From: miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Aquinas' Summa and Related Works
Date: 20 Dec 92 22:29:31 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

THE SUMMA & RELATED WORKS

Some time ago I requested info on editions of the Summa and
received many suggestions, for which I thank you all.  I thought I
would share with you the things I have amassed.

The Summa itself in Latin & English with notes does not seem to be
available in print since the multi-volume Blackfriar's edition went
out of print in the 70s.  I was told McGraw-Hill still had some
copies into the 80s; it doesn't sound as if anyone has any plans to
reprint it.  It was something like 30 volumes and very expensive.

A three-volume paper edition, English only, 1911 translation by the
Dominican Fathers, is available for $150.00 (ISBN 0-87061-069-4)
from

     Christian Classics
     Box 30
     Westminster, ND 21157
     1-800-888-3065
       301-848-3065

I don't know what kind of notes if any this has (anyone have it or
seen it?).

From the same publisher is a "concise" edition, McDermott
translation (I think McDermott worked on the Blackfriar's edition),
one volume, PB $29.95 (0-87061-187-9), HB $62.40 (0-87061-170-4).

I'd still like to find/compile a complete bibliography of editions
with *Latin & a modern language* so I could at least search for
them (can anyone help on this?).  But we do have

     Glenn, Msgr. Paul J.
     A Tour of the Summa
     Rockford, Illionois: Tan Books & Publishers, Inc. 1960
     Fifth printing, 1978.  Paper, ISBN 0-89555-081-4
          Tan Books & Publishers, Inc.
          P. O. Box 424
          Rockford, ILL 61105

This is "a condensed paraphrase of the essential teaching of the
Summa" in English, one volume, arranged *like* the Summa so that
one can easily find the original passages from the TS.  The only
thing it omits is objections and replies to objections.

Then there are two collections of excerpts mostly from the Summa
but including selections from other works of Aquinas:

     Pegis, Anton C., ed.
     Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas
     New York: The Modern Library (Random House), 1945.

This has an excellent introductory essay and notes to Aquinas'
references.

     Sigmund, Paul E., ed
     St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics
     W. W. Norton & Co., 1988 (A Norton Critical Edition)

This does not overlap that much with Pegis and includes essays on
Aquinas and (Neo-)Thomism.  I'm sure there are other collections
like this in print (anybody want to add them?).

Then there is

     Ralph McInerny
     A First Glance at St. Thomas Aquinas: a Handbook for Peeping
          Thomists
     University of Notre Dame Press, 1990

This contains useful and often entertaining explanations of
Aquinas' philosophy interspersed with texts (in English) from
Aquinas himself.

The McInerny book is for good reason dedicated to Neo-Thomist
Mortimer Adler: I began reading Adler years ago, reasoning that
anybody whose work is rejected out of hand by the entire present-
day academic establishment must be onto something.  All of Adler's
books, especially _Ten Philosophical Mistakes_, should be quietly
added to this list.

G. K. Chesterton of course left us with _Saint Thomas Aquinas_
(Image edition 1956) which is certainly worth reading.

In dealing with Aquinas and works on Aquinas it's helpful to have
the little summary

     Barnes, Jonathan
     Aristotle
     Oxford University Press, 1982
     (Past Masters Series)

(Barnes edited the two-volume edition of Aristotle, the Revised
Oxford Translation, published by Princeton University Press
(Bollingen Series LXXI-2) in 1984.)

-Ken     
-- 
miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu | Graecis ac barbaris, sapientibus et
opinions are my own      | insipientibus debitor sum