Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas ed. by A. C. Pegis (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited and Annotated, with an Introduction, by A. C. PEGIS. New York: Random House, 1945. 2 vols. The large American publishing firms rarely make mistakes; they know what the public wants and produce the books that satisfy it. That Random House should publish the Basic Writings of St. Thomas is a sign that there is a great demand for them. An easily available edition, not too highly priced, will bring his writings to the notice even of those who have felt no special need to have them. What the other results of the appearance of this edition may be is problematical. The widespread diffusion of the Bible, translated and printed in the vulgar tongues, had greatly diverse effects of good and ill. Many wrestled with the inspired words to their own destruction. A popular acquaintance with the writings of St. Thomas may have similarly diverse effects: for some they will be a revelation of a new world of thought; for others they will be matter for private and often distorted interpretation. Nevertheless, all should be grateful for this handy edition of an important part of St. Thomas' writings. Its appearance places a greater obligation on those who have been reared in the Thomistic tradition to serve as interpreters of the great Doctor to the American public. Dr. Anton C. Pegis, professor of philosophy at Fordham University, was chosen by Random House as the editor. He is responsible for the choice of the "Basic Writings," the revision of the text of the English translation, done originally by Laurence Shapcote, 0. P., the addition of historical references and annotations, for which the editor acknowledges his debt to the Ottawa-Piana Summa Theologica, a nineteen-page introduction , and a valuable bibliography and index of authors cited by St. Thomas. Dr. Pegis was faced with a difficult task in attempting to choose the " Basic Writings " of St. Thomas. The choice made is a happy one-the entire first part of the Summa, much of the first half of the second part, a scrap from the second half of the second part, and a generous slice from the Summa contra Gentiles. This selection furnishes us with St. Thomas' doctrine on the Unity and Trinity of God, creation and divine government, the theology of man and the angels, the final end of human living, and the means to attain it, human acts, virtues, law, grace, and so forth. Without minute comparison of the two texts, it is difficult to judge what revision of the original English translation has been done. A cursory view reveals that errors of translation still remain. A serious one should be 117 118 BOOK REVIEWS rectified in future printings: in the treatise on the Trinity, the word diversa is translated by distinct, which makes the English text contradict the Church's teaching on the Trinity. The index of authors cited by St. Thomas is especially interesting, for it includes not only the names of the authors, but also the doctrines that St. Thomas refers to. Of the four sections of Dr. Pegis' Introduction, the last two deal with the life and writings of St. Thomas and the details of the present edition of his " Basic Writings." The first section presents a brief historical sketch of the intellectual background of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and points to the crucial problem St. Thomas had to face-the unity of human knowledge and wisdom. The situation was so complicated that some even of the best minds of the age were coming to the conclusion that there was an unbridgeable gap between faith and reason, theology and philosophy. Some felt themselves forced to forego philosophy and trust in faith and theology alone; others less happily embraced the notion of a double standard of truth-that a proposition could be true in theology and false in philosophy, and vice versa. St. Thomas confidently faced this problem and solved it; he realized in himself what Dr. Pegis seems to attribute to diverse persons: "But confronted by Greek reason, they began to discover another understanding and another wisdom; and alongside the contemplative and the mystic there began to emerge within...