St. Thomas Aquinas

Are we truly striving for heaven or merely avoiding hell?

The human heart's greatest longing is to see God as He is. And yet, many people simply want to escape hell's pain, or even worse, they follow our disordered fallen nature in choosing sinful pleasures. Our Lord said the road to heaven is narrow, but the road to hell is wide (see Matt. 7:13). Is choosing the road to heaven merely wanting to avoid pain, or is it actively pursuing the greatest good beyond imagining?

Do we choose the good because we strive to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, or do we choose the good merely because we fear hell?

God never leaves us alone in these choices. Indeed, He sends us His grace, but--to help us cooperate with that grace and fight valiantly--He also sends spiritual warriors and guides, of whom one of the greatest is Saint Thomas Aquinas.

In Angelic Virtues and Demonic Vices, Saint Thomas guides us on how to pursue our true celestial homeland while avoiding running to a false heaven. He outlines the various vices, and their forty-plus daughters, and details how to conquer them.

After reading this work, you will not only desire to become a saint because you will see how hideous vice truly is but also see how splendid and virtuous living for God is.

The essentials of Catholic doctrine
-- clearly and succinctly presented

Two years before he died, St. Thomas Aquinas -- probably the greatest teacher the Church has ever known -- was asked by his assistant, Brother Reginald, to write a simple summary of the Faith of the Catholic Church for those who lacked the time or the stamina to tackle his massive Summa Theologica.

In response, the great saint quickly set down -- in language that non-scholars can understand -- his peerless insights into the major topics of theology: the Trinity, Divine Providence, the Incarnation of Christ, the Last Judgment, and much more.

Here, then, is not only St. Thomas's concise statement of the key elements of his thought, but a handy reference source for the essential truths of the Catholic Faith.

St. Thomas will show you:

Saint Thomas Aquinas has been admired throughout the ages for his philosophical brilliance and his theological sanity, but author and professor Peter Kreeft thinks the practical spiritual wisdom of Aquinas is just as amazing.

In this book, Kreeft brings together 358 useful, everyday insights from Aquinas' masterpiece the Summa Theologiae. He pairs these easily digestible quotes from the Summa with his own delightfully written commentary in order to answer the kinds of questions real people ask their spiritual directors. These 358 passages from the Summa have helped Kreeft in his own struggles to grow closer to the Lord. His practical, personal, and livable advice is the fruit of his labors to apply the insights of Aquinas to his own quest for sanctity, happiness, and union with God.

G.K. Chesterton's brilliant sketch of the life and thought of Thomas Aquinas is as relevant today as when it was published in 1933. Then it earned the praise of such distinguished writers as Etienne Gilson, Jacques Martain, and Anton Pegis as the best book ever written on the great thirteenth-century Dominican. Today Chesterton's classic stands poised to reveal Thomas to a new generation.

Chesterton's Aquinas is a man of mystery. Born into a noble Neapolitan family, Thomas chose the life of a mendicant friar. Lumbering and shy -- his classmates dubbed him the Dumb Ox -- he led a revolution in Christian thought. Possessed of the rarest brilliance, he found the highest truth in the humblest object. Having spent his life amid the vast intricacies of reason, he asked on his deathbed to have read aloud the Song of Songs, the most passionate book in the Bible.

As Albert the Great, Thomas's teacher, predicted, the Dumb Ox has bellowed down the ages to our own day. Chesterton's book will enlighten those who would consign Thomas to the obscurity of medieval times. It will confound those who would use Thomas to bolster arid schemes of Christian rationalism. Rather, it will introduce the wondrous mystery of the man who, after a life of unparalleled genius, was seized by a vision of the Unknown and said, I can write no more. I have seen things which make all my writings like straw.