Stump, Eleonore's Aquinas (Arguments of the Philosophers) by Stump, Eleonore published by Routledge [Hardcover]

Arguments of the Philosophers

by Eleonore Stump

Few philosophers or theologians exerted as much influence on the shape of medieval thought as Thomas Aquinas. He ranks amongst the most famous of the Western philosophers and was responsible for almost single-handedly bringing the philosophy of Aristotle into harmony with Christianity. He was also one of the first philosophers to argue that philosophy and theology could support each other. The shape of metaphysics, theology, and Aristotelian thought today still bears the imprint of Aquinas' work.In this extensive and deeply researched study, Eleonore Stump examines Aquinas' major works, Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles, and clearly assesses the vast range of Aquinas' thought. Philosophers, theologians, and students of the medieval period alike will find this unrivalled study an indispensable resource in researching and teaching Aquinas.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Catholic, Nonfiction, History, Christianity

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. She has published extensively in philosophy of religion, contemporary metaphysics, and medieval philosophy. Her books include her major study Aquinas (Routledge, 2003) and her extensive treatment of the problem of evil, Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (Oxford, 2010). She has given the Gifford Lectures (Aberdeen, 2003), the Wilde lectures (Oxford, 2006), and the Stewart lectures (Princeton, 2009). She is past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Philosophical Association, Central Division.

Reviews

[Joel Archer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome.

[Joseph Yue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brilliant systematic exposition of St. Thomas's thought is like no other, Stump in a rare authenticity and humility truly wrestles with some of the most puzzling difficulties in the Thomistic framework, and in many cases provides her original and extremely creative solution.

There are a couple of places where she probably got it wrong, for example, regarding the survival of one's personhood after death, she holds the survivalist position. In claiming that the person remains fundamentally complete after bodily death, Stump departs from St. Thomas himself and the traditional Thomistic consensus, and this position risks taking the evil of death not seriously enough.

Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the overflowing philosophical optimism and the accessible yet not flippant style of this book make it a treasure and a fresh breeze in contemporary philosophy. First, Stump honestly points out some serious challenges that Thomism entails in certain issues, but she always demonstrates an unwavering hope that a resolution is available at least in principle. Meanwhile, Stump is probably fully capable of writing this work in symbolic logic that has been plaguing metaphysics since at least early 20th century, but she chose instead to write in the simplest language possible, confident that truth relies not on linguistic sophistication. Thus understood, even though Stump is not a traditional Thomist down to every letter, she is most certainly a true Thomist in spirit, imbued with joy in pursuit of truth.

[Aid · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊.

I really enjoyed this, Stump explained many of the complex aspects of Aquinas' thought in a way which was both interesting and easy to understand. The best chapters were on God's simplicity and knowledge, as well as the ones on human freedom, the incarnation and the atonement, she gave really interesting interpretations of Aquinas' thought that I hadn't seen before but that make a lot of sense.

This book doesn't address his 5 ways, which was good because that is what I'd studied most prior to this, the book is great for getting a broad overview of what he thought as a whole, rather than just proving God's existence.

The chapter on the problem of evil was very unsatisfactory and didn't even address those who are damned, but only those who would be compensated for earthly evils in heaven, so I didn't enjoy that so much. But I guess you can only do so much in 1 chapter and she's written a whole other book on it, so I may read that.

Fantastic book, overall. Would highly recommend!