1. Summa Contra Gentiles by Thomas Aquinas, a summary

I intend to read Summa Contra Gentiles by Aquinas (SCG) in installments over the next 24 or so months.

Periodically, I will attempt to summarize my readings here. I am doing this not to provide you, the reader, with “cliff notes,” but as an aid to my own reading and learning.  I hope they are useful to you and you enjoy these notes, but I beg you to read Thomas for yourself.   Reading about a text is no substitute for reading THE TEXT.

All of these posts will be tagged “Summa Contra Gentiles.”

I am reading the Fr. Laurence Shapcote, OP translation.  I have the opera Latin/English 2 volume set from the Aquinas Institute.  You can buy it here.   I think you can find it in less expensive out of copyright editions if you look for the Dominican Friars Translation on Bezos’ site, or for free at archive.org.

Pre-requisites.

You’ll be able to read the words of Thomas I’m sure.  Please do.  The ideas he puts forth are difficult and abstract.  They cannot be written at an 8th grade level or so a person with no metaphysics training can understand them.  In order to follow and comprehend him, you’ll need education and training that you may not already have.  You can get this at OnlineGreatBooks.com.   We’d love to have you there, but if you can’t or don’t want to join us there you’ll need to study the following:

Plato:  Theatetus, Parmenides, Republic, Gorgias, Protagoras, Timaeus
Aristotle:  Physics, Categories, Metaphysics, Prior Analytics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics

These are the minimum.  A quick read through won’t do, you’ll need to unlearn 12+ years of ridiculous enlightenment garbage and familiarize yourself with their methods, vocabulary and concepts.   Don’t let this spook you.  Just get to work.

I’ll try to help make the metaphysics and the like more accessible in the summaries I’m going to post.   Dig in.

I’m reading about 35 chapters per month. It’ll take about two years.  A few pages a day will get it done.   Join me.

5 thoughts on “1. Summa Contra Gentiles by Thomas Aquinas, a summary”

  1. Pingback: 4. Summa Contra Gentiles By Thomas Aquinas Summary Book 1 Chapters 7- – ScottHambrick.com

  2. Pingback: 3. Summary of Summa Contra Gentiles by St. Thomas Aquinas Book 1 Chapters 4-6 – ScottHambrick.com

  3. Pingback: 2. Summary of Summa Contra Gentiles by Thomas Aquinas. – ScottHambrick.com

  4. Pingback: 5. Summa Contra Gentiles By Thomas Aquinas Summary Book 1 Chapters 10-13 – ScottHambrick.com

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *