Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T18:00:18.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

8 - Aquinas: Summa Theologiae

Paul O'Grady
Affiliation:
St Catherine's College
John Shand
Affiliation:
Open University
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The presence of a book whose title translates as “Summary of Theology” might seem odd in a list of great works of philosophy. Yet Aquinas's major work does make a significant contribution to the history of philosophy and has had wide-ranging influence on many philosophers. However, the initial puzzlement one might feel about the title is reflected in the different kinds of scholarly responses to Aquinas's work. Over the centuries, some philosophers have delighted in attacking Aquinas as the philosophical representative of the Catholic Church, and in so doing exposing the perceived errors and perniciousness of that institution. Others have treated Aquinas's writings as almost holy writ and have exhibited excessive reverence and lack of critical distance in their appreciation of his thought. In both approaches there has been a layer of non-philosophical baggage obscuring the philosophical merits or demerits of Aquinas's work.

This issue is ongoing and is reflected in recent scholarship on Aquinas. While there has been some excellent work investigating the philosophical value of Aquinas's thought, much recent work focuses on Aquinas as a theologian and seeks to downplay the independent philosophical value of his writing. Some of this seeks to counterbalance readings of Aquinas that treat him anachronistically and ignore the historical context of the production of his work. However one can be hermeneutically faithful to that context while simultaneously treating his work as a contribution to the history of philosophy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×