That is, it dealt with the same topics, but from a thoroughly Christian perspective. The Summa Contra Gentiles is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. [2] The title is taken from chapter I.2, where Thomas states his intention as the work's author: I have set myself the task of making known, as far as my limited powers will allow, the truth that the Catholic faith professes, and of setting aside the errors that are opposed to it. Furthermore, Aquinas maintains that God doesn't will what is bad for anything (SCG 1,95-6). Summa Contra Gentiles, chaps. The first and longer chunk of each chapter is almost entirely expository and it is clear that Davies' main goal is to help the reader quickly come to understand what Aquinas is claiming about the matter at hand. Sometimes these lists go on for pages. Still, I think that many readers without a background in Aquinas would find it difficult to supply the premises in this and many other similarly shortened arguments. [10], Later in 1259, Thomas left Paris and returned to Naples, where he was appointed as general preacher by the provincial chapter of 29 September 1260. Some readers may be surprised by the diversity of issues and authors discussed in the sections which evaluate Aquinas's arguments and positions. For the most part, I thought Davies was successful in staying above the fray, as it were, by sticking very close to the text. Aquinas magnum opus is the Summa Theologica (1265-74) and the Summa contra Gentiles (1270-73). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. Instead of a mere elucidation of the length and breadth of Christian doctrine, Aquinas explains specific core articles of Christian belief.[1]. Although much of what Davies says in support of thinking as much seems right, I fear that that discussion as a whole might mislead some readers. The arts of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and th⦠Chapter 1 / FOREWORD / Lo, these things are only outlines of His ways: and how small a whisper we hear of Him. ISSN: 1538 - 1617 Aquinas thinks that God is characterized by mind and will and so, leaving aside complexities introduced by the doctrine of the Trinity, God is a person in some important sense. Summa Contra Gentiles - Aquinas 1. all that is knowable about itself; but an angel of his natural knowledge does not know the essence of God, because the angel's own substance, whereby it is led to a knowledge of God, is an effect inadequate to the power of the cause that created it. One is the one that a reasonable investigation can reach, while the other is beyond the ability of human reasoning. They offer arguments that contrast one another concerning the divine intellect, and in particular, Godâs ability to intellect singulars. How we Know Truths About God There are two different ways in which truths about God are known. So, for example, citing the fact that he suspects that the topic is "only of interest to specialists in the history of philosophy" (234), he refrains from going through every element of Aquinas's treatment of whether we can understand angels in this life and focuses instead on "where it leads Aquinas" (234). So the commentary treats, e.g., God's existence and attributes, God's activity in creating and sustaining the world, the nature of intellectual creatures, good and evil, happiness, divine providence, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and the life of the world to come. DEA PICTURE LIBRARY / Getty Images Saint Thomas Aquinas . For example, that judgment shines through in when and how Davies quotes Aquinas. with little background in Aquinas, I imagine that the lists would, at times, be fairly overwhelming. Raymond's request to Thomas was transmitted by fellow Dominican Ramón MartÃ, one of eight friars appointed to make a study of oriental languages with the purpose of carrying on a mission to Jews and Moors. To name the most frequent varieties, there are lists of arguments, objections, replies, and main claims. [1], Whereas the Summa Theologiæ was written to explain the Christian faith to theology students, the Summa contra Gentiles is more apologetic in tone, as it was written to explain and defend the Christian doctrine against unbelievers, with arguments adapted to fit the intended circumstances of its use, each article refuting a certain heretical belief or proposition. The conventional title Summa contra Gentiles, found in some of the earliest manuscripts, is sometimes given in the variant Summa contra Gentes. the Summa Contra Gentiles. The Summa Contra Gentiles is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. On the other hand, for a student (or teacher!) He called this a two- fold truth about religious claims in his book Summa Contra Gentiles. For example, Davies gives the following paraphrase of one of Aquinas's arguments for the conclusion "God is goodness itself": "God's perfection is not something added to God. As one might expect from a book not intended for specialists, the main text avoids the appearance of scholarly disagreement over how to interpret Aquinas. Hence not all things that God understands in 13 (1918, 3–61) and 14 (1926, 3–49) of the Leonine edition. SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES The great apologetical work of St. Thomas Aquinas, written from 1258 to 1261. In the first, he uses Aristotelian philosophy as a framework for explaining and defending Christian theism. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas wrote: Virtue denotes a certain perfection of a power. This book gives one the feeling of being in the presence of a talented and experienced teacher, who brings Thomas Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) to life for his students. In September 1261 he was called to Orvieto as conventual lector responsible for the pastoral formation of the friars unable to attend a studium generale. Little is known of Thomas's studies at Montecassino, but much is known of the shape that the monastic schools had taken. definition of God." The request was made by Raymond of Peñafort, a Dominican friar and advisor to James I of Aragon. vii,7). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. Additionally he went to help establish the Church in the recently conquered island of Mallorca. / Lo, these For example, Davies quotes Martin Luther's assessment that, given Aquinas's treatment of the Eucharist, Aquinas seems to know "neither [Aristotle's] philosophy nor his logic" since "Aristotle speaks of substance and accidents so very differently from St. Thomas" (quoted on 370). the Summa theologiae and the Summa contra gentiles, for the classical systematization of Latin theology, and, as a poet, he wrote some of the most gravely beautiful eucharistic hymns in the churchâs liturgy. Other interpreters of Aquinas make appearances, such as Herbert McCabe and Eleonore Stump, but always in support of a point already being made. For students and especially for teachers of Aquinas's philosophy and theology, Brian Davies' guide and commentary is a gift. (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles). They were oneof the principal conduits of the liberal arts tradition which stretches back to Cassiodorus Senator in the 6thcentury. A typical chapter gets its title from some proposition that is to be affirmed, or in some cases refuted. During his tenure from 1256 to 1259, Thomas wrote numerous works, and he was working on Summa contra Gentiles by the time he left Paris. These lists allow Davies to cover a lot of ground quickly. College of Arts and Letters His commentaries on Sacred Scripture and on Aristotle are a significant aspect of his body of work. Lat. The subsequent discussion draws upon everyone from philosophers such as A. J. Ayer and D. Z. Phillips to the biblical scholar, James Barr, to the First Vatican Council of the Catholic Church and the Psalms. The Summa Contra Gentiles is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. English (1924,[15] 1957[16]), Depending on who is reading the text, the lists may be either a boon or a drawback. Thinking the need over, I turned to the Summa contra Gentiles. Download books for free. It is what God is" (88). The list seems to be one of Davies' favorite teaching tools. Summa Contra Gentiles: Salvation Each volume is formally divided into about 100 short chapters. Also, Davies shows an awareness that some material covered in the SCG will be of interest only to experts. The work was written over a period of several years, between 1259 and 1265. His main goal was to show the harmony between faith and reason though a Christian interpretation of the philosophy of Aristotle. A second, shorter chunk of each chapter is devoted to evaluating what Aquinas has said. Although in Western philosophy the earliest formulation of a versionof the cosmological argument is found in Platoâs Laws,893â96, the classical argument is firmly rooted inAristotleâs Physics (VIII, 4â6) andMetaphysics (XII, 1â6). Copyright © 2020 Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews It was probably written to aid missionaries in explaining the Christian religion to and defending it against dissenting points of doctrine in Islam and Judaism. ", This page was last edited on 1 December 2020, at 11:08. Spanish (1968)[19] and French (1993,[20] 1999[21]). There are almost always a number of substantial lists in the same chapter -- for example, Chapter 18 has eight lists, which take up approximately 13 pages of text. "Aquinas only mentions Islam nine times in the entire work, and only a brief paragraph (1.6) says anything remotely substantive about the religion." This is true, for example, of his discussion of Aquinas's account of the will's freedom. For example, in his discussion of the Incarnation, Davies spends a paragraph explaining what Aquinas means by 'hypostasis' and he does so by talking about computers, prime ministers, and cats (329-30). (Job 26:14). Not infrequently, a list of arguments will include quite technical arguments or arguments that omit premises (presumably to save space). Summa Contra Gentiles, theological work by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). [8] 4. [6], According to a tradition that can be traced to shortly after Thomas's death, the Summa contra Gentiles was written in response to a request, made in 1259, for a book that would help the Dominican missionaries in Spain to convert the Muslims and Jews there. 1225-1274 â Thomas Aquinas â Summa Contra Gentiles . âFor the Lord will not cast off His peopleâ (Ps. Summa Contra Gentiles, Book I, chapters 1-9 Chapter 1: The function of the wise man My mouth shall discuss truth, and my lips shall detest the ungodly (Prov. School tests should be abolished. From Aquinas's autograph, Torrell (1996) identified the first 53 chapters of Book I as having been written in Paris based on studies of the parchment and the ink used. To this end, Aquinas could rely on a substantial body of shared doctrine, especially tenets of monotheism, in the case of Judaism the shared acceptance of the Old Testament as scripture and in the case of Islam the (at the time) shared tradition of Aristotelian philosophy. Brian Davies, Thomas Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles: A Guide and Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2016, 485pp., $45.00 (pbk), ISBN 9780190456542. This is true in the same sense that the first book of "Summa Contra Gentiles", "God" covered the same ground as Aristotle's "Physics" and that the second book, "Creation", covered the same ground as Aristotle's "De Anima". T. E. Burman in: Galletti in Vat. The Summa Contra Gentiles, one of Aquinas's best known works after the Summa Theologiae, is a philosophical and theological synthesis that examines what ⦠OF GOD AS HE IS IN HIMSELF.. 1.1.1 Of God and His Creatures The Function of the Wise Man . The manuscript includes fragments of books one and two, and large portions of book three. Accessibility Information. For example, in discussing the claim that God is good, Davies goes to some lengths to argue that Aquinas does not think of God as a morally good person (96-8). So, after a preface and a bit of background, Davies's commentary takes up virtually every topic discussed in the order in which the SCG covers it. To this end, Raymond instituted the teaching of Arabic and Hebrew in several houses of the friars, and he also founded priories in Murcia (then still under Muslim rule) and in Tunis. I think that students of Aquinas and especially teachers of Aquinas stand to benefit greatly from this volume. The Summa Contra Gentiles is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. I found Davies a reliable as well as an engaging guide. All philosophers can do is explain what belief in God amounts to; (3) To engage in natural theology is to offend against God by preferring to rely on human reasoning rather than divine revelation; (4) The whole enterprise of natural theology stands condemned on biblical grounds (26). Davies also makes a point of clearly explaining the most important jargon without intimidating the reader. In the spring of 1256 Thomas was appointed regent master in theology at Paris and one of his first works upon assuming this office was Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem, defending the mendicant orders, which had come under attack by William of Saint-Amour. 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