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The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas Paperback – February 1, 2002

by Joseph Pieper (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 109 pages
  • Publisher: Ignatius Press (February 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0898708915
  • ISBN-13: 978-0898708912
  • Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.3 x 7.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsPithy Wisdom
By Robert on August 26, 2006
Format: Paperback
Professor of Philosophy Edward T. Oakes S.J. writes of this compendium of quotes of St. Thomas Aquinas:

[In response to someone telling him St. Thomas Aquinas was a great aphorist, a coiner of one line wise sayings] I rejoined that a medieval scribe who became the most famous practitioner of that notoriously hairsplitting method called Scholasticism--and who produced something like eight million words, in the pre-Gutenberg era to boot--could hardly be called an aphorist. But this faithful correspondent then pointed me to Josef Pieper's marvelous collection of Thomistic one-liners called The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas: A Breviary of Philosophy, which taught me otherwise. Until I had read this powerful (but also exhausting!) book, I had not realized how concise, pithy, indeed almost aphoristic, the medievals were forced to be.

Remarkably, Pieper resolutely refused to provide so much as a single line of commentary in his "breviary." All he furnished, arranged in vague topical categories, were the one-line conclusions to Thomas' positions, not the arguments for them. But even standing alone, they have a way of, well, standing on their own. I'll cite a few just to give you an idea:

* Everything eternal is necessary.

* Every creature participates in goodness in the same degree as it participates in being.

* In the universe, only the intellectual nature is sought on its own account, all others on account of it.

* Desire of the knowledge of truth is peculiar to human nature.

* Evil is not caused except by good.

* Everything evil is rooted in some good, and everything false in some truth.

* Evil produces no effect except in virtue of some good.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsUnpalatable to some, gold to others
By Ronald on December 13, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Contemporary theologians introduced a "style" of theology, and consequently philosophy, which exalted experiential knowledge over abstract reasoning. Induction was superior to, and essentially replaced deduction. The results were flowery, "organic" theological and philosophical treatises which aimlessly rambled for pages and left one mesmerized by the form but completely oblivious of the content. Not so with the Common Doctor. St. Thomas is not interested in appealing to individual experiences and emotions, but truth. He doesn't need pages to precisely articulate his thought. The result are weighty "one-liners", pregnant with meaning and purpose. Not an iota is used without a clear purpose. We are all indebted to Pieper for this, a breviary of Thomistic "one-liners". It's exactly what a thinking Catholic needs: good ol'fashioned red meat on which to grind his intellectual teeth so as to yield an abundance of spiritual nutrients.
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4.0 out of 5 starsA Great Introduction to Thomas
By Conor B. Dugan VINE VOICE on July 2, 2011
Format: Paperback
A great little compilation of Thomas Aquinas' great wisdom. There is something on every page that spurs deeper thought. Josef Pieper has done a wonderful job bringing gems and nuggets to the reader. This is a very beautiful and good book. A good way to be introduced to Thomas -- it isn't too intimidating and very readable.

The one thing I thought as reading this -- and I know that I am going to show that I know just enough to make me look stupid -- is that I cannot understand how the Neo-Thomists maintain their strict split between nature and grace. There were ample passages in this little compilation that seem to confirm Henri De Lubac's reading of Thomas.
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5.0 out of 5 starsa treasure trove of wisdom
By Aquinas on November 17, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Pieper did us all a great service by collecting these incisive sayings of the great philosopher saint. St Thomas has this way of almost stunning the reader by his pernetrating wisdom. Meditate on the sayings contained in this little book!
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