The Essential Summa Theologiae

“This is it: the ideal set of Summa selections for most classrooms as well as for readers who wish they could take a class on Thomas Aquinas with a professor capable of paraphrasing the angelic doctor, explaining and illustrating his thought while pointing to further readings both medieval and modern.”—Fred Sanders, professor of theology, Torrey Honors College, Biola University

“In this expanded edition of his reader and commentary, Bauerschmidt has done students of St. Thomas a tremendous service—giving them a sense of the work as a whole by zeroing in on its essential parts and showing how those parts bear on the whole. His commentary is admirably clear, replete with easily grasped examples that bring complex theological ideas back to ordinary life. This is an excellent resource for the classroom and for anyone interested in the thought of Thomas Aquinas.”—Jennifer A. Frey, associate professor of philosophy, University of South Carolina
“The Essential ‘Summa Theologiae’ is an indispensable learning tool for anyone who wants to come to grips with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. By a judicious choice of key texts from the massive Summa theologiae and the addition of his own pertinent and useful commentary, Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt transmits to his volume’s readers a sense of the breadth and depth of Aquinas’s theological genius and gives them the opportunity to imbibe his wisdom for themselves. While I have always found the first edition a great help in communicating Aquinas’s arguments and conclusions to students, the addition of crucial texts from the second part of the Summa in this second edition brings out even more Aquinas’s profound vision of the unity of theological science, where morals is enfolded at the heart of dogmatics. Since he is not only immersed in the Angelic Doctor’s teaching but also fully appreciative of the facts of the saint’s life and his identity as a Dominican preacher and teacher, Bauerschmidt’s insightful introduction offers his readers a fuller picture of this friar-theologian and equips them to approach his penetrating texts for themselves.”—Simon Francis Gaine, OP, Pinckaers Professor of Theological Anthropology and Ethics, Thomistic Institute Angelicum, Pontifical University of St. Thomas, Rome
“Like Thomas Aquinas himself, Bauerschmidt here aims for pedagogy, and he attains it admirably. This carefully chosen selection of key texts from the Summa theologiae, accompanied by in-depth commentary, captures and clarifies the grand scope of this complex work for ‘beginners’ in theology. Expanded treatment of questions on the moral life in this revised edition especially assist the study of Aquinas’s unique vision of graced human action as the way to perfect happiness found in the knowledge and love of God. As a classroom text or for personal study, this volume is an invaluable resource for students and teachers of the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.”—Daria Spezzano, associate professor of theology, Providence College