Life and works
Sometime around 1224 or 1225, Thomas Aquinas was born in Roccasecca (which ismidway between Rome and Naples) into an aristocratic family. As the youngestof their sons, his parents sent Thomas as an oblate to the Benedictinemonastery of Monte Cassino for study. Thomas entered the monastery at theage of five or six. In 1239, when he was about fourteen or fifteen, Thomasleft the monastery and went to Naples where he studied Arts and philosophy.It is here that Thomas came into contact with the Dominican Order which hewas to join in 1244, despite severe opposition by his parents who had hopedfor a more illustrious order (such as the Benedictines). Having overcome thedisagreements with his parents, Thomas went to Paris (1245) and then toCologne (1248) where he studied with Albert the Great who lectured onAristotelian thought. In 1252, Thomas was sent to Paris to teach. It is herethat Thomas wrote his first major theological work as part of the curriculumto become a Master in Theology: his Commentary on theSentences of Peter Lombard. In 1256, Thomas was granted theLicentia docendi by the chancellor of the Parisianuniversity. In the period 1256–59 Thomas wrote DeVeritate [On Truth], a wide-ranging work that covers topicssuch as truth, providence, predestination, the human mind and knowledge ofChrist (qq. 1–20); and goodness and the will (in qq. 21–29).Thomas returned to Italy and lectured in Orvieto (1261–65) where healso finished his first original theological synthesis, the Summacontra Gentiles, which consists of four parts. The First Partdeals with God; the Second with Creation; the Third Part with Providence;and only in the Fourth Part does Thomas deal with “truthsinaccessible to reason,” i.e., the Trinity, the Incarnation, thesacraments and eschatology. Unlike his other main theological works, theScG is written in a format different from thescholastic question-and-answer template. During this time he also wrote aCommentary on Job, in which he focuses on the literalmeaning of the text, in striking contrast to Gregory the Great’sapproach. In 1265–68 we find Thomas working in Rome in a DominicanStudium. It is here that he embarked on his mostimportant theological masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae(ST), a “summary of theology” (as thetitle indicates).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@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.
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.
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.