List Books » Shorter Summa: The Most Essential Philosophical Passages of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica
Authors: Thomas Aquinas, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Peter Kreeft (Editor), Peter Kreeft
ISBN-13: 9780898704389, ISBN-10: 0898704383
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Date Published: April 1993
Edition: (Non-applicable)
A shortened version of Kreeft's much larger Summa of the Summa, which in turn was a shortened version of the Summa Theologica. The reason for the double shortening is pretty obvious: the original runs some 4000 pages! (The Summa of the Summa was just over 500.) The Summa is certainly the greatest, most ambitious, most rational book of theology ever written. In it, there is also much philosophy, which is selected, excerpted, arranged, introduced, and explained in footnotes here by Kreeft, a popular Thomist teacher and writer. St. Thomas Aquinas is universally recognized as one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived. His writings combine the two fundamental ideals of philosophical writing: clarity and profundity. He is a master of metaphysics and technical terminology, yet so full of both theoretical and practical wisdom. He is the master of common sense. The Summa Theologica is timeless, but particularly important today because of his synthesis of faith and reason, revelation and philosophy, and the Biblical and the classical Greco-Roman heritages. This little book is designed for beginners, either for classroom use or individually. It contains the most famous and influential passages of St. Thomas' philosophy with copious aids to understanding them.
Preface | 11 | |
Introduction | 13 | |
Glossary | 27 | |
I | Methodology: Theology as a Science | |
Prologue | 37 | |
The Nature and Extent of Sacred Doctrine (I, 1) | 39 | |
II | Proofs for the Existence of God | |
The Existence of God (I, 2) | 45 | |
III | The Nature of God | |
Of the Simplicity of God (I, 3) | 65 | |
The Existence of God in Things (I, 8) | 69 | |
The Immutability of God (I, 9) | 73 | |
The Names of God (I, 13) | 75 | |
Of God's Knowledge (I, 14) | 78 | |
Of Truth (I, 16) | 81 | |
The Will of God (I, 19) | 83 | |
God's Love (I, 20) | 85 | |
The Providence of God (I, 22) | 88 | |
IV | Cosmology: Creation and Providence | |
Of the Beginning of the Duration of Creatures (I, 46) | 91 | |
V | Anthropology: Body and Soul | |
Of Man Who Is Composed of a Spiritual and a Corporeal Substance: and in the First Place, concerning What Belongs to the Essence of the Soul (I, 75) | 99 | |
Of the Union of Body and Soul (I, 76) | 103 | |
VI | Epistemology and Psychology | |
Of the Will (I, 82) | 107 | |
Of Free-Will (I, 83) | 111 | |
How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things beneath It (I, 84) | 114 | |
Of the Mode and Order of Understanding (I, 85) | 121 | |
VII | Ethics | |
Of Those Things in Which Man's Happiness Consists (I-II, 2) | 131 | |
Of Goodness in General (I, 5) | 150 | |
The Distinction of Things in Particular (I, 48) | 151 | |
Of the Cardinal Virtues (I-II, 61) | 153 | |
Of the Theological Virtues (I-II, 62) | 155 | |
Of the Various Kinds of Law (I-II, 91) | 157 | |
Of the Natural Law (I-II, 94) | 161 |