Bloomsbury Studies on Thomas Aquinas (12 vols.)

The revival of interest in Aquinas has corresponded with a rise of interest in Aristotle, on whose philosophy Aquinas based his own. On Aquinas is a masterly work of clear and concise exposition. By the use of simple modern analogy, McCabe brings Aquinas’ thought to life and underlines the crucial influence of Aquinas on our own contemporary thought. Even those who are unfamiliar with Aquinas will find this book gripping. Published posthumously, this study is thoroughly rewarding and will increase McCabe's reputation as one of Britain's finest theologians of recent years.

Herbert McCabe was one of the most original and creative theologians of recent years. Numerous volumes of unpublished typescripts left behind by him have been published following his untimely death in 2001. McCabe was deeply immersed in the philosophical theology of Aquinas and was responsible in part for the notable revival of interest in the thought of Aquinas in our time. Here, he tackles the problem of evil by focusing and commenting on what Aquinas said about it. What should we mean by words such as good, bad, being, cause, creation, and God? In answering these questions, McCabe demonstrates why evil does not disprove God’s existence. He also explains how we can rightly think of evil in a world made by God. McCabe’s approach to God and evil is refreshingly unconventional, yet it is also very traditional. It will interest and inform anyone seriously interested in the topic.

Aquinas was the ultimate combination of theologian and philosopher. His influence on Christian life and thought reaches from the Council of Trent to the Second Vatican Council and into the present day.

Brian Davies shows that Aquinas’ approach to the common questions of faith and existence is just as pressing and significant in our time. Here, the latest scholarship is incorporated with a clear and indispensable guide to Aquinas’ thought.

Aquinas at Prayer draws attention to important aspects of Aquinas’ life and work which have been all too often overlooked or forgotten. Today Aquinas is almost exclusively regarded as an outstanding scholastic philosopher and theologian. But what is little known is that Aquinas was, first and last, a teacher of the Bible. Moreover there is a distinctly mystical character to his theology. And, as a writer, he was arguably the greatest Latin poet of the Middle Ages.

The primary focus of this engaging new book is to explore the question of Aquinas’ own practice of prayer and his teaching on prayer in his commentaries on the Psalms and St. Paul. The book is strengthened by quotations from Aquinas in fresh translations.

Those readers who, in the past, have found the study of Aquinas especially daunting, will be grateful to the Dominican Paul Murray for the freshness and clarity he brings to his task. Praying with Confidence is both a stimulating scholarly study and an ideal introduction for the general reader. Never before have the most important reflections by Aquinas on the Lord’s Prayer been drawn together and considered in a single book. Here, Aquinas comes alive not merely as a profound, speculative theologian, but also as an impressive master and guide of the spiritual and moral life. Aquinas also was a teacher capable of saying the unexpected, openly confessing, “. . . it is hardly possible to say a single Our Father without our minds wandering off to other things.” The style of Aquinas is plain and expository, but evident on every page is the serene, unmistakable mark of wisdom—Aquinas’ own, and that of the great tradition.

Aquinas is famous for his impressive and coherent synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian theology. His magisterial Summa Theologica is a hugely important text in the history of philosophy. Nevertheless, he is also a very difficult thinker, and his ideas present a number of challenges to readers.

Aquinas: A Guide for the Perplexed is a clear and thorough account of Aquinas’ thought, his major works, and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the complex writings of this key thinker. The book introduces the key concepts and themes in Aquinas’ thought, and examines the ways in which they have influenced philosophical and theological thought. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Aquinas’ ideas, the book serves as a clear and concise introduction to his philosophy and natural theology.

This reader’s guide to the Summa Theologica describes the context Aquinas’ compendium of Catholic theology emerged in, and seeks to guide the reader to an understanding as close to Aquinas’ originally meaning as possible. Loughlin also chronicles the history of how the Summa Theologica has been received, and the influence it has had through the centuries.

The Continuum Library of Educational Thought is a major international reference series providing comprehensive accounts of the work of seminal educational thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines, and traditions. St Thomas Aquinas is indisputably a major thinker in education. Vivian Boland’s volume offers the most coherent account of Aquinas’ educational thought available. His volume contains a critical exposition of Aquinas’ work on education, and evaluates Aquinas’ historical impact and continuing influence.

Thomas Aquinas has always been viewed as a highly important figure in Western Civilization, and the chief philosopher of Roman Catholicism. In recent decades there has been a renewed interest in Aquinas’ thought, as scholars have been exploring the relevance of his thought to contemporary philosophical problems. This book will be of interest not only to historians of medieval philosophy, but to philosophers who work on problems associated with the nature of material objects. Because human beings are typically understood to be a kind of material object, the book will also be of interest to philosophers working on topics in metaphysics. Although the work contains the kinds of details that are necessary for a work of historical scholarship, it is written in a manner that makes it approachable for undergraduate students in philosophy. It is a welcome addition to any scholar’s library.

Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus are arguably the most celebrated representatives of scholasticism’s golden age. They are known primarily for their work in natural theology, which seeks to demonstrate tenets of faith without recourse to premises rooted in dogma or special revelation. Scholars of this golden age drew on a wealth of tradition, dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Taking in the Arabic and Jewish interpretations of these thinkers, they produced a wide variety of answers to the question: how much can we learn of God? Some responded by denying us any positive knowledge of God. Others believed that we have such knowledge, yet questioned whether acquiring it required divine revelation. Scotus and Aquinas belong to the more empirically minded thinkers in this latter group, arguing against a necessary role for revelation.

Many scholars believe that Aquinas and Scotus exhaust the spectrum of answers available to this circle, with Aquinas maintaining that our knowledge is quite confused, and Scotus that it is completely accurate. In this study, Alexander Hall argues that the truth about Aquinas and Scotus lies somewhere in the middle. Hall’s book recommends itself to the general reader who is looking for an overview of this period in Western philosophy, as well as to the specialist. No other study on the market addresses this long-standing matter of interpretation in any detail.

Although most theories of natural law recognize moral absolutes, there is not much agreement, even among natural law theorists, about how to identify them. Flannery argues that in order to understand and determine the morality (or immorality) of a human action, it must be considered in relation to the organized system of human practices within which it is performed.

In order to depict this structure and to explain how it affects the analysis of action, the author investigates a number of issues that have attracted the attention of Thomistic and Aristotelian scholarship. He examines the nature of practical reason, its relationship with theoretical reason, the derivation of lower from higher ethical principles, the incommensurability of human goods, the relationship between will and intellect, and the principle of double effect.

Through the works of Thomas Aquinas, Stephen Brock examines the relationship between conduct and physical action, or between the will and the real events which it effects in the world. Few thinkers have devoted more attention to this topic than Aquinas, who has influenced mainstream modern analytic philosophy through, among others, G. E. M. Anscombe, Anthony Kenny, Roderick Chisolm, and the late Alan Donagan. Demonstrating an exhaustive knowledge of Aquinas and contemporary theories of action, professor Brock provides a new interpretation of Aquinas’ thought on human action, and exposes the incoherence of theories which place an exclusive emphasis on the morality of subjective intention