Abstract

This elegant and painstakingly detailed portrait of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose distinctive theme is the unity of his life and work, is an elaboration of the first section of the author's substantial article on Aquinas in the Dictionnaire de spiritualité. The present work consists of the following parts: a foreword; sixteen chapters which narrate and reflect upon the relevant events, including the composition of Aquinas' writings, between his birth in 1224/25 and his canonization on July 18, 1323 and its aftermath; a summary chronology; a catalogue of writings and a bibliography, both established by Gilles Emery; and indexes of Aquinas' writings and of proper names. As this bare enumeration of contents suggests, the work resembles and indeed depends upon James A. Weisheipl's monumental Friar Thomas d'Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Works, which was originally published in 1974 and then reprinted "with addenda and corrigenda" in 1983. However, it also goes beyond Weisheipl's work in two important respects.