Is The Summa Theologica By St Thomas Aquinas...?

[KarenJoanna]

Is the Summa Theologica by St Thomas Aquinas all true to Catholic teaching and are we as Catholics obliged to believe it as such? Or is it just a written work with ideas?

[cappie]

Thomas Aquinas' principles were the standard of ethical teaching up to the Reformation and since then have become fundamental in Christian moral theology. There is no better overview of Catholic theology, in my opinion.

From the encyclical STUDIOREM DUCEM - Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on St Thomas Aquinas:

"We so heartily approve the magnificent tribute of praise bestowed upon this most divine genius that We consider that Thomas should be called not only the Angelic, but also the Common or Universal Doctor of the Church; for the Church has adopted his philosophy for her own, as innumerable documents of every kind attest."

 

In his encyclical of 4 August 1879, Pope Leo XIII stated that Thomas's theology was a definitive exposition of Catholic doctrine

 

Catholics are not obliged to accept the Summa as infallible or the only theological work as there are others, (Blessed John Duns Scotus come to mind as on whose teachings were used widely at the Council of Trent)  but as mentioned above Thomas has long had an influence over Catholic Theology.

 

St Pope John Paul not only studied the thought of St. Thomas over an extended period of time, but also thought highly of Thomas and urged others to study him as well. He was particularly struck by Thomas' metaphysical view of reality. From there using Thomas he then used the phenomenology of Max Scheler and his discovery of the usefulness of phenomenology's focus on intuition and description to carefully explore the contents of our experience, he began to use it increasingly as a method to try to uncover the whole truth about man.  He thought that there was something about man, namely consciousness, which had been uncovered by the modern approach,