t is 750 years since Thomas Aquinas died on March 7, 1274. Merely forty-nine at the time of his death and, despite a short writing career of only two decades, beset with many duties of teaching, preaching, and travel, his extant writings add up to more than eight million words\u2014eight times those of Aristotle. These include his unfinished masterpiece, the Summa Theologica, at more than 1.5 million words. The Summa, as many have noted with chagrin, was written \u201cto instruct beginners,\u201d as when young children are given \u201cmilk to drink, not meat.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite early condemnations of some of his teachings, Thomas was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567, one of only thirty-seven\u2014and not just any doctor, but the Common Doctor, capable of serving the entire Church and its unity around a common truth, the deposit of faith. Philosophers and theologians have repeatedly returned to him for clarity, insight, and creativity, since \u201camong the Scholastic Doctors, the chief and master of all [is] Thomas Aquinas who, as Cajetan observes, because \u2018he most venerated the ancient doctors of the Church, in a certain way seems to have inherited the intellect of all,\u2019\u201d or so claimed Leo XIII when indicating paths for \u201cthe restoration of Christian philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the 750th anniversary of the death of St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Francis praises the thinker's "fresh and valid insights about our globalised world, dominated by legal positivism and casuistry."<\/p>\n Read more: https:\/\/t.co\/gXJWz1AyCb<\/a><\/p>\n — Vatican News (@VaticanNews) March 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n