Life and works

Sometime around 1224 or 1225, Thomas Aquinas was born in Roccasecca (which is midway between Rome and Naples) into an aristocratic family. As the youngest of their sons, his parents sent Thomas as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino for study. Thomas entered the monastery at the age of five or six. In 1239, when he was about fourteen or fifteen, Thomas left the monastery and went to Naples where he studied Arts and philosophy. It is here that Thomas came into contact with the Dominican Order which he was to join in 1244, despite severe opposition by his parents who had hoped for a more illustrious order (such as the Benedictines). Having overcome the disagreements with his parents, Thomas went to Paris (1245) and then to Cologne (1248) where he studied with Albert the Great who lectured on Aristotelian thought. In 1252, Thomas was sent to Paris to teach. It is here that Thomas wrote his first major theological work as part of the curriculum to become a Master in Theology: his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. In 1256, Thomas was granted the Licentia docendi by the chancellor of the Parisian university. In the period 1256–59 Thomas wrote De Veritate [On Truth], a wide-ranging work that covers topics such as truth, providence, predestination, the human mind and knowledge of Christ (qq. 1–20); and goodness and the will (in qq. 21–29). Thomas returned to Italy and lectured in Orvieto (1261–65) where he also finished his first original theological synthesis, the Summa contra Gentiles, which consists of four parts. The First Part deals with God; the Second with Creation; the Third Part with Providence; and only in the Fourth Part does Thomas deal with “truths inaccessible to reason,” i.e., the Trinity, the Incarnation, the sacraments and eschatology. Unlike his other main theological works, the ScG is written in a format different from the scholastic question-and-answer template. During this time he also wrote a Commentary on Job, in which he focuses on the literal meaning of the text, in striking contrast to Gregory the Great’s approach. In 1265–68 we find Thomas working in Rome in a Dominican Studium. It is here that he embarked on his most important theological masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae (ST), a “summary of theology” (as the title indicates).