Timothy L. Smith

Aquinas's Sources: Notre Dame Symposium Timothy L. Smith 1st edition

The twenty-six works contained in this collection comprise some of the best and best-known scholars on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Readers will find here helpful insights into St. Thomas's adjudication of various streams in the philosophical and theological traditions. Most pertinent for readers today is the way in which Aquinas integrates faith and reason, resulting in mutual benefit.

Thomas's principle sources are the Scriptures, Augustine, and Aristotle, in that order. Recent controversies, however, have drawn greater attention to this third authority. Extensive studies of the Arabic commentators on Aristotle, for example, have cast new light on Thomas's own work and have occasioned some re-examination. Hence, one should not be surprised at the overwhelming attention given here to the way Thomas reads the one known among medievals as "The Philosopher." These essays go a long way toward dispelling some of the myths surrounding Thomas's Aristotelianism and what that means precisely for Thomas and for Aristotle. The many citations within each essay as well as the integrated bibliography at the end of the book make this volume an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to pursue these issues further.