How much do I need to know to fully understand Summa Theologiae? I know that Christian theology bases itself in Greek philosophy, but do I have to read all works of Plato and Aristotle from cover to cover, or is there a list of concepts that I need to wrap my mind around?
Understanding st. Thomas
Ryder Anderson
Noah Ross
just read the church fathers instead. this dude is a larper and constantly quotes pagans instead of the bible for some reason. he rarely references the church fathers, and only does so to attempt to "disprove" them. latins on this board defend this dude but never even read his stuff lmao. also i remember he said that those in heaven are fully aware of those in hell and revel in their suffering since it makes heaven better. just trash theology all around really. this is why latins so often fall victim to scholasticism and basically being pharisees.
Julian Evans
Believe it or not Summa is easy. It was written for brainlet seminaries so that they would have a solid grasp on theology. If you know basics you will get Aquinas well.
But now, what are basics? Well, I don't know. Once you read into Summa all that he wrote is basics. But I think that it can be summed in:
Eventaully 24 Thomistic Theses of Pius X
Jose Cook
Don't start with the Summa, it will be way over your head. Read Edward Feser's book called Aquinas first. He presents Aquinas in a newbie friendly way. You can't read his works without understanding what substance, essence, form, act, etc. are. Seriously, read Feser's book, he's the leading modern Thomist.
Asher Sanders
B-b-but I h-have r-r-read Mises and Marx without any problems.
Chase Reyes
They don't talk about metaphysics. You don't need the knowledge of specific metaphysical framework to read them.
Jayden Stewart
Liar.
Isaac Turner
so yeah, avoid this guy and read something more profitable
Joseph Ramirez
welcome to the lake of fire you reprobate get out of this thread
Wyatt Clark
why do people keep saying the summa is complicated. it's so simple, except that i always read "on contrary" first because i want to know what he actually says, then i check out the objections etc. if there's a term he uses and you don't know just look it up, it really doesn't take much work.
i feel people think aquinas is a lot more complicated than he actually is. lots of stuff is pretty straightforward.