Most scholars who work on Thomas Aquinas cover just one specific area, or even a limited number of topics within these areas, be it theology of the Trinity, virtue ethics, philosophy of mind, or metaphysics, to name but a few. Anyone who has researched such a specific and limited area will be struck by the depth and the genius of Aquinas. Nonetheless, such detailed studies do not do full justice to Aquinas' own way of thinking. For Aquinas was a deeply systematic thinker. In other words, Aquinas always kept in focus the whole of Christian thought whenever he was dealing with any single topic. For instance, if one wants to find out how he conceives of human fulfilment, one will have to examine not just part 2 of the Summa, but also q. 93 from the first part on what it means to have been made in the image of God (i.e., to know and to love God). This question, in turn, should be read in light of his theology of the Trinity expounded earlier in part 1; and issues relating to Christian life and Trinitarian doctrine cannot be dealt with without reference to his Christology and pneumatology, and so forth.

This puts anyone who is new to Aquinas's Summa Theologiae in a precarious predicament: its combination of sheer depth and scale makes it very difficult for any reader to keep a focus on his entire project. Given this concern, two new books, which complement each other very well, are to be especially welcomed.

Brian Davies has been teaching and writing on Aquinas throughout his academic life. He has recently edited (with Eleonore Stump) a fine collection of essays, entitled The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, which aims to cover all aspects of Aquinas's thought. He has now also published a “guide and commentary” to the whole Summa Theologiae. As its subtitle indicates, this book summarizes some of the key teachings of Aquinas, critically evaluates aspects of his thought (sometimes even rejecting outdated elements, especially in relation to sexual ethics), and offers insights that would only be known to those who already enjoy an in-depth knowledge of Aquinas's thought and scholarship. Davies' book does an outstanding job of providing a road map for new and seasoned readers of Aquinas's Summa, surveying, and at times offering detailed engagements with, the main topics covered in the Summa. I will be warmly recommending it to my own students.

Bernard McGinn's book approaches the Summa from a different angle, with, admittedly, less detailed engagement with the primary text than Davies' book. McGinn's book not only focuses on the ideas from the Summa but also—in line with the overall aim of the series Lives of Great Religious Books—describes in some detail its reception and the history of the ways it has been interpreted and appropriated throughout the centuries. The key focus is on sapientia, and this focus on wisdom bestows a unity on McGinn's ambitious book. The first chapter, entitled “The World That Made Thomas Aquinas,” sketches the historical context relevant to Aquinas's life and writings, dealing with papal reform, the emergence of medieval universities, and the rise of the mendicant orders. The second chapter, “Creating the Summa Theologiae,” focuses on the life and writings of Aquinas, with specific attention of course to “the plan and purpose” of the Summa Theologiae (44–73). Those who are not familiar with Thomist scholarship may be surprised to hear that it is still a matter of debate as to why exactly Aquinas abandoned his plan to write a second commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences, and embarked on the innovative project that became the Summa Theologiae. In this context, McGinn observes that the use of the term sacra doctrina as distinct from theologia is revealing, and places the Summa in a framework of instruction, the creation of scientia in students, and pedagogy (52), “a process of teaching and learning” (129). But the Summa is also a work of doctrinal theology, a science, both speculative and practical, which is wisdom.

The theme of wisdom is central to McGinn's reading of the Summa. It can refer to acquired wisdom of philosophy, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the wisdom that is sacra doctrina (cf. ST I, q. 1 a. 6)—a wisdom in which Christians are called to participate for the sake of salvation (hence the dominance of part 2 of the Summa). Chapter 3 is the heart of the book, and offers “a tour” of the Summa Theologiae. Despite the brevity of this chapter—ca. forty pages—McGinn manages to outline the key issues in a highly adequate manner that avoids superficiality. The topics that retain McGinn's attention include: the God-question (here scholars of the theology of the Trinity—one of the two central Christian mysteries for Aquinas—will find its treatment somewhat short); creation; grace; charity as friendship; the Incarnation and sacraments. Not surprisingly, given his own research interests, McGinn is sensitive to the apophatic element in Aquinas: “The wisdom of sacra doctrina is not learning more of what can be said about God, but in coming to appreciate more and more fully the mystery of God's unknowable existence” (85). Chapter 4 chronicles “the tides of Thomism, 1275–1850,” covering the initial condemnations of 1277, offering brief comparisons with Duns Scotus and Meister Eckhart, and examining the gradual dissemination of the Summa in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (with an interesting discussion of its fate during the Renaissance). By the sixteenth century the Summa was widely used in teaching theology, and enjoyed a special status during the Counter-Reformation. The commentaries of Cajetan, Suarez, and John of St. Thomas are reviewed, and the chapter concludes with the decline of Thomism in 1650–1850—a period inaugurated by Descartes' new philosophy. Chapter 5 examines the rise and fall of neo-Thomism, which became the official teaching of Catholicism, and was promoted in the 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris. McGinn narrates the story of neo-Thomism and the Modernist reaction it evoked in some detail, which resulted in four movements—strict-observance Thomism (e.g., Garrigou-Lagrange), revived historical analysis (e.g., Mandonnet, Chenu, De Lubac), metaphysical Thomism (e.g., Gilson, Maritain), and transcendental Thomism (Maréchal, Lonergan, Rahner)—until 1974, after which we are confronted with a rich variety of readings, at times incompatible with each other—from analytical Thomism to Aquinas as mystical theologian.

This book is a delight to read. It is genuinely extraordinary how much scholarship McGinn managed to distill into this book, which nonetheless remains utterly readable. McGinn has absorbed the best of research, pondered and expounded it, and contributed to it, in a book that must rank as one of the best introductions to Aquinas available.