Rating: 
Summary: just OK
Review: On one hand, this book was better than I expected. Chesterton's style is entertaining and easy to read. But on the other hand, the book seemed to repeat a few simple ideas over and over and over again. Aquinas's theology was not discussed at all, and his philosophy was only briefly touched upon. The rest of the book was spent repeating how intelligent and large and humble and quiet Aquinas was.
Rating: 
Summary: Biography as an Introduction to Philosophy
Review: Reading Chesterton is a little like learning a foreign language - persistence is the key. At first he's difficult to understand, but for the reader that continues, eventually the light goes on and everything makes sense.It's amazing that Chesterton was able to pack so much into so little of a book. This brilliant introduction to Aquinas should be required reading on all college campuses. Chesterton admits that the book is a biography. His hope is that it will introduce readers to Aquinas' philosophy and therefore lead them into his theology. The theology, Chesterton also admits, is the one thing that he has left out of the book. Instead, Chesterton spends a great deal of time comparing Aquinas to St. Francis of Assisi - a comparison which at first might seem quite odd. In classic Chesterton style, he demonstrates that the two friars were perhaps more similar than they were different. Each generation, Chesterton writes, is converted by the saint who contradicts it most. Therefore, argues Chesterton, the 20th century is clutching at Thomism because it has neglected reason. "...as the eighteenth century thought itself the age of reason, and the nineteenth century thought itself the age of common sense, the twentieth century cannot as yet even manage to think itself anything but the age of uncommon nonsense," writes G.K. I was particularly intrigued by Chesterton's introduction of Martin Luther late in the book and his argument that the quarrel between the Augustinians and the Dominicans led, in part, to the Protestant Reformation. The brilliance of this book is both its simplicity and the Chestertonian gems discovered within. Modern readers, familiar with Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body", will note the connections between Aquinas' Incarnational theology, Chesterton's common sense, and the work of John Paul II.
Rating:
Summary: The Patron Saint of Certainty
Review: There is a clarity of purpose to Chesterton that one can't but admire. His agenda was always perfectly clear: to find a certainty that would bring sanity and proportion. Although his cheerful, reasonable, and very English religiosity couldn't be more different from the tortured, violent, and very Russian faith of Dostoevsky, they both had the same origin: the dread that if there is no God all is permitted and that then suicide is the only desirable alternative. As described here, St. Thomas Aquinas is the very embodiment of that Chestertonian ideal, a large bull of man with a quick intelligence (like Chesterton himself), whose certainty about the fundamentals (the existence of God, the desirableness of life, the validity of moral law, the authority of the Catholic Church) gave him a peace of mind, a sturdiness of purpose, and an almost child-like simplicity. I don't share Chesterton's metaphysics (I'm an atheist myself), but he is often more correct in his appreciations than many secular writers. For instance, reviewers in this page have criticized him for dismissing Islam and Buddhism, but what he says about them is perfectly accurate: Islam is theologically unsophisticated (the Koran emphasizes that the reward for abiding by its rules is a paradise peopled by "bashful virgins" and other perfectly earthly delights) and Buddhism is nihilistic (one should seek to extinguish all desire, and Nirvana can be reached only when one has ceased to want even that). Whether those are faults or virtues is up to the reader's own philosophy. I recommend this book as an eloquent exposition of the antithesis to existentialist angst, and as such it should be of interest to the religious and the secular alike.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant biographical essay on Aquinas
Review: This book is the first that I read from the British author Chesterton and I can assure you that it will not be the last, next in line being his book essay on Saint Francis of Assisi, a subject which was the natural amicable counterpoise to the pounderous Thomas Aquinas. But I must confess in hindsight that the authorship was necessarily second in importance to the subject himself, The Dumb Ox, also known as Doctor Angelicus, who, along with Saint Augustine, were the most prolific and untiresome champions of the Catholic doctrine.
After engaging myself in the difficult reading of Thomas Aquinas masterwork Summa Theologica, an opus some 3.000 + pages long, written in Middle Age Latin, the book from Chesterton serviced me as a respite from the intricacies of Aquinas uneventful vocabulary and Aristotelian terminology, with never ending « contras, praeterea, seds, respondeos, et cetera », when approaching some difficult points in doctrine.
It is an agreeable but necessary contradiction that a so gigantic man like Aquinas is portrayed trough a so small and unpretentious booklet, although it could be also said that notwithstanding the size of any Aquinas' biography, such a towering subject would always remain as elusive as ever, winning over any attempt to reduce him to human proportions or contours. But what the reader has in the end is a thorough view of Aquinas in what is now known as the most important biography of the Doctor Angelicus.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect primer for the interested but uninformed.
Review: This is a perfect book for someone like me: a lapsed but still interested Catholic who could never keep Aquinas and Augustine straight. Chesterton packs more theology and philsophy into this slim volume, and makes it much more accessible, than any massive tome on same subject. I don't think I've ever read any thing that combines brevity and challenging ideas like this book. It's confirms my belief that all such books should be written by intelligent laymen instead of academic specialists. And he's a marvelous stylist, to boot, with a devilish, droll wit in his voice. The best compliment is that this book has now motivated me to read the Dumb Ox himself, and I've already picked up two volumes of his works. (As a little sidenote: it makes a neat companion to Eco's The Name of the Rose. I ended up reading both together during the Holidays, Chesterton in the morning, Eco at night, and they dovetail in all sorts of intriguing ways, each shedding monastic light on the other. If you're looking for a fun reading project, give it a try.)
Rating:
Summary: Perfect primer for the interested but uninformed.
Review: This is a perfect book for someone like me: a lapsed but still interested Catholic who could never keep Aquinas and Augustine straight. Chesterton packs more theology and philsophy into this slim volume, and makes it much more accessible, than any massive tome on same subject. I don't think I've ever read any thing that combines brevity and challenging ideas like this book. It's confirms my belief that all such books should be written by intelligent laymen instead of academic specialists. And he's a marvelous stylist, to boot, with a devilish, droll wit in his voice. The best compliment is that this book has now motivated me to read the Dumb Ox himself, and I've already picked up two volumes of his works. (As a little sidenote: it makes a neat companion to Eco's The Name of the Rose. I ended up reading both together during the Holidays, Chesterton in the morning, Eco at night, and they dovetail in all sorts of intriguing ways, each shedding monastic light on the other. If you're looking for a fun reading project, give it a try.)
Rating: 
Summary: a flawed but fascinating read
Review: This is my first experience with Chesterton's work, and I now plan to read his work on St. Francis as well. It is easy to see how this book could change someone's life. I am a non-Catholic and probably even a non-Christian, but for those who are able to listen closely to a voice of faith, Chesterton is a powerful advocate. There are several considerable weaknesses to the book. The most irritating is its smug dismissveness toward Islam, Buddhism, even Calvinism, all of which get packaged together under the bulky catch-all phrase "Oriental pessimism." Islam in particular is insulted with the description "a simple creed for simple men." But every vice has its bright side, and I admit that it was refreshing to read an author who bluntly states an opinion about ultimate truths without the contemporary p.c. blandness which refuses to make decisions of any kind about ultimate truths. Another weakness is that the book tends to ramble. There presumably isn't enough information about Aquinas to make a typical linear biography possible, but at times Chesterton jumps around so much into historical digressions that the reader loses focus. Also, many of his analogies are rather dated, and some stand desperately in need of explanatory footnotes for the non-British reader. However, the strengths of the book are numerous. I must confess to having viewed Aquinas previously as a bit of a bone-dry pedant, a powerful and important intellect but still basically a dull company man. I have read numerous brief sketches of Aquinas' life, but Chesterton's is the first to shatter my preconceptions about the Angelic Doctor. He accomplishes this the way every good biographer knows-- return the well-known fossilized data of your subject's life to their initial _dramatic_ form. From young Thomas' controversial decision to become a mendicant friar, to his status as the laughing-stock of fellow students for his beer-barrel physique and silent demeanor, to the recognition of his intelligence by the sparkling mentor Albertus Magnus, on up to the amusing scene at St. Louis' dinner and the final strife with Siger of Brabant, I felt that Chesterotn's material was worthy of Hollywood (which, of course, would botch it horribly). Read this book if you have any interest in philosophy whatsoever. For practicing Catholics I imagine it would speak even more to the heart than it did for me, which was already a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: a down-to-earth biography of a truly rational philosopher
Review: This may seem like a book for insiders, those of the Catholic faith or those with an interest in Catholicism or even in Christianity. However, rather than addressing the choir, Mr. Chesterton's book on St. Thomas is aimed at the non-Christian or at Christians with little experience in theology or philosophy. Written in troubled times (the book was first published in 1933 and there are passing references to Hitler, Mussolini, and the Great Depression), the author manages to sketch the life of St. Thomas and at the same time reveal how Thomistic philosophy is relevant to curing the ills of the modern era. Readers may be surprised to find that the complexity of St. Thomas' thought is rooted in simplicity. As Chesterton says, St. Thomas argues "for a common sense which would even now commend itself to most of the common people. He is arguing for the popular proverbs that seeing is believing; that the proof of the pudding is in the eating; that a man cannot jump down his own throat or deny the fact of his own existence." To any reader accustomed to modern philosophies and ideas which make no sense, St. Thomas is like a breath of fresh air. Though the work is devotional, Chesterton honors his subject by avoiding sentimentalism and keeping to an equally direct, no-nonsense approach. Referring to St. Thomas' combativeness, Chesterton says, "This [combativeness], in his case, certainly did not mean bitterly or spitefully or uncharitably; ...as a matter of fact, it is generally the man who is not ready to argue [intelligently], who is ready to sneer." Following in St. Thomas' footsteps, Chesterton is disposed to argue intelligently, but never sneer. The author respects the reader by not watering down St. Thomas' philosophy or his own beliefs or by patronizing the views of others. In sum, Chesterton does not sacrifice respect for his readers in order to achieve common sense simplicity (unlike authors who boldly refer to readers in their book titles as dummies or idiots). Mr. Chesterton also wrote a biographical sketch of St. Francis of Assisi before he wrote the book on St. Thomas. It's worthwhile to read the sketch of St. Francis first since Chesterton uses a comparison with St. Francis to begin his discussion of St. Thomas. Certain themes in the biography of St. Francis also recur in the book on St. Thomas, making knowledge of the prior book repeatedly valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Like the review below: Flawed but Fascinating
Review: This was my first experience with Chesterton also, and I found his writing to be very powerful and his illustration of St. Thomas to be very clear and illuminating. But his dismissals of Buddhism, Islam, etc, are not strong enough to stand up. While it is refreshing to hear someone really say what they think, it is saddening that it seems as though he's never really been exposed to any of these religions. Still, what matters is his portrayal of the Angelic Doctor, and this is masterful.
|
