If you have to ask who “the Philosopher” is, the saying goes, then you’re not a Thomist. But this honorary title – that of “the Philosopher”, that is – is not reserved for Aquinas himself, but it is rather the way the Angelic Doctor would refer to Aristotle. Aquinas embraced, developed and elaborated on Aristotle’s ideas on ethics, metaphysics, political theory and natural law even further in his own personal work, synthesizing Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology, especially in his Summa Theologica, the Summa Contra Gentiles and his De Ente et Essentia. Watch the video above – yet another piece from The School of Life – to get a glimpse of what you might find if you decide to read Aquinas’ work (which you can find here, on PDF). You cannot expect too much depth or accuracy from a YouTube video—scholars will quibble with some of the claims made here—but we hope that the video will at least spark curiosity
In fact, you might also want to read Chesterton’s essay on Aquinas.
And today we celebrate...