The Ways of God: For Meditation and Prayer

by Thomas Aquinas

How to make the ways of God your ways. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote dozens of books, but of them all, this is the simplest, and the one that everyday Christians can use most easily to become more like God. Carry this pocket-sized paperback with you to make the ways of God your ways.

Genres: Christianity

82 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and theologian of Italy and the most influential thinker of the medieval period, combined doctrine of Aristotle and elements of Neoplatonism, a system that Plotinus and his successors developed and based on that of Plato, within a context of Christian thought; his works include the Summa contra gentiles (1259-1264) and the Summa theologiae or theologica (1266-1273).

Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.

People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."

Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have over the past 3 Years or so, read many books on Christian Theology, some complex and thick and profound, some profound yet small, it is always a wonder to me how in certain respects these small books on Living the Christian Life serve to illuminate the mind and create joy in our hearts. This book is one of those small books that do just that, I intend to read such books and to keep them and have them and come back to them many times, for these books do something that the bigger books on the same topic seem to be unable to do, this is not to put the bigger books to shame but here is Wisdom in its Naked Simplicity.

[Hanners · Rating 4 out of 5]

My priest said this book changed his life - he later took on Thomas Aquinas as his name when he joined the Dominican Order. It's a concise collection of what God is ("ways of God") and it was wisdom I needed when I was busy. Short and sweet.

[Jon Beadle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good in many places.