The Way of Aquinas

About this book

St. Thomas Aquinas did not arrive at his towering wisdom by standing still. His thought was forged on the highways and byways of his time, through castles and cloisters, universities and cities, mountains and monasteries. In this engaging book, Dr. Chad Engelland invites you to retrace the journey that shaped one of the greatest minds in history and, in so doing, to better grasp the inner logic and living experience behind Thomas's philosophy and theology. From his noble birth in a hilltop castle in southern Italy, to his childhood formation at Montecassino, to the intellectual crucible of Paris and back again across Italy, Thomas's travels were not incidental. They heightened his understanding of the human person as a wayfarer -- one always on the move toward truth, goodness, and God. Engelland chronicles Thomas's waystations with care and insight, reading Thomas's major works in light of the places, events, and trials that colored them. Lightning strikes, imprisonment, academic conflict, and liturgical epiphanies all become key to understanding how Thomas thought and why his ideas still matter. Interwoven with this medieval pilgrimage is Engelland's own retracing of Thomas's route while living in Rome with his wife and four children. Vivid descriptions and breathtaking photographs bring the landscapes, churches, and ordinary places of Thomas's life into sharp focus, allowing readers to see what Thomas saw and to sense how truth arose for him through bodily experience. More than biography or travel writing, this book reveals "the way of Aquinas" -- his daring vision of the human good, of freedom ordered toward love, and of wisdom that heals and elevates.