The Summa Theologiæ of Saint Thomas Aquinas is a work that has held a place of prominence in the disciplines of theology and philosophy since the time of St. Thomas himself. It was written when Latin was the language of scholarship, a common tongue that crossed Europe's volatile political boundaries and facilitated the growth of universities, many of which are still standing today. It is the hope of those responsible for this edition, that having the original Latin text and a respected English translation side by side will not only give those who are not ready to tackle the of Saint Thomas unaided access to his own words, but will inspire them and assist them in their pursuit of this language. They will likely discover, as many have before them, that Thomas is more easily understood in the tongue in which he wrote than he is in any other.
Thomas Aquinas was an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis.
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.
The philosophy of Aquinas has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church, extending to Western philosophy in general, where he stands as a vehicle and modifier of Aristotelianism, which he fused with the thought of Augustine.
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