''Saint Thomas Aquinas'' is a book by

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, journalist and magazine editor, and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brow ...

, published in 1933. In the introductory note of the book, Chesterton writes that the aim of the work is to be a popular sketch of historical character, who ought to be better known, especially for those who have hardly ever heard of him and are not likely to be of communion of

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 ...

. Chesterton begins by comparing Aquinas with St. Francis of Assisi. St. Thomas defends God as The Creator. He affirms with

Holy Scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

, that God created the physical world good. St. Thomas ultimately defends life against

Manichean Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

heresy, which considered the physical world evil. According to Chesterton, Thomas Aquinas represents more the reasonable mind of the man on the street, than modern philosophies.

Étienne Gilson Étienne Henri Gilson (; 13 June 1884 – 19 September 1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes; he also philosophized in the tradition ...

praised Chesterton's book on

: "I consider it as being, without possible comparison, the best book ever written on Saint Thomas ..the few readers who have spent twenty or thirty years in studying St. Thomas Aquinas, and who, perhaps, have themselves published two or three volumes on the subject, cannot fail to perceive that the so-called 'wit' of Chesterton has put their scholarship to shame."

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aqui ...

and Anton Pegis have also appreciated the book in similar manner.St. Thomas Aquinas
Philpapers.org

Outline of the Book

*Introductory Note *Chapter I. On Two Friars *Chapter II. The Runaway Abbot *Chapter III. The Aristotelian Revolution *Chapter IV. A Meditation on the Manichees *Chapter V. The Real Life of St. Thomas *Chapter VI. The Approach to

Thomism Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Thomas's disputed ques ...

*Chapter VII. The Permanent Philosophy *Chapter VIII. The Sequel to St. Thomas

References

External links

St. Thomas Aquinas
at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Saint Thomas Aquinas
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

St. Thomas Aquinas
at

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Saint Thomas Aquinas, by G K Chesterton
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