Based on Aquinas' Opera omnia (1882) and on two English translations by Joseph Rickaby ... Aquinas ethicus [and] Of God and His creatures.

Ranking among the most comprehensive systematicians of theological thought, Thomas Aquinas, the bulwark of Scholasticism, looked into virtually every corner of the theological edifice. "There are two sorts of . . ." This and phrases similar to it are constant expressions repeated on almost every page of St. Thomas' masterwork, Summa Theologiae. They are vivid reflections of his investigative method, a method that consisted of a broad and liberal vision which scrutinized all facets of every issue considered by him throughout his writings. It would be presumptuous at best to expect to extract all the decisive passages from the vast body of Aquinas' literature. And yet, without the hope of possibly accomplishing this task, one could not endeavor to compile a dictionary on Thomas Aquinas. Thus, in the preparation of this volume, the editor constantly reminded himself of Rickaby's admonition: St. Thomas is an author peculiarly liable to misrepresentation by taking his words in one place to the neglect of what he says on the same subject elsewhere. No one is safe in quoting him who has not read much of him. Naturally, the dictionary is organized with this in mind. Professor Stockhammer has sought to make misrepresentation a moot point and to distill and deliver the Thomist philo-theology within the framework of its essentials. In addition, only entries that are of interest to the modern reader are included, whereas items of merely medieval concern are omitted. The volume contains an excellent introduction by Professor Theodore E. James, and will take its place beside other dictionaries, such as Aristotle Dictionary and Plato Dictionary, as an invaluable handbook for students, teachers and interested readers alike.

Thomas Aquinas offers teleological systematisation of the habits needed for human flourishing. His metaphysical jurisprudence remodels ethics upon this, rather than on a moral precept. “Eternal law” governing the world determines “natural law”, reflected in human legislation (a variety of the “anthropic principle”). Finally, law, unwritten, is infused spirit as self-consciousness, “universal of universals”. Acquired virtues elicit this, become effusion, represented in religion as gifts or graces. But mind’s or spirit’s omnipresence, necessarily “closer to me than I am to myself”, supersedes the abstractions of heteronomy versus autonomy. The habitual well-being brought by prudence, justice, courage and temperance prompts this picture of gifts and graces. The “theological virtues”, faith (explicit or implicit) and hope fulfilled in love, “crown” our natural rationality, set toward as being the universal. “Become what you are”. Heteronomous law is thus “defused” at root by grounding it entirely upon immovable spiritual (mental) inclination towards universal fulfilment as naturally desired, reflection shows. Virtue, finally, is best assessed as a capacity for the individually beautiful yet habit-based action, Aristotle’s to kalon. Aquinas puts this picture as summed up in the beatitudes of the “Sermon on the Mount”.

A student's guide to the life and thought of Thomas Aquinas, the most widely read and studied medieval thinker.