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A Brief Life of Thomas Aquinas
The Theologian in His Context
Translated by Benedict M. Guevin
Imprint: Catholic University of America Press
Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP, who has already written the most highly-regarded contemporary two-volume introduction to the life and works of Saint Thomas, has composed a shorter book that captures the essence of the career of the Angelic Doctor for a more general audience. Torrell follows a biographical outline of the saint, although he also includes brief accounts of what the author takes to be the most important features of Aquinas's teachings.
Part biography, part travelogue, part theology, Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP’s A Brief Life of Thomas Aquinas is a multi-faceted look at the life and the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Torrell’s hope is that his biography of the doctor communis intertwined with his theological examination of Aquinas’s writings will enable the reader to understand the person behind the writer and the writer behind the person. Aquinas’s life, Torrell claims, can shed light on his work with respect not only to their number, or to the varied topics he writes about, but to their content as well. It would be inaccurate to view Aquinas hiding behind a mountain of books in the cells he occupied in the various houses he inhabited around the Dominican world. He taught, he preached, he debated, he faced a number of conflicts of ideas that were not of his own making, but out of which would come some of his best-known writings. Torrell’s unique approach makes accessible one of the greatest minds of our tradition and the richness of the legacy he left the Church.
Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP, is author of the standard two volume biography of Aquinas, published in English by CUA Press. The Press also published his Aquinas's Summa: Background, Structure, and Reception in 2005. He has many other books in French. Benedict M. Guevin, OSB, is professor of theology at Saint Anselm College.
"Father Torrell holds the Gold Medal for Aquinas scholarship. No one can compete with his up-to-the-moment information about the life and works and thought of Saint Thomas. Torrell’s major volumes have been a mainstay for all those who need to know something or anything about Aquinas. Now we have a compendium of Torrell’s most recent big volumes that will serve not only theologians and philosophers, but also all those whose own disciplines bump into the figure of the Catholic Church’s Common Doctor. Torrell’s French receives a first-rate English translation from an accomplished Benedictine monk, Dom Benedict Guevin. An indispensable volume for all interested in the backbone of Catholic theology."
~Romanus Cessario, OP, Adam Cardinal Maida Chair of Theology, Ave Maria University
"A most welcome and helpful contribution to the current revival of interest in Aquinas and his thought. There are brief and popular accounts of St. Thomas’s life as well as long scholarly accounts. There is a place for a work that conveys the knowledge of a scholar in a brief and accessible way, and Fr. Torrell has provided us with that."
~Edward Feser, Pasadena City College
"Many people these days would like to know more about the great St. Thomas Aquinas. But to approach such a universal genius is no easy task. How fortunate we are to have a great Thomistic scholar—Fr. Jean-Pierre Torrell—who has written a ‘short’ but rich life of Aquinas as an introduction to one of the greatest human intelligences ever to have walked this earth. If you’re wondering where to begin your entrance into the magic of St. Thomas Aquinas, you would do well to begin here."
~Robert Royal, Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, DC
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