The presentation of the life and work of any great thinker is a formidable task, even for a renowned scholar. This is all the more the case when such a historical figure is a saint and mystic, such as Friar Thomas Aquinas. In this volume, Fr. Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP, masterfully takes up the strenuous task of presenting such a biography, providing readers with a detailed, scholarly, and profound account of the thirteenth-century theologian whose works have not ceased to draw the attention of both friend and foe! In this volume, Fr. Torrell, an internationally renowned expert on St. Thomas, speaks to neophytes and experts alike: for those new to Thomas's works, he paints an engaging human portrait of Friar Thomas in his historical context; for specialists, he provides a rigorous scholarly account of contemporary research concerning Thomas's life and work. This new edition of Fr. Torrell's widely-lauded text involved significant revision, expansion, and bibliographical updates in light of the latest scholarship. The Catholic University of America Press is pleased to present such an eminent specialist's mature synthesis concerning Friar Thomas Aquinas.

This work lays out the theoretical background to Saint Thomas Aquinas' spirituality. It shows that his theology is clearly oriented towards contemplation and is as deeply spiritual as it is doctrinal. The text quotes often from Thomas' own texts and presents a clear understanding of Aquinas' views on nature, the person, human society, politics, and our ultimate end in communion with God and one another. It makes apparent why the Catholic Church thinks of Aquinas not only as a great Christian intellectual, but also as a saint.

Highly acclaimed as the most reliable, thorough, and accessible introduction to Thomas Aquinas, this first volume in Jean-Pierre Torrell's set of books on the great Dominican theologian has been revised to include a new appendix. The appendix consists of additions to the text, the catalog of Aquinas's works, and the chronology. Each item in the appendix is called out in the original part of the book with an asterisk in the margin.
This is the introduction to Thomas: presenting all the known facts of his life and work

In this concise new volume by the acclaimed author of the biography of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Jean-Pierre Torrell brings his expertise to bear on Aquinas's ""Summa Theologiae"". Readers will turn to this book again and again for a brief and popular introduction to Aquinas's masterpiece - it's content; it's historical, literary, and doctrinal settings; and it's lasting significance. Torrell begins with an expert account of Aquinas's life and then turns his attention to the overall structures and specific content of the ""Summa"". He considers the literary and doctrinal context of the ""Summa"", situating the work within the overall literary corpus of the Angelic Doctor and examining Aquinas's Christian, Greek, Jewish, and Arab sources. The second half of the book surveys the history of the ""Summa's"" influence from Aquinas's death in 1274 through the twentieth century. Torrell traces the fate of Aquinas's ""Summa"" from its slow start, through the eventual emergence of Thomism, and finally to its widespread acceptance. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the ultimate triumph of Aquinas's work with the encyclical Aeternis patris and, in the wake of Vatican II there has been renewed interest in its content and method. This book is a masterpiece of concision and completeness. It will be of considerable interest to readers seeking to understand and appreciate the content, method, and impact of the ""Summa"" and the man who wrote it.