will never know what He is (qui est), being the final contemplation of God the Supreme Good (sumum bonum) and the final goal of man. His explanation of good (bonum) as created by God and evil (malum) as a deprivation of good instead of its antipodal opposite, thus making man responsible for his acts via liber arbitrium, and quenching Manicheism - who affirmed that God created the immaterial beings and the Devil the material one - is magistral and is worthy the effort of reading a so difficult and voluminous book.
His explanation of God as an ens composed of three coeternal persons in just one substance and living out of time (per se subexistente, a tempori non mensuratur) gives the reader sheer ecstasy in getting contact with one of the most prodigious philosophers of all times, no matter what the reader's creed. The sheer independence (but not indiference) of God as regarding human beings, because God loves himself preeminently (quia Dominus seipsum amat) is also notewhorthy.
To sum it up, what you have in your hand is the work of the most genial man of his time, who sent rippling waves of influence troughout the world as no other philosopher (or ox) did for many centuries to come.