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Summa Theologica

The Summa Theologica is the most famous work of St. Thomas Aquinas. It was intended as a manual for beginners as a compilation of all of the main theological teachings of that time. It is not designed or ordered as an apologetic work, to convince non-Catholics, but it does contain a summary of the reasonings for almost all points of the Catholic faith. The Summa Theologica was considered an authoritative compilation of the dogma of the Catholic Church, thus formed the basis for the Inquisition to determine heresy, which deviated from it.

The Summa Theologica is a more mature and structured version of an earlier work of St. Thomas, the Summa Contra Gentiles. This former work was more apologetic in nature, and each article was a refutation of a specific belief of different heresies and other religions.

Structure

The Summa has a standard format for each article. At the top, a question is posed, such as "Whether it was fitting for Jesus to be poor." Then a series of objections are listed to try to prove the opposite. One objection for example could be "The Philosopher (Aristotle) says that the best life is being in the middle, between poor and rich." Then a short counter statement, which would take the exact opposite point of view, would come, such as "the bible says that God always does the right thing, but Jesus was God, and he was poor, so it must have been the right thing." Then the actual truth is presented, which is not usually one side or the other, but a clarification of the whole issue. This would be something like "although it's true that the best way of life is a middle ground between being poor and rich, the reason for this is that this allows a person to be not distracted from his goal by either want or luxury. But the goal of Jesus was to spread his message as far as possible, and so to be the most mobile, it was better to have nothing." Then individual counters to the first objections are made, if needed.

References Within the Summa

The Summa makes many references to certain thinkers which were held in great respect in St. Thomas's time. Almost the entire Summa is based on certain quotes from these authors, although many points made by them are refuted. Some were called by special names:

• The Philosopher: Aristotle. He was considered the best philosopher, the one who had expressed the most truth at his time. The main aim of the Scholastic theologians were to use his precise technical terms and logical system to describe theology.

• The Master: St. Peter Lombard. He was the man who wrote the main textbook for theology at the time, called the sentences. These were commentaries on the writings of the Doctors of the Church.

• St. Augustine: Considered the greatest theologian who had ever lived at the time, St. Augustine's works are frequently quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas.

• Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite:Thomas refrences the words of "Dionysius", a father of the church. These words however are quoted from a series of books that were extremely popular at the time but were most likely written in the 5th century in Syria by a follower of a compromise form of Monophysitism. The author attributed his book to Dionysius.

• Rabbi Moses: Rabbi Moses Maimonides was a Jewish rabbi who long after Jesus Christ, almost contemporaneously with Aquinas. Nevertheless, the scholastics found many insights from his works, since he also attempted to use the scholastic method.

Summary of Notable Points Made by the Summa

• Theology is a science, the greatest of all the sciences, and the most certain (since its source is from God who knows everything).
• The existence of God, his total simplicity or lack of composition, his eternal nature ("eternal", in this case, means that he is altogether outside of time; time is held to be a part of the universe that God created), his knowledge, the way his will operates, and his power can all be proved by human reasoning alone, by anyone and at any time.
• Unbelief is the greatest sin.
• The principles of Just War.
• Defense attorneys can not defend a person they know to be guilty.
• Taking interest on loans is forbidden, because it is charging people twice for the same thing.
• In and of itself, selling a thing for more or less than its worth is unlawful.
• Martyrs, Teachers of the faith (doctors), and Virgins receive special crowns in heaven for their achievements, in that order.
• Homosexuality is worse than rape, because it goes against nature designed by God, and in that way is a more direct assault against God.
• The contemplative life is greater than the active life, but greater still is the contemplative life that sometimes takes actions to call others to the contemplative life and give them the fruits of contemplation (this actually was the lifestyle of the Dominican monks that St. Thomas was a part of).
• Being a monk is greater than being married, even greater in many ways than being a Priest, although not as good as being a Bishop. Both monks and Bishops are in a state of perfection.
• If a person has a spell put on them to cause them to get married, that marriage is invalid.
• The natural desire of the soul or mind is to understand the essence of something, the greatest happiness of all, the happiness of heaven, consists of seeing the essence of God.
• Although the Jews delivered Christ to die, it was the Gentiles who killed him, symbolizing how salvation started with the Jews, but then was spread to the Gentiles.
• It is always a good thing to become a monk or a nun, everyone is called to do it, it is easier than being married, children should do it, no parents can bar children from doing it, everyone should encourage it, no deliberation is required to figure out if you should be one, it is absolutely false to say only already holy people should become monks or nuns.
• Those who voluntarily practice poverty will be assistant judges at the final judgement: "(Job 36:6): "He saveth not the wicked, and He giveth judgment to the poor.""