On Prayer And The Contemplative Life eBook

Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, he is also known within the latter as theDoctor Angelicus, the Doctor Communis, and the Doctor Universalis. The nameAquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county ofAquinoin present-dayLazio,Italy.  Among other things, he was a prominent proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of though (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known asThomism. He argued that God is the source of both the light of natural reason and the light of faith. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.
Unlike many currents in the Catholic Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle—whom he called "the Philosopher"—and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.

Translator:Hugh Pope