Christian History Home > Issue 73 > From the Editor: The Eminent Obscure
From the Editor: The Eminent Obscure
How accounting, Aristotle, and the first teachers' unions transformed higher education.
Elesha Coffman | posted 1/01/2002 12:00AM
About a year and a half ago, we listed a number of potential issue topics on a survey and asked you, our readers, to choose your favorites. We figured that you would be most interested in American personalities, ministry pioneers, or maybe worship music—familiar, approachable topics that hit close to home.
You wanted Thomas Aquinas.
Now, Thomas is not exactly familiar. His name is familiar, certainly, but many people know little about him beyond a dictionary definition: thirteenth-century Italian theologian and philosopher, wrote (but never finished) Summa Theologica, developed concepts of natural law and transubstantiation.
None of this rudimentary information makes Thomas seem the least bit approachable. Theologian-philosophers write ponderous, inscrutable books. The Summa is, in fact, a ponderous, inscrutable book. Natural law and transubstantiation are ponderous, inscrutable ideas.
In portraits, Thomas even looks ponderous and inscrutable. Plus, he wears a monastic robe and a halo, which ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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