Talk:Summa Theologica

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I have just a few questions? How does reason play apart in Aquinas' philosophy?

Where do rational creatures and their ability to reason relate to faith?

Contents 1 My deletions 2 notable points 3 Title 4 Catholic Church distinction between meat and nonmeat 5 Editions 6 Marked for Cleanup 7 eschatology 8 Notable points section redux 9 The title 10 The above content 11 This title

[edit] My deletions

I don't see how you could call the Summa an authoritative summary of Catholic church dogma. Dogma indicates propositions from texts taken as authorative for the purpose for which the propositions are intended. In the case of theology this is mainly Sacred Scripture. The Summa presupposes the dogma given by Sacred Scriptures and as iron sharpening iron, from working with the propositions which appear to clash, finds more refined conclusions about whatever its subject matter is.

Two other things come to mind here: The Summa is an authoritative summary of doctrine, but far from being the final authority, so why mention it specifically? And "an authoritative summary of dogma" smacks of a rehearsal of arguments from authority, which is the exactly opposite to the spirit of the Summa's lucid deliberation of the ideas involved.

The person who wrote the "summary of notable points" offered that the Summa teaches that homosexuality is worse than rape. Actually the Summa only compares the lusts underlying the first condition and the second act. This claim about the Summa is about on the same level of sophistry as claiming that an ethician teaches that stealing your neighbor's lawnmower out of spite is "worse" than killing him non-negligently on a deer hunt, just because the ethician claims it is intentions that makes the act criminal. In fact, to me it renders the whole "summary of notable points" list presented in the article suspect. 64.154.26.251 04:43, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I am adding a new page for the "notable points" to be moved to until they can be examined. Summa Theologica/notable points? 64.154.26.251 20:17, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] notable points

I reverted the notable points and put a few citations showing the sources of the points. If you have further disputes I could put in citations for the rest of the points. The points chosen are simply some of the most distinctive points that a third party would find interesting about whats talked about in the summa. The counter argument that Thomas was only speaking about the underlying lust and not the action itself is that the word lust is used in a broader way here then normal english usage, and refers to the action as well. Obviously the word used in the enlgish translation -- lust -- can't just refer to the desire, for is there a distinct sexual desire for rape as opposed to for consenual sex? And besides, even the word "Rape" used in that article is different then normal english usage, as it also describes violence against the father in order to take away the daughter even for consensual sex. - —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.227.234.36 (talk) 15:52, 12 June 2005 (UTC).

A question on exactly how notable some of these notable points are, as well as on their selection–while I'm certain that Aquinas belief that a marriage was invalid if made under a spell might be interesting, I wonder exactly how important some of these things are in comparison to, say, the Five Ways or the idea that all statements about God are either analogical or metaphorical. Does not the sheer number of trivial and poorly arranged factoids detract somewhat from the article's usefulness, or is there some other, better way besides deletion to clean up that particular section? AristonAstuanax 03:33, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Good question. I think you're right. Many of these "notable points" almost have a point-of-view ring to them (e.g., "homosexuality may be worse than rape" etc.)... Here's an idea for an alternative: Rather than having a subjective list of notable points, we could have a decently thorough, balanced outline of the Summa. Real notable points have to do with the whole, rather than with particulars. - David aukerman ^talk 12:13, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I have inserted "citation needed" after those of the notable points that are not cited, "verification needed" on those that sound dubious but I didn't have time to look up myself, and "specify" on those that I looked up and found ambiguous/equivocal. For example, the word "children" in "Children should become nuns or monks" and "parents cannot stop children from becoming religious" could be taken to mean young children, but it seems, at least from my reading of Question 189 of the Secunda Secundae, that this is not what St. Thomas means, and in fact the latter statement should probably be amended to read something like "parents cannot stop their grown children from becoming religious". To be honest I'm not sure what the former statement means at all and I think I'll go back in and move it to this page.

I also removed two statements that seemed to me not merely ambiguous, but actually formally contrary to what St. Thomas says:

"No deliberation is required to figure out if you should be [a religious]" -- in the respondeo of Article 10 of the aforementioned Question, he says plainly that deliberation is required in some circumstances.

The point about proving God's nature and existence ("can all be proved by human reason alone") finished with "by anyone and at any time" -- St. Thomas just doesn't make unqualified statements like this. And to the contrary of the statement, in the respondeo of the first article of the first question of the first part of the entire Summa, he says: "Even as regards those truths about God which human reason could have discovered, it was necessary that man should be taught by a divine revelation; because the truth about God such as reason could discover, would only be known by a few, and that after a long time, and with the admixture of many errors." He develops this notion at greater length in the beginning of the Summa Contra Gentiles.

Sorry for the anonymous edits and posts. I will register ASAP with the name 'bslorence'. 71.130.64.166 01:44, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Title

I suppose that this must have been discussed, but every authoritative source I can find uses Summa Theologiae, including:

• Aquinas Summa Theologiae (3 vols, ed. Caramello)
• Arrington [ed.] A Companion to the Philosophers
• Dyson [ed.] Aquinas: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
• Evans Philosophy & Theology in the Middle Ages
• Goodin & Pettit [edd] Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Kenny [ed.] Aquinas: A Collection of Critical Essays
• King One Hundred Philosophers
• Kretzmann & Stump [edd] The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
• McDermott [ed.] Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation
• Marenbon Later Medieval Philosophy (1150–1350)
• Strauss & Cropsey [edd.] History of Political Philosophy

In fact I've failed to find a single reputable source that calls it Summa Theologica. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 10:36, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

My professor has told me that Theolgiae is indeed more correct, but we have a text book which does use Theologica. It is called Medieval Philosophy, it is the 4th edition, and is by Baird and Kaufmann. So it is important to mention that some call it by this name. -Yoink23 21:32, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Catholic Church distinction between meat and nonmeat

There's an ongoing discussion right now on Talk:Beaver about the distinction that the Roman Catholic Church draws between meat and nonmeat for the purposes of the Ash Wednesday/Good Friday/Fridays during Lent prohibition. It seems that there is some authority (based on a passage in St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae) that animals that are regarded as principally aquatic (including fish, and presumably including beavers) are treated as nonmeat for this purpose, and it seems that there is some authority (see citations in the Beaver article and additional references in Talk:Beaver) that the Church continues to adhere to this distinction. The notion that "the Church thinks that beavers are fish" seems too silly to some. Come check out the discussion at Talk:Beaver.Spikebrennan 14:52, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Editions

Two horribly practical questions:

• is there a definitive/good English translation?
• it's long, isn't it? (17MB as a text file) Njál 14:35, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Marked for Cleanup

I have studied a comparison of the current version to the version marked for cleanup from October 2005. I believe that it is far enough along to be taken off the cleanup list, and I will do so unless there are objections.
Pistolspete 23:05, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

No objections here. There's still a lot of work to be done on this article, but it does look better than it used to. David aukerman ^talk 00:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Factum Est Pistolspete 03:53, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] eschatology

I'd like to add reference to the ST's defense of the doctrine that the damned soul goes immediately to Hell after death, but I don't know who Aquinas was arguing against. The Eastern Orthodox Church? Other Roman Catholics? Muslims? Anyone know? Jonathan Tweet 15:31, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notable points section redux

The whole notable points section needs revision and credited sources. It has often been seen that people will erroneously take propositions made by Aquinas in his "objections" part of a question and quote it as Aquinas' own thought (e.g., "Women have no souls"). Each notable point should refer to a specific Summa Theologiae answer for a question. Otherwise, we have no way of verifying the claim.--Benz74 16:36, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. In fact, I wonder if the concept of a "notable points" section complies with Wikipedia:NPOV in the first place... who decides that a certain point is notable, anyway? Someone with a particular agenda, perhaps? Maybe the revision of this section should be very broad. David aukerman ^talk 18:13, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The title

User:Wau2 moved the article from "Summa Theologiae" to "Summa Theologica" because he thinks that the former title is incorrect and should refer only to a work by Albertus Magnus. Albertus Magnus does have a work of this title. But this is not his main work (contrary to what the present article Summa Theologiae states). And the title "Summa Theologiae" of Aquinas' work is by no means incorrect.

Whatever the title of this article, the parallel title should be mentioned in this article. And the article on Albertus' work should bear the title "Summa Theologiae (Albertus Magnus)". Andres 17:28, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The above content

The above content should somehow be restored under Talk:Summa Theologiae.

[edit] This title

I think here should be a redirect to Summa Theologiae. "Summa theologica" very often refers to Aquinas' work. Any disambiguation links should be in the beginning of that article.

Besides, Albertus' work never goes under the title "Summa Theologica", as far as I know. Andres 07:16, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I mean, Summa Theologica should be a redirect to Summa Theologiae. Andres 11:43, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree. But User:Wau2 is apparently intent on having Aquinas' work at Summa Theologica and a disambiguation page at Summa Theologiae. Do we need some kind of outside advice here? David aukerman ^talk 11:50, 20 March 2007 (UTC)