RamistThomist
Puritanboard Assessor
Kreeft, Peter. The Shorter Summa. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993.
Introduction
On one hand, there is no substitute for reading Thomas Aquinas himself. If one must have an abridgment and/or guide, then Peter Kreeft’s longer Summa of the Summa is the best bet. But if that option is already available, is there any point to a Shorter Summa? Yes, but maybe not for all readers. Although the Summa of the Summa gives the reader everything he needs to know, it is nonetheless daunting. A Shorter Summa, by contrast, introduces the reader to medieval thought, gives the reader Thomas’s exact words, and avoids the more complicated discussions.
Epistemology
With respect to our dispensationalist friends, the best way to look at Thomas’s epistemology is by using charts.
Three Acts of the Mind
Understanding
Judging
Reasoning
Metaphysics
Existence of God
Kreeft makes the distinction between necessary existence, which applies to God, and our knowledge of that necessary existence. The predicate is included in the essence of the subject (1,2,1). God’s existence is not self-evident to us because we do not know the essence of God.
These articles are preambles to faith, not articles of faith (1, 2, 2).
Proof from motion: “Motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality.” Whatever is in motion is put in motion by another, but this cannot go on to infinity. In other words, change occurs. But what changes must be actualized by another, and this other will either be purely act or an admixture of act and potency. It is important to note what Thomas is not saying at this point. He is not saying that this goes backward in a linear fashion to a First Cause, with creation having its first moment. Rather, this series of causes is hierarchical in structure. The later terms depend on the (continued) existence of the first term. For example, if car A hits car B which hits car C, car A is the first cause in this linear series. If, after the accident, car A were to disappear, the damage would still be done. This is not what we mean when we apply hierarchical causality to God.
Simplicity of God
God cannot be made of parts if he is the first being, for who, then, would have put him together? Moreover, as he does not have potentiality, he cannot be actuated by anything else.
The existence of God in things.
God is in all things, not as essence or accident, but “as an agent is present in that upon which it works” (1, 8, 1). He is in all things as the cause of their being.
The Will of God
Does God’s will have a cause? No. As God by one act understands everything in his essence, so by one act he wills all things in his goodness (I, 19, 5).
The Providence of God
Providence does not impose a necessity on things because not all things have an inherent necessity. Some have necessary causes, others contingent causes (I, 22, 4).
Epistemology and Psychology
“Free will is the cause of its own movement, because by his free will man moves himself to act. But it does not of necessity belong to liberty that what is free should be the first cause of itself” (1, 8, 31).
Conclusion and Summary
Nothing substitutes for reading Thomas, preferably in large–very large–amounts. If one were to have to choose for an abridgment of Thomas, then Kreeft’s larger work is the one to read. Nonetheless, there is something useful about this shorter Summa. And Kreeft is always fun to read.
Introduction
On one hand, there is no substitute for reading Thomas Aquinas himself. If one must have an abridgment and/or guide, then Peter Kreeft’s longer Summa of the Summa is the best bet. But if that option is already available, is there any point to a Shorter Summa? Yes, but maybe not for all readers. Although the Summa of the Summa gives the reader everything he needs to know, it is nonetheless daunting. A Shorter Summa, by contrast, introduces the reader to medieval thought, gives the reader Thomas’s exact words, and avoids the more complicated discussions.
Epistemology
With respect to our dispensationalist friends, the best way to look at Thomas’s epistemology is by using charts.
Three Acts of the Mind
Understanding
Judging
Reasoning
Metaphysics
Existence of God
Kreeft makes the distinction between necessary existence, which applies to God, and our knowledge of that necessary existence. The predicate is included in the essence of the subject (1,2,1). God’s existence is not self-evident to us because we do not know the essence of God.
These articles are preambles to faith, not articles of faith (1, 2, 2).
Proof from motion: “Motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality.” Whatever is in motion is put in motion by another, but this cannot go on to infinity. In other words, change occurs. But what changes must be actualized by another, and this other will either be purely act or an admixture of act and potency. It is important to note what Thomas is not saying at this point. He is not saying that this goes backward in a linear fashion to a First Cause, with creation having its first moment. Rather, this series of causes is hierarchical in structure. The later terms depend on the (continued) existence of the first term. For example, if car A hits car B which hits car C, car A is the first cause in this linear series. If, after the accident, car A were to disappear, the damage would still be done. This is not what we mean when we apply hierarchical causality to God.
Simplicity of God
God cannot be made of parts if he is the first being, for who, then, would have put him together? Moreover, as he does not have potentiality, he cannot be actuated by anything else.
The existence of God in things.
God is in all things, not as essence or accident, but “as an agent is present in that upon which it works” (1, 8, 1). He is in all things as the cause of their being.
The Will of God
Does God’s will have a cause? No. As God by one act understands everything in his essence, so by one act he wills all things in his goodness (I, 19, 5).
The Providence of God
Providence does not impose a necessity on things because not all things have an inherent necessity. Some have necessary causes, others contingent causes (I, 22, 4).
Epistemology and Psychology
“Free will is the cause of its own movement, because by his free will man moves himself to act. But it does not of necessity belong to liberty that what is free should be the first cause of itself” (1, 8, 31).
Conclusion and Summary
Nothing substitutes for reading Thomas, preferably in large–very large–amounts. If one were to have to choose for an abridgment of Thomas, then Kreeft’s larger work is the one to read. Nonetheless, there is something useful about this shorter Summa. And Kreeft is always fun to read.
