You may have heard of this great saint of the Catholic Church. He comes up a lot in disputes even today, 800 years after his birth. Here is a brief sketch of why you should read his works.

Official Theologian of the Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIII decreed in Aeterni Patris that the works of St. Thomas Aquinas be taught in Catholic Schools. There isn’t an official theologian, but if there were, it would be St. Thomas.

The Great Synthesizer

In the 13th century, the works of Aristotle were being reintroduced in the Latin west. Aristotle is such a gigantic genius that he presents a danger, in that your own thought can be subsumed into his. Many such cases! Of particular danger were his doctrines of the eternity of the world, the emphasis on the body and the senses as sources of knowledge, ethics derived from nature and not from scripture, the apparent doctrine of a universal soul, and God as the unmoved mover.

St. Thomas does not adopt Aristotelianism uncritically, but uses whatever is good from whatever source he can. That which is worthy of Aristotle is combined in a magisterial synthesis with St. Augustine, Plato, St. John of Damascus, Pseudo-Dionysius, the Bible, and even the Muslim and Jewish philosophers Avicenna, Averroes, and Moses Maimonides.

Truth is important, no matter where it may be found. Even your enemies may have something to teach you. St. Thomas is an example of intellectual magnanimity, letting the whole world be his teacher.

He writes for beginners

Theological education in the 13th century was not systematic, based primarily on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which start right up with the doctrine of the Trinity. Anyone who has gone to a Catholic Church and heard a sermon on Trinity Sunday knows how hard that is! Thomas, on the other hand, starts with demonstrating the existence of God. The Trinity can wait! His systematic presentation of Christian doctrine is a model of pedagogical clarity.

Faith and Reason

Why do you need faith if you have reason? What do you do if reason conflicts with faith? For St. Thomas, such a conflict is impossible. If you think faith and reason conflict, you either understand the faith incorrectly or have got your science wrong. He makes clear distinctions between what philosophy can do and what Revelation provides, and cautions strongly that you not mix them up. The debates of the New Atheists of the last fifteen years could have been avoided if they had just read the prologue to the Summa Contra Gentiles and kept strictly to the boundaries between what reason can do and what faith provides.

Optimist

Chesterton remarks on the great optimism of St. Thomas, who continually affirms truth, goodness, and beauty. I myself am a pessimist, by disposition and choice, and reading the sunny clear writing of Brother Thomas is quite a consolation to my gloominess. My favorite line comes from the beginning of Summa Contra Gentiles: in arguments with others who don’t share the Bible, “we need to have recourse to natural reason, to which all are compelled to assent.” There is no more optimistic declaration than that!

Steel-manning.

His method comes out of the schools, where students were taught through public disputations. A thesis would be advanced, and arguments would be made both for and against the thesis. After the teacher gave his magisterial teaching, all the objections would be addressed. The kids today call this “steel-manning,” where the opponent’s arguments are presented in the best possible light, and then refuted. This method should be adopted by all of us out of respect for the opponent, and in the interest of truth.

My favorite example is in the Summa Theologica where Thomas gives in two lines the best argument against the existence of God, better even than Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov: “If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.”

You’ll be happy to know that St. Thomas refutes the argument that he so charitably formulates. Stay tuned and I’ll give the refutation in a future substack.

Biography

He lived from 1225 or thereabouts to 1274.

His father was a count of Aquino. His mother was Theodora, countess of Teano. He thus comes from high Norman nobility, with Viking ancestors. As is usual in the stories of saints, signs and portents attend him. A hermit is supposed to have predicted greatness to his mother. He started at age five with the Benedictines at Monte Cassino. Then he went to the University of Naples, where he excelled. At school, he decided to become a Dominican, which in those days really meant a begging preacher. The family were upset, and his brothers captured him and locked him in a tower. A real fairy tale! They sent in a prostitute, whom he chased out with a burning log from the fire. He spent the two years locked in the tower studying, a theological Rapunzel.

Of note–his family and talents were of such a nature that the pope himself got involved, telling everyone to lay off and let him be a Dominican. St. Albert the Great remarked of the quiet scholar: “We call this young man a dumb ox, but his bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world.”

Thomas was a professor, which in those days meant commenting on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, a collection of scriptural and patristic quotes, not presented in a systematic way. This is why he wrote the Summa Theologica, a well-ordered text for beginners.

His writings are available for free online, and you should read them. As St. Edith Stein said, whatever you think about a subject, and whether you disagree or agree with St. Thomas, after you read what he has to say you’ll be smarter.

He refused promotion, remaining a humble friar. He was also a mystic, and there is testimony of levitation. Who knows?

His works are continually read with value. I could quote to you from Pope Leo XIII’s document recommending his works, but I hope to convince you by posting articles here explaining it. As St. Thomas himself argues, if we appeal to reason, we should gain agreement, since reason is that to which all men and women must assent.

Where you can get his works

Online you can find his work at The Aquinas Institute. They also have a wonderful web portal for reading online. You can also get physical copies.

I have been reading G.K. Chesterton’s biography on my podcast, and have done a few episodes on various aspects of St. Thomas’s teaching. Look for The Karl Schudt Show.

I’ll write more about him soon.