''Compendium Theologiae ad fratrem Reginaldum socium suum carissimum'' (), also known as ''De fide et spe'' () is a short
summa written by
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
. It was left unfinished before the author's death.
History
In the opening chapter, Aquinas affirms that the book's target audience are those searching for a convenient synopsis of Christian theology. The ''Compendium'' is a particularly mature work, written at the end of the theologian's career, and it can be seen as a brief assessment of the topics which the author understood as most important. The book was planned as "a summary of the principal teachings of Christian doctrine" and dedicated to brother
Reginald of Piperno, a Dominican friar and companion of Thomas who had transcribed his notes and lectures and had asked for the work.
The chapters of the ''Compendium'' are usually no longer than a few paragraphs, as Aquinas aimed at brevity rather than the thorough style of the ''
Summa Theologica
The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main t ...
''. Even if the Doctor's death is usually taken as the cause for its incompletion, the first part seems to have been composed as early as in the 1265-1267 time span, soon after finishing his ''
Summa contra Gentiles''. Both works sometimes parallel each other in organization and topics, and the possibility of the ''Compendium'' being a reduced version of the former has been proposed by scholars.
Against the historical consensus, it has been recently proposed that Aquinas might have voluntarily abandoned the book due to a change in his teaching strategy.
Content
The book was originally planned to follow a three-parts organization based on the
theological virtues, in which the first section would be named after
faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...
, the second after
hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large.
As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
and the third after
charity
Charity may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
. Aquinas died before finishing the second part, which was left at its tenth chapter. The first part amounts to 246 chapters. "On faith" is based on the
Apostles' Creed, while "On hope" follows the
Lord's Prayer. "On charity" was planned to take the Commandments as an organizational ground.
The first part, being the only complete one, has been described as "the most important from the theological point of view". Subdivided in two treatises, the first one is devoted to the study of the
Holy Trinity and the second to Christ's humanity. The first treatise takes from chapter 3 to chapter 184, while the second spans from 185 to 246.
Probably inspired in
Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
's ''
Enchiridion'', Aquinas justifies the organization of his work through his notion of salvation. According to the author, Jesus taught the doctrine of salvation in order to make it accessible to those "who are too occupied with work" through the practice of the theological virtues. By knowing the truths of the faith (faith), ordering the will towards its ultimate end (hope) and practicing justice (charity) one may expect to attain salvation.
Love cannot be rightly ordered unless the proper goal of our hope is established; nor can there be any hope if knowledge of the truth is lacking. Therefore the first thing necessary is faith, by which one may come to a knowledge of the truth. Secondly, hope is necessary, that one’s intention may be fixed on the right end. Thirdly, love is necessary, that one’s affections may be perfectly put in order.
Up to chapter 36 of the first part, Thomas discusses the doctrine of God's oneness and other aspects which are philosophically deductible, namely the divine necessity, eternity, immutability, simplicity, identity of being and essence, not belonging to any genus nor being a species, being incorporeal, omnipotent and infinite, containing every perfection in things in an eminent and unified way, not possessing accidents, not losing simplicity because of holding multiple names, being undefinable, intelligent, possessing a will and being identical to the divine essence.
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
''Compendium Theologiae''(in Latin and English) at ''aquinas.cc''.
{{portal bar, Catholicism, Middle Ages
Scholasticism
13th-century Christian texts
13th-century books in Latin
Christian theology books
Works by Thomas Aquinas
Literature of the Dominican Order
Unfinished books