A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica

I have been putting off reading two saints' works, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross. The reputation of both precede them. I should not have been worried about Aquinas, except for maybe for the sheer volume.

This book, more edited than written by Kreeft, is a marvelous introduction and uses Aquinas's own words in anthology form from a more direct and literal translation than some others books. Kreeft included copious amounts of footnotes that are a great aid in understanding the concepts presented, although I found Aquinas in his own words fairly understandable as is.

This book collects the essential passages of Aquinas' great work and thus much is left out. (Aquinas wrote a Summa of the Summa, cutting it down from 3000 pages show more to 500. This one pairs it down even further, to under 200 pages.) My appetite has been wetted by this book for more Aquinas. show less

Brief passages from the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas are used to create representative samples of concepts at the foundation of Thomistic thought. Ethics and discussions of reality are contrasted by elaborate descriptions of Aquinas’ Arguments for the Existence of God. Peter Kreeft edits and provides a commentary of these passages for the philosophical lay person.