Thomas Aquinas is one of the most important intellectual figures in the history of the Church. His synthesis of philosophy and theology and his treatises on important topics like the Eucharist, the Church, and the Trinity laid the groundwork for immense intellectual work that followed his time. Such work has helped through the ages in defending the Faith against attacks from various philosophies and theologies that have come and gone. One could also argue that a lot of the cultural flourishing in the West that followed Aquinas’s time can also in no small part be attributed to the firm intellectual grounding that he established (because a mind that sees the inherent order in reality can contribute and participate in this order through elegant works and actions). Undoubtedly, his influence on the Church and, for that matter, on the world, cannot be underestimated, despite what contemporary “thinkers” like Richard Dawkins may say.
Hence why people do their best to get acquainted with his works. Whether for personal reasons or to become better philosophers/theologians, or just out of curiosity, many people attempt to engage with this figure. But as a lot of studious people quickly discover, understanding Aquinas is hard. Very hard, in fact. It’s definitely not like picking up a book by Foucault or Sartre or Kierkegaard where you can more or less follow these people’s arguments without much philosophical training. Aquinas is notoriously abstruse and requires hard studying.
Indeed, it took me years and years of reading him before I could finally say that I understood more of him than less. As a result, I thought I’d compile a list of tipsand things to keep in mind to assist those attempting the journey to get to know the man’s works.
Here goes:
- Terminology. Make sure you understand what Aquinas means when he uses words like essence, existence, accident, transcendentals, etc. Reading Aristotle will help because he borrows a lot of terms from him. But Thomas also puts his own spin on things sometimes, too. These terms are core to Aquinas’s thinking and you won’t get far without first getting a vague idea of what each means. The downside, however, is that if you’re fresh in philosophy you won’t fully grasp these terms to begin with either way. But seeing them used in the right context more and more will slowly clear away the cobwebs.
- Intellectual muscle. Aquinas is all about logic. Pure, hard-core, scholastic logic. Some of his arguments stretch for 20+pages (e.g. his discussion of one of his famous Five Ways to show the existence of God in his Summa Contra Gentiles). To follow these arguments (at the difficult level of metaphysics) you need to use that intellectual muscle of yours. Initially, that muscle will not be strong enough. You need to build it up like you would any other muscle. It’s a bit like going to the gym: it’ll take a while before you start seeing those “gains”.
- Context. Although not as important as the first two points, understanding the context in which he wrote will help also. Who was he writing for or arguing against? A knowledge of the history of philosophy will prove useful, too. We think and express ourselves differently now than people did 800 years ago. Eight centuries of various other philosophies (e.g. the phenomenologies of Hegel and Kant and especially the strict dichotomy of body-soul introduced by Descartes) have influenced our mentalities and the way we “colour” information that we take in. Trying to grasp exactly how Aquinas thought is very much open to debate but we can know this to a reasonable degree.
- Passionate gurus. Finding people who are passionate about this man’s thought helped me immensely. I was lucky in this respect. There are different ways to teach Aquinas. The best way by far is when it’s done by someone who knows his works back to front.
- Don’t get discouraged. The other dilemma with Aquinas is that he writes everything within an intellectual framework. Without a grasp of this framework, it’s hard to properly understand what he’s trying to say. And one needs to devote a lot of time to fully acquire this all-encompassing view. That’s just the way things are. There’s no shortcut here – once again, despite what Dawkins may think (I have his short chapter on Aquinas in mind in “The God Delusion”, which is a laughable attempt at trying to discredit Aquinas’s thought).
- Read with an accompanying summary. This is a little like having a teacher beside you to guide you in your studies. Read the original text first, make the effort to try to understand what is going on, and then refer to somebody else’s answer to compare. For example, Peter Kreeft’s “A Summa of the Summa” is an indespensable tool in this respect when trying to traverse through the Summa Theologiae.
Some people would also add studying Latin, the language St Thomas originally wrote in, to the list above. They would say that with Latin one can dip into original writings rather than risk losing things in translation. I’d disagree with this. Although something is always lost in translation, initially it’s important to simply get the general idea of what’s going on and reading in one’s native language will suffice. Basically, try to keep things simple. One small step at a time.
Like I said, it takes years to understand this man’s philosophy and theology. But when things start to click into place a new world will open up for you and you will start to understand the man’s greatness and also why we can attribute the West’s flourishing in no small part to him.
So, stick with it and good luck!
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