Revised: 6/99

BIBLIOGRAPHY #6: Thomas Aquinas & Scholastic Theology

1. THOMAS AQUINAS: STUDIES

Brian Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) paperback, $20. A

superb in-depth introduction to the intricacies of Thomas’ Summa. Davies has the ability to put Thomas’
views in ordinary English with a clarity and precision that is a marvel to behold. This study gives his
theological, moral, sacramental concerns equal weight. If you read nothing else on Thomas, read this.

Thomas F. O’Meara, Thomas Aquinas Theologian (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997) NEW in

paperback, $20. Too many studies of Thomas focus only his more philosophical ideas and ignore Thomas
the theologian. This new survey attempts to redress the balance. It also includes a valuable history of
Thomism from the 14

th

century to the present.

David Burrell, Aquinas: God and Action (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985).
David Burrell, Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn Sina, Maimondies, Aquinas (Notre Dame: University of Notre

Dame Press, 1986).

M.D. Chenu, Toward Understanding St. Thomas, trans. A.M. Landry & D. Hughes (Chicago: H. Regnery, 1964).

Masterful treatment of Thomas’ academic world, the University of Paris.

Frederick Copleston, Aquinas (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1975) paperback.
Leo Elders, The Philosophical Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Leiden: Brill, 1990).
John Finnis, Aquinas: Moral, Legal, and Political Theory, Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1998) paperback, $19. NEW.

Etienne Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. L. Shook (New York: Random House,

1954). Dated, but still valuable.

Anthony Kenny, Aquinas, Past Masters (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980) paperback, $7.
Anthony Kenny, Aquinas on Mind (London: Routledge, 1993).
Anthony Kenny, The Five Ways: St. Thomas Aquinas’ Proofs of God’s Existence (Notre Dame: University of Notre

Dame Press, 1980).

Norman Kretzmann &Elenore Stump, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, Cambridge Companions to

Philosophy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993) paperback, $18.

Anthony J. Lisska, Aquinas’ Theory of Natural Law: An Analytical Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1996) hardcover, $60.

Bernard Lonergan, Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. J. Patout Burns

(New York: Herder and Herder, 1971).

Ralph McInerny, A First Glance at St. Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame: University of Notre Press, 1990).
A.C. Pegis, Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas (New York: Modern Library, 1948). A classic, but dated.
Eugene TeSelle, Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Reason (Nashville: Graded Press, 1988).
Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas: Vol. 1: The Person and His Work, trans. Robert Royal (Washington:

Catholic University of America Press, 1996) n paperback, $20.

J.A. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D’Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Work (Washington: Catholic University of America

Press, 1984 / original, 1974) paperback, $18.

2. THOMAS AQUINAS & OTHER SCHOLASTICS: TEXTS

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (Cambridge: Blackfriars, 1963-1975). This 60 volume edition contains the

complete Latin text of the Summa with an English translation on facing pages. Generally excellent.

Bonaventure, The Works of Bonaventure, 5 volumes, trans. J. de Vinck (Patterson, NJ: St. Antony Guild Press,

1960-1970). The only complete translation of Bonaventure in English.

Bibliography #6: Thomas Aquinas

2

Hugh of St. Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, trans. Roy J. Deferrari (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval

Academy of America, 1951). Hugh pioneered sacramental theology—carefully linking sacraments to their
Christological foundation. The first great systematic treatise on the sacraments.

Simon Tugwell, ed., Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality 60,

(New York: Paulist Press, 1988) paperback, $18.

3. MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES & SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY

John W. Baldwin, The Scholastic Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000-1300 (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co, 1971)

paperback, $12. A good brief introduction to the social world of the medieval schools.

M.D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin

West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 19___) paperback, $16.

Marcia L. Colish, The Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400, The Yale Intellectual

History of the West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) paperback, $20. NEW.

Heinrich Fichetenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1200 (Penn. State University Press,

1998) hardcover, $45. NEW.

Jacques LeGoff, Intellectuals in the Middle Ages (New York: Blackwell, 1992) paperback, $20.
Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927).

A classic, but quite dated.

Charles Homer Haskins, The Rise of the Universities (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 192_).
David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (New York: Doubleday, 1962) paperback, $8.
Gordon Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities in the 13th and 14th Centuries: An Institutional and Intellectual History

(New York: Wiley, 1968).

John Marebon, Later Medieval Philosophy (1150-1350) (Cambridge, MA: Routledge, 198_) paperback, $17.
Heiko Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1963) paperback, $25.

Hastings Rashdall, The University of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. F.M. Powicke and A.B. Emden, 3 vol. (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1936). A classic, massive, but dated.

R.W. Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, vol. 1: Foundations (New York: Blackwell,

1997) NEW in paperback, $27.

4. MEDIEVAL LITURGY & SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY

David N. Power, The Eucharistic Mystery: Revitalizing the Tradition (New York: Crossroad, 1992) paperback, $20.

While this surveys the whole history of eucharistic theology, its chapters on the Middle Ages in general and
on Thomas Aquinas in particular are excellent.

Gary Macy, The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984),

hardcover. A fine in-depth study of the development of the doctrine of real presence. It covers the period
from Berengar to the eve of Lateran IV.

Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright, Edward Yarnold, Paul Bradshaw, eds. The Study of Liturgy, revised edition

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) paperback, $20.

Joseph A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, 2 vol.(Westminster, MD: Christian

Classics, 1986; reprint of 1955 edition) paperback, $40. A classic.

Theodor Klauser, A Short History of the Western Liturgy, revised ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
Nathan Mitchell, Cult and Controversy: the Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass (Collegeville, MI: Liturgical

Press, 1982), paperback.

Joseph M. Powers, Eucharistic Theology (New York: Herder & Herder, 1967).
Elizabeth F. Rogers, Peter Lombard and the Sacramental System (Merrick, NY: Richwood Publishing, 1976).
Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: the Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)

paperback, $22.

Bibliography #6: Thomas Aquinas

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Herbert Vorgrimler, Sacramental Theology, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992),

paperback, $18.

Cyrille Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources (Washington: Pastoral Press, 1986).

5. DANTE: TEXTS & STUDIES

Dante, The Divine Comedy, 3 volumes, trans. Allen Mandelbaum (New York: Bantam Classics, 1984), $6 per

volume. While there are a number of excellent translations, this edition has the advantage of giving the
English and Italian on facing pages. Mandelbaum’s translation is a fluid poetic one, but makes no attempt
to impose Dante’s intricate rhyme scheme on English.

Robert Pinsky, trans. The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation (Noonday Press, 1996) paperback, $8. Robert

Pinsky, currently the poet laureate of the United States, offers here a fascinating example of what happens
when a top-notch poet rather a scholar does the translating. Even more interesting is the version edited by
Daniel Halpern, Dante’s Inferno: Translations by Twenty Contemporary Poets (Ecco Press) now out-of-
print.

Rachel Jacoff, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Dante (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) paperback,

$20. A valuable set of introductory essays by leading contemporary specialists on Dante. A good place to
start.

Theodore J. Cachy, ed., Dante Now: Current Trends in Dante Studies (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame

Press, 1995).

John Freccero, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986) paperback, $18.
Joseph Gallagher, To Hell & Back With Dante: A Modern Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy (Ligouri, MO:

Triumph Books, 1996) paperback, $15.

Franco Masciandaro, Dante as Dramatist: The Myth of the Earthly Paradise and Tragic Vision in the Divine

Comedy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).

Charles H. Taylor & Patricia Finely, Images of the Journey in Dante’s Divine Comedy (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1997) hardcover, $55. NEW.