Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologiae”: A Biography by Bernard McGinn (review)

Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He is a scholar in medieval Christianity, a prolific author and best known for his highly acclaimed The Presence of God, a multivolume history of Western Christian mysticism that is often considered a definitive work in the area. McGinn’s expertise therefore offers Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae as “a short book about a long book” (2). McGinn’s contribution to the series is concise, yet surprisingly broad in scope, well-written, informative and accessible to outsiders and insiders, lay and specialist.

Thomas Aquinas’s “Summa theologiae” is one of many volumes in the “Lives of Great Religious Books” series written by leading authors for a general readership. The series features “biographies” of influential religious texts that in their reception, interpretation and influence have taken on a life of their own over time. Each volume provides background commentary on the origin and occasion of the text and a history of its interpretation and influence. Volumes in the series are not meant to be substitutes or shortcuts to the primary texts or even other secondary texts but accessible companions to the life of the text. McGinn’s volume, though comparable to classic introductory works to the Summa by Anton Charles Pegis, Ralph McInerny, or Peter Kreeft, is more a profile of the life of the Summa than an introduction or a commentary.

In the Introduction, McGinn counts the cost of covering the Summa theologiae, which is no short order coming in at 512 topics, 2,668 articles at a million and a half words with over a thousand commentaries written on it. The Summa is one of the most noted theological works and perhaps the least read cover to cover due to its length, form and nature of argumentation. McGinn who is not a “card-carrying member of any Thomist party but has taught Thomas for over forty years,” attempts to select what “an interested and curious reader might want to know about the Summa” (3). He accomplishes the task judiciously, with clear command, covering the vast layout of the Summa’s landscape and yet highlighting necessary and distinct features along the way.

Though often construed in modern terms as a systematic theology, the Summa is in Thomas’ terms sacra doctrina (sacred teaching) and scientia (wisdom) for instruction. It was intended as instruction for Dominican friars in preaching, teaching, administering sacraments and hearing confession (50). As McGinn takes us on a tour through this towering cathedral, he is directed by the simple notion that the Summa is intended to be theological wisdom that returns us to God.

Chapter 1 provides background to the medieval world that formed the Angelic Doctor. McGinn claims three contexts shaped the life and work of Thomas: “first the papal reordering of Western medieval Christianity; second, the rise of the university and scholastic theology; and third, the birth of the mendicant religious life” (7). Chapter 2 covers the writing of the Summa itself. In preparation, McGinn sketches a brief bio of Thomas, followed by an overview of his writings up to the Summa. Aquinas worked on the Summa from 1266–1273, though for reasons left to dubious hagiography, he was not able to finish and soon died thereafter. The opus is broken up into three major sections, Prima Pars, Secunda Pars, and the Tertia Pars. Prima Pars consists of 119 questions and 584 articles. The Secunda Pars is divided into two sections, the Prima Secundae and the Secunda Secundae. The former consisting of 114 questions and 619 articles, and the latter consisting of 189 questions and 916 articles (45). The Tertia Pars remained unfinished at 90 questions and 549 articles. Each section follows a standard form: a question is posited; several arguments contra Thomas’s position are offered; the Bible or another authoritative text is cited as proof; Thomas’s argument...