Contemporary Theological Heritage of Thomas Aquinas

In his 1998 Encyclical Fides et Ratio, John Paul ii spoke about the ‘enduring originality’ of Thomas Aquinas. It is a somewhat paradoxical expression but strangely apt for one whose writings continue to be studied not just for historical reasons but for the creative and constructive uses to which they can still be put. Aquinas’s originality — here is another paradox — comes from the depth of his immersion in the earlier traditions of theology and philosophy. His subject was the Word of God, ever ancient and ever new. The first task of the medieval master was to read the writings of others, in the first place the Scriptures, but also the classical works available at the time. In the middle of the 13th century this came to include the works of Aristotle, of other philosophers of the ancient and early medieval worlds, and of Islamic and ...