Aquinas 201: Reading the Summa at the Next Level

A Davenant Hall Fellows Lecture with Q&A offered by Prof. Ryan Hurd with a response by Dr. David Haines. In recent years, there has been a welcome resurgence of interest in Thomas Aquinas among Protestants. Many have recovered his masterwork, the Summa Theologiae, as a go-to resource for dogmatic questions. Even where they disagree with it, it has once more become an indispensable tool for doing theology. However, when reading the Summa, students can quickly max out the resources helpful for introductory learners. Careful reading on their own often hits a wall which can be difficult to climb. Students may feel they have a basic grasp of some of Aquinas’s big ideas and way of working, but sense that there is much more to be unlocked. In this lecture, Ryan Hurd gives some more advanced tips for reading the Summa and understanding the greater logic of Aquinas’s thought. Anyone desiring to go to “the next level” in understanding Aquinas will benefit. David Haines then offers a response to Ryan’s lecture, before an open discussion and Q&A time.