Reddit reviews A Summa of the Summa
We found 21 Reddit comments about A Summa of the Summa. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Ignatius Press
Reddit reviews A Summa of the SummaWe found 21 Reddit comments about A Summa of the Summa. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Obligatory: The Summa of the Summa by Peter Kreeft. It's actually quite good.
> hard from an intellectual point of view
I'm sorry, I had to snicker when I read this. There is no other organization that has more intellectual underpinnings than the Catholic Church.
If you are having problems reconciling Scripture (exegetically or hermeneutically), you need to start reading academic books, such as those by Brown, Meier, Gonzalez, and Martos, just to name a few.
Helpful for me was Thomism and modern Thomists such as Feser.
A quick comment before I start lobbing people for you to read. Most people stop learning about the faith at around 6 or 7 years old and so it's no wonder that once you read someone who can form a coherent argument against what you barely understand, your opinion is easily swayed.
So I'm going to give you some suggestions of people to read. Take them or leave them, but the Catholic intellectual tradition is amazing, so please at least consider some of these authors.
Chesterton, Chesterton, Chesterton. GK Chesterton's Heretics, Orthodoxy, and The Everlasting Man are all great reads and they're all online in text and audio for free. Chesterton debated all the greats of his age: HG Wells, Kipling, Bernard Shaw, and did so with courtesy and a great love of paradox.
CS Lewis' Mere Christianity is also a classic and keep in mind that Lewis was strongly influenced by his friend, you guessed it... GK Chesterton.
There's always Aquinas, who was so brilliant that he was even recognized by Monty Python (the philosopher's soccer match sketch). Seriously though, New Advent has his Summa (along with about a million other Catholic documents and texts) available for free. Aquinas gets pretty deep, and the Summa is really long, so you may want to start with a primer.
Moving into our own times, there's Peter Kreeft, who is one of my favorite philosophers.
Jennifer Fulweiler is an atheist convert, who writes a blog and does a lot of radio appearances.
If you love the science, check out The Catholic Laboratory; it's a podcast about the intersection of faith and science and how the two are really complimentary. After all, God created the laws of physics and rules the universe through them. Fr. Robert Spitzer is a priest and scientist, who has done some significant research on new proofs of God's existence using things like quantum physics.
Anyway, there's some stuff to get you started if you're interested in reading a bit to counter Hitchens and Dawkins. FWIW, I am a fan of Hitchens' writing, even if I disagree with him; Dawkins on the other hand I consider a no-talent hack, who should stick to science and leave philosophy and theology to other people. Reading Dawkins' take on Aquinas is like reading a young earth creationist writing about evolution. But I digress.
As far as the Church sex scandal, it's a tragic affair. However, you should really read the John Jay report on the scandal; this is an independently written report from the John Jay College that really nails down the causes of the sex abuse scandal (spoiler alert: celibacy had nothing to do with it). Also, if you read the statistics of abuse between Catholic clergy and other institutions (public schools, Boy Scouts, other religious institutions), you'll see that only 4% of priests between 1950 and 2002 were ever even accused and that the average abuse rate in other populations is around 10%. As for the cover up, at the time, the Church was doing what modern psychology said to do because the recidivism rate wasn't really understood (remember that the vast majority of these cases happened between 1950 and 1970). This website has some statistics on all of this and while it is published by the Church, all of the statements are cross referenced to non-church sources.
Anyway, I'll stop with the wall of text and even if you don't read anything I've suggested, I'm glad that your opinion of Catholics has improved. :)
Two caveats:
That said, I have read speculation that St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph Cupertino both may have been autistic.
Whether or not he may have been on the Autism Spectrum, St. Thomas is fruitful reading. I would encourage starting with the biography, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton. This is widely regarded as the best biography of the man himself. The Summa Theologica is beautiful, logical, and comprehensive. Peter Kreeft's A Summa of the Summa is a great place to start reading the work of Thomas himself.
Sure. Well, let me make a couple suggestions:
If you like math classes like geometry where there are "proofs" (i.e. starting from a very small set of assumptions, what theorems follow logically from that) then you would enjoy reading Summa of the Summa
https://www.amazon.com/Summa-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/089870300X
The most compelling argument for "miracles happen" is that, if you deny the existence of miracles, then Christianity (fragmented and flawed though it is) took over the entire world (and permanently warped everyone's thinking, even atheists, about how we should behave toward one another) without any miracles, which itself appears to be such an unnatural occurrence as to be called a miracle.
Non-fiction:
Fiction
Haven't read it yet sorry! But I have heard people talk about Summa of the Summa. Maybe that could help?
Here's a handy 90-day reading plan, which takes you through the narrative books of the Bible. It's a good place to start when reading scripture, giving you a good look at the story of Scripture.
Aquinas is the premier Catholic thinker. I wouldn't recommend you start reading Aquinas unless you have firm grounding in Aristotelian philosophy. But that's not to say you can't learn about Aquinas' thought. You might find books like A Summa of the Summa, Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide, or The Dumb Ox useful introductory texts to his works. After you're comfortable reading him, you can jump in to some primary texts.
You can absolutely study theology and/or canon law formally. Just be aware that there aren't to many jobs you'll be able to get with a theology degree under your belt. Your options would be pretty much just professor, priest, or religion teacher.
Edit: Also, if you haven't done so already, read the Catechism or the Compendium of the Catechism.
If you like philosophy I'd suggest Thomas Aquinas and a good interpreter of Aquinas like Peter Kreeft
https://www.amazon.com/Summa-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/089870300X
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Scholar-Philosophy-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/B002QBNVAW
If you wanna learn the bible and the catechism at the same time, I can heartily suggest the Didache bible, which includes both, or rather it uses the catechism as commentary for the Bible.
http://www.ignatius.com/Products/DBIB-H/the-didache-bible-with-commentaries-based-on-the-catechism-of-the-catholic-church.aspx
If you are more into learning baby step by baby step, I'd recommend EWTN radio, which has shows like Open Line and Called to Communion. Called to communion is especially goo because Dr. Anders takes small issues and unpacks them into large theological catechises.
St Catherines Catholic church also has a nice video bible study
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3B6ihEAmqWIsQXE5tVob_w
I don't know of a website, but Peter Kreeft's "Summa of the Summa" is very good.
Shout out to my professor, Thomist teacher and writer Peter Kreeft, who wrote A Summa of the Summa, for easier access to this great work by St. Thomas!
This is a good list. Quick suggestions...
As others are saying, Athanasius' On the Incarnation is a must-read if you're looking at the great theological works of the tradition. I have the edition from the Popular Patristics series sitting on my shelf. It's a good translation. You can also find it here online.
For Augustine, read his Confessions. It's the first autobiography in the West. That's pretty wild. I read the Oxford edition; that's what I usually see people point to. His City of God is also very important.
For Aquinas, his great work is the Summa. It's massive. And in order to really understand Aquinas, you should understand Aristotle first. Your reading list is getting quite long now—but there are abridgments and reading guides to Aquinas out there if you're interested. Peter Kreeft's Summa of the Summa has often been recommended to me.
John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion should be added. It's hard to overstate the significance of this work. Many would call this the greatest theological work that came out of the Reformation. The Battles edition of the Institutes is more expensive but far more readable than the older Beveridge edition.
Jonathan Edwards is one of the greatest minds in American history. He's certainly not as important as Calvin, but his End for which God Created the World and his Religious Affections are both very good works by, like I said, one of America's greatest minds.
God bless you if you can make it through 14 volumes of Barth's Church Dogmatics. They say Barth's exceedingly important, and I believe them—but frankly I'd put him at a much lower priority than anyone else here. Because Barth stands in the Reformed tradition, I doubt one is able to fully appreciate him without first reading Calvin anyway.
When someone asks about the greatest theological works, some will always recommend works by contemporary writers. Some very good stuff has been written by folks who are still alive; N. T. Wright comes to mind, though I think he's too verbose for his own good. But I'm of the opinion that we don't yet have the historical distance to discern whether works by contemporary authors ought to be placed among the undisputed greats of the tradition.
Actually, Peter Kreeft did! He wrote a Summa of the Summa and then A Shorter Summa, which is only like 150 pages.
And besides that, I recommend Answering Atheism and Summa of the Summa.
And then keep reading.
> Peter Kreeft's "Summa of the Summa"
Your library may have it. If not, here. :)
The US Catholic Church uses the New American Bible, so that's the translation you'll be hearing at Mass if you're in the US. So, just search New American Bible and go with that. I would even recommend getting a study Bible to help you understand what's happening and how things relate to other parts of the Bible, because it can be confusing. Just as a recommendation, this one is fantastic.
There are quite a few sources on understanding the Mass. I would look up the Order of the Mass and maybe try reading through that and following along during Mass, so you understand what is being said and also know what to say.
The Catechism is fantastic. Here is a pretty safe bet on getting started with reading that and something to use as reference.
If you're interested in reading the Summa Theologica, there are shorter versions like Summa of the Summa, which, while still not too short, condense down the most important information and make it easier for somebody without as much time to at least get the general idea.
Good luck on your journey, as I am currently doing the same and am in RCIA, but I've been doing my research for quite a while and am very excited for the coming year!
The Summa Theologica is not a good place to start. You're better off getting the Summa of the Summa.
http://www.amazon.com/A-Summa-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/089870300X
> Is St. Thomas replying to the objections or is he just interjecting between two hypothetical debaters?
St. Thomas is using the typical rhetorical style which was used in lectures during his time, but seems strange to us today. You can find more information about the structure of the Summa from wikipedia.
> Does anyone know of a good book, either a companion or an abridged verson of the Summa Theologica that could kind of help me through it?
There are two ways you can go. For beginners, it is easiest to read the proposition, skip the objections, and go straight to St. Thomas's explanation (starting with "on the contrary"). Now that you know what St. Thomas is getting at, go back and read the objections and St. Thomas's responses to those objections.
If you are looking for a book to help, I found A Summa of the Summa by Peter Kreeft very helpful. He filters the Summa down to the most essential parts and provides footnotes to help in understanding.
Also, the Dominicans provide Fr. Farrell's commentary called Companion to the Summa for free on their website.
This one is supposed to be pretty good. I haven’t read it, but I believe it’s basically a shorter and more concise version of his previous book “Summa of the Summa”
Also, this post from this sub should also be helpful.
http://www.amazon.com/Summa-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/089870300X
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