Summa Theological: Complete English Edition in Five Volumes Paperback – 1 June 1981

Ah, Brother Thomas, where to begin? I read the concise translation, which was elegantly written and (naturally) concise, it was given to me by my late spiritual director...The printed version costs 244.88 $ close to 17,500 Indian Rs which is not actually much considering that most college textbooks these days can cost up to twice that much – if not more. The Kindle edition, on the other hand, costs 99 cents. Yes, it costs less than a dollar. (Infact I had it in my kindle for a very long time) However, it wasn’t the price that made me buy it and read it, it was the convenience of electronic form, which made it incredibly portable and accessible. Over the years I would be reading Summa on my Kindle, Tab, Phone and in all sorts of common and unlikely places – my desk, my bed, while waiting for my haircut, while waiting for the plane to take off, on the, while listening to a boring lecture, and sometimes even while waiting for the light to turn green at the traffic stop. (I know, I know.)Summa is not an easy read by any stretch of imagination. It is a densely argued treatise on almost all topics of Christian theology. It is also written in terms of concepts and categories derived form Aristotelian and Medieval philosophy, which are largely unfamiliar to the modern readers. Reading it can oftentimes feel like going through a large advanced mathematics textbook, with all the proofs and carefully precise reasoning that this entails. I knew all of this fully well before taking this plunge, but it did not deter me. I can’t say that I carefully thought out all the arguments that were laid out, and probably not much of it stuck with me in the end. However, at the end of it all I believe it was a more than worthwhile endeavor. First of all, it made me renew and deepen my appreciation for Thomistic Theology. It reminded me of the old saw that the Catholic Church is much bigger from within than form without. Catholic Theology is a vast repository of knowledge and insight that is well worth exploring throughout your whole lifetime.