Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~510,000 words · 2,405 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-prima-pars
- MLAThomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-prima-pars.
- ChicagoThomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-prima-pars.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
God, creation and human nature: the first part of the Summa, where Aquinas sets out the Five Ways and everything that follows from them.
Context and history
Written around 1265-68 for theology students whom Aquinas thought poorly served by the textbooks of his day. It proceeds by questions, and each question by articles that open with the objections against: the form is a scholastic disputation put into writing. The Prima Pars treats God, the Trinity, the angels and the human soul, and it is where the Five Ways for demonstrating God's existence are found.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason: "The eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou hast prepared for them that wait for Thee" (Isa. 66:4). But the end must first be known by men who are to direct their thoughts and actions to the end. Hence it was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation. 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. Whereas man's whole salvation, which is in God, depends upon the knowledge of this truth. Therefore, in order that the salvation of men might be brought about more fitly and more surely, it was necessary that they should be taught divine truths by divine revelation. It was therefore necessary that besides philosophical science built up by reason, there should be a sacred science learned through revelation. Reply Obj. 1: Although those things which are beyond man's knowledge may not be sought for by man through his reason, nevertheless, once they are revealed by God, they must be accepted by faith. Hence the sacred text continues, "For many things are shown to thee above the understanding of man" (Ecclus. 3:25). And in this, the sacred science consists. Reply Obj. 2: Sciences are differentiated according to the various means through which knowledge is obtained. For the astronomer and the physicist both may prove the same conclusion: that the earth, for instance, is round: the astronomer by means of mathematics (i.e. abstracting from matter), but the physicist by means of matter itself.…