Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

The Monumental Synthesis of Christian Doctrine, Scripture, and Classical Philosophy

Full Title: Summa Theologica (Summa Theologiae)
Author: Thomas Aquinas
Written: 1265–1274 (unfinished at his death)
Original Language: Latin
Recommended Editions: Benziger Bros. complete English translation; University of Notre Dame Press selections
Genre: Systematic Theology, Scholastic Theology, Philosophical Theology
Audience: Theologians, philosophers, seminary students, and serious readers seeking a comprehensive and methodologically rigorous articulation of Christian doctrine

Context:
Composed during the high medieval period, the Summa Theologiae represents Aquinas’s mature attempt to present Christian theology as a coherent, teachable whole ordered toward the knowledge and enjoyment of God. Written primarily for students, the work integrates Scripture, patristic theology, and Aristotelian philosophy within the scholastic method of structured questions, objections, and responses. Aquinas left the work unfinished shortly before his death, famously declaring that all he had written seemed “like straw” in light of a final mystical experience—yet the Summa would go on to become the most influential theological text in Western Christianity.

Key Dialogue Partners (Implicit):
Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, the Church Fathers, medieval scholasticism, Islamic and Jewish philosophers (especially Avicenna and Maimonides), Scripture as received within the Catholic tradition

Related Works:
Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles; medieval scholastic commentaries; later Catholic dogmatic theology; Thomistic revival movements

Note:
The Summa Theologiae is unparalleled in scope, precision, and intellectual ambition. Aquinas’s method seeks not merely to assert doctrine but to test it through reasoned objection and careful synthesis, modeling a theology confident that faith and reason ultimately cohere. Critics have argued that the scholastic framework can feel overly abstract or detached from biblical narrative, while defenders point to Aquinas’s deep scriptural immersion and pastoral intent. Regardless of one’s theological commitments, the Summa remains a foundational text for understanding the development of Western Christian theology and the enduring influence of scholastic method.

Overview

Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica is a monument—one of the most comprehensive, systematic, and influential theological works ever written. Composed in the 13th century as a textbook for beginning theology students (!), this massive treatise attempts nothing less than a complete synthesis of Christian doctrine, biblical theology, Aristotelian philosophy, and church tradition.

The scope is breathtaking. In three parts spanning roughly 3,000 pages, Thomas addresses:

The existence and nature of God
Creation and angels
Human nature and psychology
Sin and law
The incarnation and Christ's work
The sacraments and Christian life
The virtues and vices
Grace and predestination
The last things (eschatology)

And that's the abbreviated list.

The Summa employs the scholastic method: each question is divided into articles, each article states objections, gives contrary authority (usually Scripture or church fathers), then provides Thomas's reasoned response, finally answering each objection. It's rigorous, systematic, and—despite its length—remarkably clear.

For The Living Text framework, engaging Thomas is complex. His brilliance is undeniable, his influence incalculable, and much of his theology aligns with orthodox Christianity. But his Aristotelian philosophical framework, deterministic soteriology, and synthesis of nature/grace create tensions with a biblical worldview that emphasizes covenant, presence, and cosmic conflict.

This review will:

Outline the Summa's structure and key arguments
Identify strengths and contributions
Highlight areas of concern from a Living Text perspective
Show how to learn from Thomas while critiquing his framework

A Note on Accessibility: The Summa is NOT light reading. It's dense, technical, and assumes knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy and medieval theology. But selections are accessible with guidance, and Thomas's clarity rewards effort.

Historical Context: The Medieval Synthesis

The 13th Century Intellectual Revolution

Thomas lived during a time of explosive intellectual growth:

Aristotle's works (lost to the West for centuries) were being recovered through Arabic translations
Universities were emerging (Paris, Oxford, Bologna)
Scholasticism was developing—rigorous theological method using logic and philosophy
Heresies threatened (Albigensians, Averroists)

Thomas's genius was synthesizing Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology. Previous theologians (especially Augustinians) were suspicious of Aristotle. Thomas argued: reason and revelation, philosophy and theology, nature and grace don't conflict—they complement.

Thomas's Project

The Summa Theologica aimed to provide:

Comprehensive coverage of all theological topics
Logical organization (from God to creation to redemption to final end)
Clarity for students (ironic given its length!)
Defense against errors (Muslim philosophy, heretical movements)

Thomas wrote three Summae in his life:

Summa contra Gentiles (apologetics for non-Christians)
Summa Theologica (instruction for Christian students)
Compendium Theologiae (brief summary, unfinished)

The Summa Theologica is the masterwork—unfinished at his death in 1274, with the final section (on sacraments, including the Eucharist and penance) completed by his students using his earlier writings.

Structure and Flow

The Summa is divided into three parts:

Prima Pars (First Part): God and Creation

Questions 1-119 — Covers:

God's Existence and Nature (Q. 1-26):
Thomas begins with the Five Ways—five arguments for God's existence:

Argument from Motion: Everything moved is moved by another; there must be an Unmoved Mover
Argument from Causation: Every effect has a cause; there must be an Uncaused Cause
Argument from Contingency: Contingent beings require a Necessary Being
Argument from Degrees: Varying degrees of perfection imply a Perfect Standard
Argument from Design: Order in nature implies an Intelligent Designer

He then explores God's attributes: simplicity, perfection, infinity, immutability, eternity, unity, knowledge, will, love, justice, mercy, providence.

Key emphasis: God is pure actuality (no potentiality), simple (not composed of parts), immutable (unchanging), eternal (outside time).

Creation (Q. 27-119):

The Trinity (processions, relations, persons)
Creation ex nihilo (from nothing)
Angels (their nature, powers, fall)
The material world (six days of creation)
Human nature (soul, body, faculties)
Divine government (providence, angels, humans)

For The Living Text Framework:

Thomas's emphasis on God's aseity (self-existence), simplicity, and immutability creates tensions. Does an absolutely immutable God genuinely respond to prayer? Can a timeless God act in history? Does pure actuality allow for real relationship?

We appreciate Thomas's defense of creation ex nihilo (against eternalism) and his sophisticated angelology (though his speculations sometimes exceed Scripture). But his philosophical categories (act/potency, essence/existence, substance/accident) sometimes obscure biblical emphases on covenant, presence, and participation.

Prima Secundae (First Part of the Second Part): Ethics and Law

Questions 1-114 — Covers:

Human End and Happiness (Q. 1-5):
Humanity's ultimate end is beatific vision—seeing God face-to-face. All human action, consciously or not, aims at happiness found only in God.

Human Acts and Morality (Q. 6-21):
Voluntary acts, intentions, circumstances. What makes acts good or evil.

Passions and Emotions (Q. 22-48):
Detailed analysis of love, hate, desire, aversion, joy, sorrow, hope, fear, anger, etc.

Habits and Virtues (Q. 49-70):
How virtues are acquired, the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance), theological virtues (faith, hope, charity).

Law (Q. 90-108):

Eternal Law: God's rational governance of all creation
Natural Law: Human participation in eternal law through reason
Human Law: Positive laws derived from natural law
Divine Law: Scriptural revelation (Old Law and New Law)

Thomas argues natural law is accessible to reason—basic moral principles knowable by all humans regardless of revelation.

Grace (Q. 109-114):
Necessity of grace, its nature, causes, effects. Justification, merit, predestination.

For The Living Text Framework:

Thomas's natural law theory has strengths (moral knowledge isn't purely arbitrary or merely revealed) but can overestimate fallen reason's capacity. Romans 1 shows moral knowledge exists but is suppressed and twisted by sin and the Powers. We need both natural and revealed law, with Scripture having priority.

His treatment of grace is complex. He affirms grace's necessity but within a framework of nature/grace that can minimize sin's pervasiveness. He also leans heavily toward predestination in ways that compromise universal salvific will.

Secunda Secundae (Second Part of the Second Part): Specific Virtues and Vices

Questions 1-189 — Covers:

Theological Virtues:

Faith (Q. 1-16)
Hope (Q. 17-22)
Charity (Q. 23-46)

Cardinal Virtues:

Prudence (Q. 47-56)
Justice (Q. 57-122)
Fortitude (Q. 123-140)
Temperance (Q. 141-170)

Sins and Vices:
Detailed treatment of pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust—their nature, causes, remedies.

States of Life (Q. 171-189):
Prophecy, religious life (monks, friars), active vs. contemplative life.

For The Living Text Framework:

Thomas's virtue ethics is psychologically sophisticated and practically helpful. His analysis of how virtues form character and vices corrupt it remains valuable.

However, his hierarchical anthropology (reason ruling lower faculties, contemplation superior to action) reflects Aristotelian categories more than biblical emphasis on whole-person transformation through Spirit and integration of contemplation and action.

Tertia Pars (Third Part): Christ and the Sacraments

Questions 1-90 (unfinished) — Covers:

Christology (Q. 1-59):

The fittingness of incarnation
The hypostatic union (two natures in one person)
Christ's knowledge, power, defects
Christ's conception, birth, life
Christ's passion, death, descent, resurrection, ascension

The Sacraments (Q. 60-90, incomplete):

Baptism
Confirmation
Eucharist (transubstantiation defended)
Penance (incomplete)
(Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony never completed by Thomas; added by students)

For The Living Text Framework:

Thomas's Christology is strong—defending Christ's full divinity and full humanity, explaining the hypostatic union carefully.

His sacramental theology is where Protestants most diverge. Thomas articulates transubstantiation (bread and wine literally become Christ's body and blood at consecration) and emphasizes ex opere operato (sacraments work by the act performed, not dependent on minister's or recipient's worthiness).

From a Living Text perspective: We affirm sacraments as means of grace (not mere symbols) but reject transubstantiation's philosophical categories (substance/accident) and question whether Scripture supports such precise metaphysical claims.

Key Theological Themes

1. Faith and Reason: The Nature/Grace Synthesis

Thomas's fundamental conviction: Grace perfects nature; it doesn't destroy or replace it.

Reason can demonstrate God's existence, know moral law, understand natural world
Revelation adds supernatural knowledge (Trinity, incarnation, salvation) reason alone can't reach
Philosophy serves theology—reason provides foundation, revelation builds on it

This creates a two-tier system:

Natural realm: accessible to reason, shared with non-Christians
Supernatural realm: accessible only through revelation

Strengths:

Takes creation and reason seriously (they're God's gifts)
Shows faith isn't irrational—theology can be rigorous discipline
Provides common ground for dialogue with non-Christians

Concerns from Living Text Perspective:

The nature/grace distinction can minimize sin's pervasiveness. Thomas sometimes writes as if human reason functions mostly intact post-Fall, needing only addition (supernatural revelation) rather than redemption (healing of twisted reason).

Scripture suggests sin corrupts reason (Romans 1:21-25), making us suppress truth we know. The Powers blind minds (2 Corinthians 4:4). We need not just additional knowledge but new birth (John 3:3), illumination by the Spirit.

The Living Text framework emphasizes redemption over synthesis: grace doesn't perfect neutral nature but rescues enslaved nature, heals corrupted faculties, liberates twisted reason.

2. God's Immutability and Impassibility

Following Aristotle, Thomas argues God is:

Immutable: Absolutely unchanging (change implies imperfection)
Impassible: Cannot experience emotions or be affected by creation
Timeless: Outside time, experiencing all moments simultaneously
Pure Actuality: No potentiality, no unrealized possibilities

Thomas writes: "God is altogether immutable... Since, therefore, God is the first agent, He is of necessity most perfect. But everything that is changed is changed by another; wherefore, it is impossible that He be changed."

Strengths:

Protects God's transcendence and sovereignty
Shows God isn't dependent on creation
Grounds confidence in God's unchanging character

Concerns from Living Text Perspective:

Does absolute immutability allow for genuine relationship? Scripture presents God as:

Responding to prayer (changing circumstances in response to human petition)
Grieving over sin (Genesis 6:6—"it grieved him to his heart")
Relenting from judgment when people repent (Jonah 3:10)
Acting in history (entering time in incarnation)

Thomas would say these are anthropomorphisms—human language accommodating divine reality. God doesn't really change, grieve, or relent; these terms describe our experience of God's unchanging will.

But is this philosophical assumption (from Greek metaphysics) being imposed on Scripture? The Living Text framework suggests:

God is faithful and unchanging in character (His love, justice, holiness are constant), but He genuinely interacts with creation. He responds to prayer, grieves over evil, acts in history. The incarnation especially shows God entering time without ceasing to be God.

We can affirm God's constancy without requiring absolute immutability defined by Aristotelian categories.

3. Predestination and Providence

Thomas follows Augustine on double predestination:

"God wills to manifest His goodness; men obtain it by being ordained to the end. Now the end is two-fold: first, that whereby they attain to happiness; secondly, that whereby some fail to attain... Predestination includes the will to confer grace and glory... Reprobation includes the will to permit a person to fall into sin, and to impose the punishment of damnation on account of that sin."

In other words:

God actively predestines some to salvation
God passively reprobates others by withholding grace

Thomas insists this is just: God gives grace to some (mercy) and withholds it from others (justice). No one deserves grace; therefore no one is wronged by not receiving it.

Concerns from Living Text Perspective:

This contradicts Scripture's testimony to God's universal salvific will:

"God desires all people to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4)
Christ is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2)
"The Lord... is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9)

If God sincerely desires all to be saved yet only gives saving grace to some, there's contradiction in God's will. Either:

God doesn't truly desire all to be saved (making these texts insincere)
Or God gives sufficient grace to all (making salvation genuinely available to all)

The Living Text framework affirms the second: Prevenient grace is universal, enabling all to respond. God's predestination is corporate (He chose to save a people in Christ) and conditional (based on foreseen faith, itself grace-enabled).

Thomas's system, like all Augustinian-Reformed theology, struggles with how God can genuinely love those He doesn't choose to save. It makes God's love selective rather than universal, contradicting John 3:16 ("God so loved the world").

4. Transubstantiation and Sacramental Realism

Thomas provides the definitive philosophical articulation of transubstantiation:

The bread and wine at consecration undergo substantial change—their substance (what they truly are) becomes Christ's body and blood, while accidents (appearance, taste, physical properties) remain bread-like and wine-like.

This isn't symbolic or spiritual presence; it's metaphysical transformation. Christ is literally, physically present under the appearance of bread and wine.

Why this matters to Thomas:

Christ said "This IS my body" (literal interpretation)
Enables continual re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice
Makes Eucharist objectively effective regardless of faith

Concerns from Living Text Perspective:

1. Philosophical Overreach: Substance/accident categories are Aristotelian philosophy, not biblical. Can we ground sacramental theology on metaphysical distinctions Scripture never makes?

2. Sacrificial Repetition: If Christ's sacrifice was "once for all" (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10), how does re-presenting it fit? Thomas says it's the same sacrifice, but applied anew. This seems to compromise finality.

3. Unnecessary Precision: Must we define how Christ is present? Scripture says He's present in the Supper ("This is my body") but doesn't specify the metaphysical mechanism.

Living Text Alternative:

Affirm real spiritual presence—Christ is genuinely present by the Spirit when believers receive bread and wine in faith. But avoid:

Reducing to mere symbol (Zwinglian memorialization)
Or requiring transubstantiation (Catholic literalism)

Mystery is okay. Christ is truly present; we receive Him spiritually; exactly how this works is beyond our precision to explain.

5. Natural Law Theory

Thomas's natural law ethic remains influential in Catholic moral theology and Western jurisprudence:

Eternal Law: God's wisdom directing all creation
Natural Law: Human participation in eternal law through reason—basic moral principles knowable by all

The first precept of natural law: "Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided."

From this flow other precepts:

Self-preservation: Protect life
Procreation: Marry and raise children
Knowledge: Seek truth, especially about God
Social living: Live peacefully in community

These are accessible to human reason without Scripture. Thomas argues even pagans can know basic morality through natural law.

Strengths:

Provides moral common ground across cultures
Shows morality isn't arbitrary divine command
Grounds human rights, justice, and law

Concerns from Living Text Perspective:

While natural law exists (Romans 2:14-15), the noetic effects of sin (darkened minds, suppressed truth) mean it functions far less clearly than Thomas suggests. The Powers twist moral intuition. Cultures rationalize evil.

Natural law needs corrective and clarifying revelation. Scripture doesn't just add to what reason knows; it heals reason to see more clearly.

Also, Thomas's teleological anthropology (humans have fixed natural ends—procreation, knowledge, etc.) can become rigid. Not everyone is called to marry; some are called to celibacy (1 Corinthians 7). Kingdom mission may require setting aside "natural" pursuits.

Strengths

1. Systematic Comprehensiveness

The Summa covers everything. It's the most complete synthesis of Christian doctrine ever attempted. For any theological question, Thomas provides a starting point.

2. Logical Rigor

The scholastic method forces clarity. Each question is precisely framed, objections stated fairly, answers defended logically. This discipline prevents sloppy thinking.

3. Integration of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason

Thomas weaves biblical texts, church fathers, and philosophical arguments seamlessly. He respects all sources while giving Scripture primacy.

4. Psychological Insight

His treatment of virtues, vices, passions, and habits shows deep understanding of human nature. Much remains practically useful.

5. Christological Orthodoxy

Thomas faithfully defends Nicene and Chalcedonian Christology: Christ is fully God and fully human, two natures in one person.

6. Defense of Creation

Against Manichean dualism, Thomas affirms material creation is good. Bodies, sexuality (in marriage), physical pleasures (rightly ordered) are gifts.

Weaknesses and Cautions

1. Philosophical Over-Determination

Thomas's Aristotelianism sometimes shapes theology more than illuminates Scripture. Categories like substance/accident, act/potency, essence/existence become interpretive grids imposed on biblical texts.

Caution: Learn from Thomas's philosophical sophistication, but don't let Greek metaphysics become more authoritative than biblical revelation.

2. Nature/Grace Dualism

The two-tier system (natural reason + supernatural revelation) can minimize:

Sin's pervasiveness (reason isn't mostly intact; it's corrupted)
Grace's comprehensiveness (grace doesn't just add; it heals and transforms)
Redemption's scope (all reality needs redeeming, not just supernatural tier)

For Living Text: Grace is God's presence and power invading, liberating, transforming all reality—not an additional layer atop nature.

3. Divine Impassibility Overemphasized

Thomas's God is so transcendent, unchanging, and impassible that genuine relationship becomes difficult to conceive. Does this God truly grieve over sin? Rejoice over repentance? Respond to prayer?

Scripture presents a God who feels, responds, acts—without ceasing to be sovereign or faithful.

4. Predestinarian Soteriology

Thomas's double predestination contradicts:

God's universal love (John 3:16)
God's desire for all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4)
Christ dying for all (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
Human responsibility (why command repentance if God doesn't give enabling grace to all?)

For Living Text: Affirm unconditional election of the church corporately (God chose to save a people in Christ) and conditional election individually (those who believe are elect). God offers sufficient grace to all.

5. Sacramental Theology Overdeveloped

Transubstantiation requires:

Aristotelian philosophy (substance/accident)
Precision Scripture doesn't demand
View of Eucharist that can compromise Christ's once-for-all sacrifice

For Living Text: Affirm real spiritual presence, means of grace, but avoid philosophical overreach and preserve Christ's sacrifice's finality.

6. Limited Pneumatology

The Holy Spirit appears but isn't as prominent as in Scripture. How does the Spirit:

Convict of sin?
Regenerate hearts?
Indwell believers?
Empower mission?

Thomas's focus on intellect and will sometimes eclipses Spirit's immediate work.

7. Insufficient Powers Theology

Thomas acknowledges demons but doesn't develop cosmic conflict, territorial spirits, Powers operating through structures. His focus is individualistic (personal virtue, individual souls) more than corporate and cosmic (church as body, creation groaning, Powers defeated).

Integration with The Living Text Framework

Where We Agree

1. Creation's Goodness: Material world is God's good work
2. Christological Orthodoxy: Christ is fully God, fully human
3. Real Presence: Christ truly present in sacraments (though we define differently)
4. Virtue Formation: Character shaped by habits, requiring grace
5. Bodily Resurrection: Salvation includes the body

Where We Differ

1. Nature/Grace vs. Fall/Redemption:
Thomas: Grace perfects nature
Living Text: Grace redeems and liberates nature enslaved by sin and Powers

2. Immutability vs. Responsiveness:
Thomas: God absolutely unchanging, impassible
Living Text: God faithful in character but genuinely responsive, entering time in incarnation

3. Double Predestination vs. Universal Salvific Will:
Thomas: God actively elects some, passively reprobates others
Living Text: God offers grace to all, predestines corporately, elects conditionally based on faith

4. Transubstantiation vs. Spiritual Presence:
Thomas: Bread/wine literally become body/blood
Living Text: Christ genuinely present by Spirit, mystery beyond philosophical precision

5. Reason's Autonomy vs. Reason's Need for Healing:
Thomas: Natural reason mostly functional, needs supernatural addition
Living Text: Reason corrupted by sin, twisted by Powers, needs Spirit's illumination and Scripture's correction

Sacred Space and Presence

Thomas's nature/grace framework doesn't foreground God's dwelling presence as central.

Living Text emphasizes: Creation was meant as God's temple. The Fall fractured sacred space. Redemption is God reclaiming His temple, restoring presence, filling creation with glory.

Thomas focuses more on individual souls attaining beatific vision than cosmic restoration, corporate temple, new creation.

Christus Victor and Cosmic Conflict

Thomas includes Christ defeating Satan but it's not primary. His atonement theology emphasizes:

Satisfaction (Christ pays debt owed to God)
Merit (Christ earns grace for us)
Sacrifice (Christ offers perfect priestly offering)

These are true but should be integrated within Christus Victor: Christ defeats death, disarms Powers, liberates captives, reclaims creation.

Practical Applications for Ministry

1. Learn Theological Method

Thomas models rigorous thinking: state questions clearly, consider objections fairly, argue logically, answer systematically.

Even if we disagree with conclusions, we can adopt this discipline.

2. Don't Fear Philosophy

Thomas shows Christianity engages best available thought—for him, Aristotle. For us, whatever contemporary philosophy, science, culture offers.

But Scripture judges philosophy, not vice versa.

3. Virtue Formation Matters

Character isn't formed instantly. Habits shape us—for good or ill. Spiritual formation requires:

Repeated practice (spiritual disciplines)
Grace-enabled effort (God works, we cooperate)
Community formation (church as context for growth)

4. Avoid Extremes

Thomas navigated between:

Rationalism (reducing faith to philosophy)
Fideism (rejecting reason entirely)

We should too: Faith seeking understanding—not faith alone or understanding alone.

5. Sacraments as Means of Grace

While avoiding transubstantiation, don't reduce sacraments to mere symbols. They're means of grace—God truly works through them.

Baptism and Eucharist matter. They form us, unite us to Christ, incorporate us into church.

6. Beware Nature/Grace Thinking

Don't divide life into sacred (spiritual, supernatural) and secular (natural, ordinary). All life is under Christ's lordship. All creation needs redemption. Grace invades all reality.

Conclusion

The Summa Theologica is a monumental achievement—brilliant, comprehensive, influential. Thomas Aquinas synthesized Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy into a unified system that shaped Western Christianity permanently.

We can learn from Thomas:

Rigorous theological method
Serious engagement with culture/philosophy
Comprehensive vision (all topics addressed)
Virtue ethics and moral formation
Christological precision

But we must critique Thomas:

Nature/grace dualism minimizes sin's pervasiveness
Divine immutability compromises genuine relationship
Double predestination contradicts universal salvific will
Transubstantiation requires unnecessary philosophical precision
Limited emphasis on Spirit, cosmic conflict, and corporate salvation

For The Living Text framework:

Thomas provides philosophical sophistication but needs biblical correction. His categories (nature/grace, substance/accident, act/potency) sometimes obscure Scripture's emphases (covenant, presence, Powers, participation).

We appreciate his defense of creation, Christological orthodoxy, and virtue formation while rejecting his deterministic soteriology, excessive sacramentalism, and philosophical over-determination.

Thomas is a conversation partner, not an authority. Learn from him. Argue with him. But don't bind conscience to his conclusions where they contradict Scripture.

Recommended with significant caveats — for advanced students, pastors, and theologians willing to critically engage.

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth." (John Paul II, echoing Thomistic spirit)

But when wings pull in different directions—Scripture must be the guide.

Thomas soared high. We honor his flight while charting our own course.