St. Thomas Aquinas

Name: St. Thomas Aquinas
Author: G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton's St. Thomas Aquinas is a biography of the great medieval theologian and philosopher. It is an exploration of the life and thought of Aquinas, from his early years as a student in Italy to his later years as a professor at the University of Paris. Chesterton examines Aquinas' life and work, including his famous Summa Theologica, and his influence on the Catholic Church. He also looks at Aquinas' views on faith, reason, and the relationship between the two. The book is an engaging and accessible introduction to the life and thought of one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity.

By G.K. Chesterton · First published 1933 · Genre: Biography, Philosophy, Religious Studies · 9 chapters · 53,007 words

First lines

Let me at once anticipate comment by answering to the name of that notorious character, who rushes in where even the Angels of the Angelic Doctor might fear to tread. Some time ago I wrote a little book of this type and shape on St. Francis of Assisi; and some time after (I know not when or how, as the song says, and certainly not why) I promised to write a book of the same size, or the same smallness on St. Thomas Aquinas. The promise was Franciscan only in its rashness; and the parallel was very far from being Thomistic in its logic. You can make a sketch of St. Francis: you could only make a plan of St. Thomas, like the plan of a labyrinthine city. And yet in a sense he would fit into a much larger or a much smaller book. What we really know of his life might be pretty fairly dealt with in a few pages; for he did not, like St. Francis, disappear in a shower of personal anecdotes and popular legends. What we know, or could know, or may eventually have the luck to learn, of his work, will probably fill even more libraries in the future than it has filled in the past. It was allowable to sketch St. Francis in an outline; but with St. Thomas everything depends on the filling up of the outline. It was even medieval in a manner to illuminate a miniature of the Poverello, whose very title is a diminutive. But to make a digest, in the tabloid manner, of the Dumb Ox of Sicily passes all digestive experiments in the matter of an ox in a tea-cup. But we must hope it is possible to make an outline of biography, now that anybody seems capable of writing an outline of history or an outline of anything. Only in the present case the outline is rather an outsize. The gown that could contain the colossal friar is not kept in stock.

What this Textopian page supports

St. Thomas Aquinas is listed on Textopian as a novel by G.K. Chesterton, dated 1933 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Work type: Novel
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Date: 1933 CE
Language: English
Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, History, Literary Criticism
Length: 53,007 words
Structure: 9 chapters, 1,506 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

Good citation fit

Work identity for St. Thomas Aquinas by G.K. Chesterton
Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
Readability and classroom-planning context
Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

Discussion starters

What should a reader notice first when entering St. Thomas Aquinas?
How does this novel by G.K. Chesterton fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
Where does Biography first become important in the reading?

Similar titles

Genres

Biography — The book is a biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, written by G.K. Chesterton.
Philosophy — The book covers the life and works of St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher.
Religious Studies — The book covers the life and works of St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian and Doctor of the Church.
History — The book covers the life and works of St. Thomas Aquinas, a figure in medieval history.