The essays contained in this volume illustrate the work of Fr. James A. Weisheipl, whose writing and teaching have resulted in important additions to our understanding of nature and motion.

“The towering figure of Thomas Aquinas emerges with all his intellectual vitality in this definitive, up-to-date biography. Written by a leading scholar, and based on all the latest known facts of Aquinas’s life and works, its publication is a fitting commemoration of the seventh centennial of the death of Aquinas, one of the most influential thinkers of all ages.As comprehensive as it is readable, the book covers the man and his works as we know them today. The author develops the (...) life of Aquinas in the social, political and cultural milieu of his age, eliminating many of the legends that have shrouded the man-legends that served more the needs of canonization than the needs of the true historian. Father Weisheipl stresses the close relationship between all the facets of Aquinas’s personality and his intellectual development, thus overcoming any tendency toward separating his “life” from his “thought”. The many movements and controversies in which Thomas was embroiled are drawn together with his doctrinal development, thus providing a lucid portrait of the whole man in the age in which he lived and worked.All in all, FRIAR THOMAS D’AQUINO is a major study on a major thinker, whose short life “fused the quiet of contemplation with the fever of activity.” A notable feature of this volume is the author’s attentive treatment throughout of the man and his environment as one. “A sound understanding of the man,” writes Weisheipl, “requires both an accurate grasp of his teaching and a thorough knowledge of the context in which he lived, moved, and had his being.” Included at the end of the text is a “Brief Catalogue of Authentic Works,” giving known place and time of composition together with the purposes and content of the work.”- Publisher. (shrink)

"In this book, a noted historian traces the development of scientific theory from the early centuries of the Christian era to the Age of Galileo and the advent of modern science. The author explains the main tenets of the systems of Plato and Aristotle and shows how these systems were the foundations for opposing approaches to science in the Middle Ages. He discusses the significant developments in science at Oxford and Paris in the fourteenth century and describes their influence on (...) later thought"--. (shrink)