The Philosophy of Being

by Henri Renard

This is a new release of the original 1947 edition.

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 27, 2013

Reviews

[Zachary Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A very useful work that essentially functions as a commentary on Aquinas’s understanding of the nature of being. I left this book littered with highlights and notes, and at times this book is worthy of a higher rating—but the final quarter of the book is so dense that it becomes quite the slog to work. This is particularly true of the chapter on predicamental accidents (which is of less interest as a Protestant reader given the importance of this issue to the Catholic understanding of transubstantiation in the Eucharist).

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas. It does get fairly technical so it is worthwhile to read slowly and take notes to follow the arguments well. This book addresses Aquinas' metaphysics from a philosophical perspective and the author is a catholic, but apart from a brief mention of transubstantiation towards the end there are no major disagreements with Protestant theology. One of the last chapters on supposit and person was short but helpful for a proper doctrine of Christ and the incarnation and the proper understanding of Christ assuming a human nature not a human person.

It is helpful to have Wuellner's dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy nearby while reading to look up terms as needed otherwise you can get lost in the dense terminology. It is a very helpful book and has a lot of rich theological applications especially for the Doctrine of God, Trinity, and Christology.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A no frills introduction to Thomistic metaphysics.