A report on Scholasticism and Summa Theologica

14th-century image of a university lecture

Page from an incunable edition of part II (Peter Schöffer, Mainz 1471)

Graphical depiction of the cyclic structure of the work

The Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica, often referred to simply as the Summa, is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church.

- Summa Theologica

Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265–1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy; it began while Aquinas was regent master at the studium provinciale of Santa Sabina in Rome, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.

- Scholasticism

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An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy,
by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)

Thomas Aquinas

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The Castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano

Thomas is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his proof of chastity. Painting by Diego Velázquez.

Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Communis", between Plato and Aristotle, Benozzo Gozzoli, 1471. Louvre, Paris.

Icon of the crucifixion speaking to Thomas Aquinas is depicted on this stained glass window in Saint Patrick Church (Columbus, Ohio).

Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Angelicus", with saints and angels, Andrea di Bonaiuto, 1366. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, fresco.

The remains of Thomas Aquinas are buried in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse.

Detail of The Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1631

Saint Thomas Aquinas by Luis Muñoz Lafuente

Super libros de generatione et corruptione

Thomas Aquinas by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1650

17th-century sculpture of Thomas Aquinas

Portrait of St. Thomas by Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra, c. 1649

A stained glass window of Thomas Aquinas in St. Joseph's Catholic Church (Central City, Kentucky)

Thomas Aquinas, OP (Tommaso d'Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known within the scholastic tradition as the Doctor Angelicus, the Doctor Communis, and the Doctor Universalis.

His best-known works are the Disputed Questions on Truth (1256–1259), the Summa contra Gentiles (1259–1265), and the unfinished but massively influential Summa Theologica, or Summa Theologiae (1265–1274).

Aristotle

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Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece

Roman copy of 1st or 2nd century from original bronze by Lysippos. Louvre Museum

Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. Aristotle holds his Nicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds his Timaeus.

Plato's forms exist as universals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).

Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired – the potential made actual – by learning.

The four classical elements (fire, air, water, earth) of Empedocles and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.

Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from four causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).

Aristotle noted that the ground level of the Aeolian islands changed before a volcanic eruption.

Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductive hectocotyl arm of the octopus (bottom left).

Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including that brood size decreases with body mass, whereas gestation period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for mouse and elephant.

Aristotle recorded that the embryo of a dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (the yolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.

Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.

Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in the sensorium (the heart), linked by his laws of association (similarity, contrast, and contiguity).

Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions

The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).

Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written around 300 BC

Woodcut of Aristotle ridden by Phyllis by Hans Baldung, 1515

William Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical era thinking.

"That most enduring of romantic images, Aristotle tutoring the future conqueror Alexander". Illustration by, 1866

First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin

Nuremberg Chronicle anachronistically shows Aristotle in a medieval scholar's clothing. Ink and watercolour on paper, 1493

Aristotle by Justus van Gent. Oil on panel, c. 1476

Phyllis and Aristotle by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Oil on panel, 1530

Aristotle by Paolo Veronese, Biblioteka Marciana. Oil on canvas, 1560s

Aristotle and Campaspe,{{efn-ua | Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.}} Alessandro Turchi (attrib.) Oil on canvas, 1713

Aristotle by Jusepe de Ribera. Oil on canvas, 1637

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt. Oil on canvas, 1653

Aristotle by Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder. Oil on canvas, by 1813

Aristotle by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1811

Roman copy of 117-138 AD of Greek original. Palermo Regional Archeology Museum

Relief of Aristotle and Plato by Luca della Robbia, Florence Cathedral, 1437–1439

Stone statue in niche, Gladstone's Library, Hawarden, Wales, 1899

Bronze statue, University of Freiburg, Germany, 1915

He also influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400) during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.

After the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica, working from Moerbeke's translations and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher", the demand for Aristotle's writings grew, and the Greek manuscripts returned to the West, stimulating a revival of Aristotelianism in Europe that continued into the Renaissance.

Thomism

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Philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas , the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.

Summa Theologiæ, Pars secunda, prima pars. (copy by Peter Schöffer, 1471)

Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, Benozzo Gozzoli,1471. Louvre, Paris

In theology, his Summa Theologica is amongst the most influential documents in medieval theology and continues to be the central point of reference for the philosophy and theology of the Catholic Church.

Aquinas shifted Scholasticism away from neoplatonism and towards Aristotle.