Issue 73

Interesting and unusual fact about Thomas Aquinas

How accounting, Aristotle, and the first teachers’ unions transformed higher education.

His family thought he was throwing his life away. His classmates thought he was stupid. They didn’t understand.

A life of fabulous privilege lost its grip on Thomas.

Why did Thomas suddenly cut short his career? One famous author has a guess.

Taken as a whole, the Summa Theologica overwhelms most readers. So take one bite at a time.

With systematic seriousness, the doctor answers a key question of faith: If God predestines, why should we pray?

How accounting, Aristotle, and the first teachers’ unions transformed higher education.

Not all medieval students were monks, but all observed a regimented lifestyle.

In a letter, Thomas shares his tips for academic success.

Benedictines, Franciscans, and Dominicans all sought to live by high ideals, but only one order matched Thomas’s love for both spirituality and intellect.

The Christian History timeline.

When competing ideologies had fragmented Christian thought, Thomas forged a solution.

His views on government, law, and economics would shake the system.

The white heat produced by these great minds lit up the High Middle Ages.

Why was one of Christianity’s best thinkers so ready to learn from a Muslim and a Jew?

Thomas respected Muslims’ knowledge of philosophy, but their misconceptions about Christianity concerned him deeply.

Whenever it seems that Aquinas might recede into dusty memory, a new wave of truth-seekers brings him back.

Evangelicals can embrace a rich inheritance from Aquinas.