Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Summa Contra Gentiles: God by Thomas St. Aquinas, Anton C. Pegis, Vernon Bourke ISBN: 026801678X Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83
Rating: 5
Summary: It Makes You Think!
Comment: "Summa Contra Gentiles: Book One: God" is St. Thomas Aquinas' work in which he proclaims his philosophy of God. While differing from his Summa Theologica in form, it does bear it some resemblance. It consists of 102 chapters, each of which postulates a particular attribute of God. Each chapter then proves the postulated attribute by the application of philosophical reasoning. Support of authority, Scriptural or otherwise,. is only invoked after the issue has been established.
This is a book which makes the reader think. Some chapters really leave the reader with the feeling of understanding something new. This book is not light reading. It requires the investment of serious intellectual energy. For the reader willing to make the investment, the rewards can be heavenly.
Rating: 5
Summary: Structure of Summa Contra Gentiles
Comment: Thomas Aquinas was an extraordinarily systematic thinker and writer. Because of this, one of the best ways to comprehend "Summa Contra Gentiles" is through consideration of its structure. At the highest level, it consists of 4 books, with the third book in two parts, on account of its length.
The titles of the five volumes are as follows:
Summa Contra Gentiles: God
Summa Contra Gentiles: Creation
Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence, Part I
Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence, Part II*
Summa Contra Gentiles: Salvation
Each volume is formally divided into about 100 short chapters. A typical chapter gets its title from some proposition that is to be affirmed, or in some cases refuted. Each paragraph is an argument in support (or denial) of that proposition. The chapters are themselves ordered so that the later chapters build on what the arguments in the earlier chapters have established, and it is this arrangement of chapters that constitutes the real structure of "Summa Contra Gentiles".
Although in his later "Summa Theologica", Thomas formalized the higher-level structure of his writing, he did not do so here, which somewhat complicates any presentation of this structure - the book titles are so high level that they give little feel of the work, and the chapter titles so numerous that the reader is easily overwhelmed by a list of them.
In order to give the reader some sense of the overall work, I've prepared an outline of the work that (hopefully) is short enough to be readily comprehensible and long enough to give the reader an understanding of what topics are covered and in what order. This outline is presented below:
1.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: God
1.1 Intention of the Work (1 - 2)
1.2 Truths of Reason and Revelation (3 - 9)
1.3 That God Exists (10 - 13)
1.4 That God is Eternal (14 - 20)
1.5 God's Essence (21 - 28)
1.6 That God is Known (29 - 36)
1.7 That God is Good, One and Infinite (37 - 44)
1.8 God's Intellect and Knowledge (44 - 71)
1.9 God's Will (72 - 96)
1.10 God's Life and Beatitude (97 - 102)
2.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: Creation
2.1 Purpose of the Work (1 - 5)
2.2 That God is the Creator of All Things (6)
2.3 God's Power Over His Creation (7 - 29)
2.4 For and Against the Eternity of the World (30 - 38)
2.5 The Distinction of Things (39 - 45)
2.6 Intellectual Substances (46 - 55)
2.7 The Intellect, the Soul and the Body (57 - 78)
2.8 Immortality of Man's Soul (79 - 82)
2.9 Origin of Man's Soul (83 - 89)
2.10 On Non-human (Angelic) Intellects (90 - 101)
3.0 Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence (Parts I and II)
3.1 Prologue (1)
3.2 Good, Evil, and God as the End of All Things (2 - 25)
3.3 Human Felicity (26 - 63)
3.4 How God's Providence Works (64 - 94)
3.5 Prayer and Miracles, Magic and Demons (95 - 110)
3.6 Rational Creatures and Divine Law (111 - 130)
3.7 Voluntary Poverty and Continence (131 - 138)
3.9 Rewards and Punishments (139 - 147)
3.10 Sin, Grace, and Predestination (148 - 163)
4.0 Salvation
4.1 Forward (1)
4.2 The Trinity (2 - 16)
4.3 The Incarnation (27 - 55)
4.4 The Sacraments (56 - 78)
4.5 The Resurrection (79 - 97)
-
* in searching for Part II of "Providence" in Amazon's book catalog, be sure to search by the full title, or the search results may just return part I.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reader's Notes
Comment: Depending on the reader's preparation, "Summa Contra Gentiles: God" is either completely impenetrable or one of the easier philosophical works to understand.
While it is ideal for the reader to have read Aristotle, particularly his "Physics" and "Metaphysics", less - even much less - will do. What is minimally necessary is an understanding of the vocabulary. Thomas used a number of terms that he acquired from Aristotle that had a particular technical meaning, a meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of those same terms. Without a good grasp of these terms, the reader simply will not be able to follow Thomas's logic.
Fortunately, the list of important terms is not very large, nor are the meanings especially obscure. The purpose of this review is to list and define these terms. For examples, I will draw on the familiar story of "The Three Little Pigs":
Matter, material - what a thing is made of. The matter of the three little pigs' houses are straw, sticks, and bricks respectively. Contrast with "form".
Form, formal - how a thing is ordered or arranged. The form of all of the three little pigs' houses is the same: "house". Contrast with "matter".
Prime matter - the stuff out of which all physical objects are ultimately made. While the third little pig's house has the form of "house" and the matter of "bricks", "bricks" themselves have a form of "brick" and matter of "earth" (assuming they are earthen bricks), and "earth" itself has a form and matter, and so on. Eventually, this process must end with some matter that is not composed of anything more fundamental. This most fundamental matter is given the name "prime matter".
Substance, substantial - Ordinarily, matter and form together make a substance. The third little pig's house is a substance that combines the matter of "bricks" and the form "house". The possibility of substances which do not ultimately derive from prime matter is an important question (perhaps the important question) of Summa Contra Gentiles.
Sensible - that which is seen, heard, smelt, touched, or tasted. Sometimes this term is used to refer to the sensible qualities themselves (color, sound, etc.) and sometimes to the objects that have those qualities. The little pigs' houses can be seen, so those houses are sensible objects. Contrast with "intelligible".
Intelligible - that which is understood but not sensed. We understand "house", but we cannot see "house", although we can see the three little pig's individual houses. Contrast with "sensible".
Accident, accidental - the qualities of a thing that do not determine what it is. The matter of which the three little pigs' houses are made is accidental; whether a house is made of straw, sticks, or bricks, it is still a house. Contrast with "essence".
Essence, essential - the qualities of a thing that make it what it is. That the three little pigs' houses are places for them to live is essential to those houses; if they couldn't live in them, they wouldn't be houses. Contrast with "accidental".
Quiddity - see "essence".
Privation - a lack of a quality that would ordinarily be present. It would be a privation if the first little pig could not see, but it is not a privation that his house cannot see.
Act, actual - what a thing is at a particular time. After the first little pig builds his house (but before the wolf blows it down) it is a house in act. Contrast with "potency".
Potency, potential - what a thing could be, but is not. Before the first little pig builds his house, the straw of which it is to be made is a house in potency. Contrast with "act".
Motion - sometimes refers specifically to movement in space, at other times to any change in a thing.
Generation - the process of applying form to matter to make a substance. While the first little pig is building his house from straw, the house is in generation. Contrast with "corruption".
Corruption - the process by which matter loses its form and ceases to be a substance. While the wolf is blowing down the first little pig's house, the house is in corruption. Contrast with "generation".
Nature, natural - qualities of a thing or changes to a thing that arise from what it is. It was natural for the sticks of the second little pig's house to stay where he put them. Contrast with "violent".
Violent, violence - motion in a thing that is contrary to its nature. When the sticks in the second little pig's house were blown apart, that change was violent. Contrast with "nature".
Eternal, eternity - often used to mean not dependent on time; as distinct from an infinite amount of time. "House" is eternal but the pig's individual houses were not.
Cause - how a thing came to be. The efficient cause of the first little pig's house was his work in building it. While Aristotle defined four causes: material, efficient, formal, and final, Thomas almost always means the efficient cause when he refers to a thing's cause.
End - why a thing came to be. The final cause, or end, of the little pigs' houses were to give them shelter.
 |
Title: Summa Contra Gentiles: Creation by Thomas St. Aquinas, Vernon Bourke, James F. Anderson ISBN: 0268016801 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Summa Contra Gentiles: Providence, Part I by Thomas St. Aquinas, Vernon J. Bourke ISBN: 0268016860 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Summa Contra Gentiles: Salvation by St. Thomas Aquinas, Vernon Bourke, Thomas Aquinas, Charles J. O'Neil ISBN: 0268016844 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) by Saint Augustine, Henry Chadwick ISBN: 0192833723 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
 |
Title: Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) by Saint Anselm, Brian Davies, G. R. Evans, Anselm of Canterbury ISBN: 0192825259 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
