Philosophical (Thomistic) Reading Plan
READING PLAN FOR THE TRAINED PHILOSOPHER'S STUDY OF AQUINAS: 4 – 8 months
We provide the following Plan so that it may serve as a refresher course for those already familiar with Aquinas’s thought.
STAGE 1 (Month 1)
Brian Davies’s The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (or, from another point of view, Eleonore Stump’s Aquinas)
Ralph McInerny’s Ethica Thomistica
STAGE 2 (Month 2)
Norman Kretzmann’s The Metaphysics of Theism
Ralph McInerny’s Praeambula fidei
STAGE 3 (Month 3)
John Wippel’s The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas
STAGE 4 (Month 4)
Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy: Aquinas: Summa theologiae, Questions on God
STAGE 1 (Month 1)
Brian Davies’s The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (or, from another point of view, Eleonore Stump’s Aquinas)
Ralph McInerny’s Ethica Thomistica
STAGE 2 (Month 2)
Norman Kretzmann’s The Metaphysics of Theism
Ralph McInerny’s Praeambula fidei
STAGE 3 (Month 3)
John Wippel’s The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas
STAGE 4 (Month 4)
Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy: Aquinas: Summa theologiae, Questions on God
READING PLAN FOR IN-DEPTH STUDY OF AQUINAS: 6-11 months & 4 – 8 months
Here, on the other hand, is a way into the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, if you have no familiarity with it whatsoever. By following this road-map, you will give yourself a very solid foundation in Thomistic philosophy.
Reading Plan Alpha
STAGE 1 (Month 1 and 2)
Josef Pieper’s Guide to Thomas Aquinas
Edward Feser’s Aquinas
Jacques Maritain’s Introduction to Philosophy
STAGE 2 (Month 3)
Herbert McCabe’s The Good Life
Jacques Maritain’s Man and the State
Brenden Purcell’s From Big Bang to Big Mystery
STAGE 3 (Month 4)
Gerard Verschuuren’s Aquinas and Modern Science
Stephen M. Barr’s Modern Physics and Ancient Faith
STAGE 4 (Month 5)
Etienne Gilson’s God and Philosophy
Norris Clarke's The One and the Many
FINAL STAGE (Month 6)
Gaven Kerr’s Aquinas’s Way to God
Thomas Aquinas’s On Being and Essence
Reading Plan Omega
This Plan requires your procuring/purchasing St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation, edited by Timothy McDermott. ($33.44 on Amazon, for example.)
As McDermott explains in his editor’s note, this volume is an abridged version of the Summa,—but abridged in a way so as to provide you, the reader, with a holistic presentation of Aquinas’s Summa. It is also a faithful translation. The whole range of Aquinas’s ideas are contained within it. We love it.
Excellent and attainable as the English Dominican Fathers’ translation is,it is not always intellectually "accessible" to students of philosophy/theology who are new to, or unfamiliar with, the Scholastic tradition. The Concise Summa, then, is an excellent Summa for the 21st century, and may be used even by experts for helping women and men outside of the Scholastic tradition, (even perhaps outside of Christianity,) to recognize the depth of Aquinas’s thought.
STAGE 1 (Month 1)
pp. xiii-163, or rather, Part I
STAGE 2 (Months 2 and 3)
pp. 165-467, or rather, Part II
STAGE 3 (Month 4)
pp. 471-600, or rather, Part III
Reading Plan Alpha
STAGE 1 (Month 1 and 2)
Josef Pieper’s Guide to Thomas Aquinas
Edward Feser’s Aquinas
Jacques Maritain’s Introduction to Philosophy
STAGE 2 (Month 3)
Herbert McCabe’s The Good Life
Jacques Maritain’s Man and the State
Brenden Purcell’s From Big Bang to Big Mystery
STAGE 3 (Month 4)
Gerard Verschuuren’s Aquinas and Modern Science
Stephen M. Barr’s Modern Physics and Ancient Faith
STAGE 4 (Month 5)
Etienne Gilson’s God and Philosophy
Norris Clarke's The One and the Many
FINAL STAGE (Month 6)
Gaven Kerr’s Aquinas’s Way to God
Thomas Aquinas’s On Being and Essence
Reading Plan Omega
This Plan requires your procuring/purchasing St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation, edited by Timothy McDermott. ($33.44 on Amazon, for example.)
As McDermott explains in his editor’s note, this volume is an abridged version of the Summa,—but abridged in a way so as to provide you, the reader, with a holistic presentation of Aquinas’s Summa. It is also a faithful translation. The whole range of Aquinas’s ideas are contained within it. We love it.
Excellent and attainable as the English Dominican Fathers’ translation is,it is not always intellectually "accessible" to students of philosophy/theology who are new to, or unfamiliar with, the Scholastic tradition. The Concise Summa, then, is an excellent Summa for the 21st century, and may be used even by experts for helping women and men outside of the Scholastic tradition, (even perhaps outside of Christianity,) to recognize the depth of Aquinas’s thought.
STAGE 1 (Month 1)
pp. xiii-163, or rather, Part I
STAGE 2 (Months 2 and 3)
pp. 165-467, or rather, Part II
STAGE 3 (Month 4)
pp. 471-600, or rather, Part III
READING PLAN(S) FOR A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
There are two ways to go about reading a history of philosophy: the multi- and the one-volume way.
Multi-Volume
There are several fine multi-volume histories dedicated to filling you in on “the Western philosophical tradition.” However it remains true that Fr. Copleston’s 10-volume set, A History of Philosophy, is the preferred multi-volume history.
Reading it is a long and laborious project, and will take you a year and a half to complete,— if done in the manner we here recommend. It requires starting with the first volume, and concluding a volume every one or two months. (Brandon Vogt, for example, has provided a similar reading agenda for a similar sort of endeavor.) There are other fine multi-volume sets, like Kenny’s, but we don’t recommend these here.
One Volume
The one-volume approach is a fine way to engage philosophy, especially while discerning a vocation as a friar. We recommend John Deely’s Four Ages of Understanding.
There are other fine one-volume histories, but none of them beats Deely’s. Similar to Copleston, Deely approaches the history primarily from the Aristotelian/Thomist perspective. It is also true that he reads “the history” through the lens of semiotics.
Deely occasionally provides too little content with regard to several philosophers in the modern/contemporary camps. Deely’s volume, however, can easily be read alongside Roger Scruton’s Modern Philosophy should one crave a fuller treatment of those thinkers. (Note: Scruton approaches philosophy from a realism-friendly, although not Aristotelian-Thomist, perspective.)
You need two months to finish Deely’s volume. The first two parts should be completed in the first month; the last two parts in the second. Careful attention to Deely’s volume will well prepare you for philosophical studies as a friar.
Finally, one might read Ralph McInerny’s excellent A History of Western Philosophy. McInerny was an excellent philosopher who taught at Notre Dame. His volume takes only a month.
Multi-Volume
There are several fine multi-volume histories dedicated to filling you in on “the Western philosophical tradition.” However it remains true that Fr. Copleston’s 10-volume set, A History of Philosophy, is the preferred multi-volume history.
Reading it is a long and laborious project, and will take you a year and a half to complete,— if done in the manner we here recommend. It requires starting with the first volume, and concluding a volume every one or two months. (Brandon Vogt, for example, has provided a similar reading agenda for a similar sort of endeavor.) There are other fine multi-volume sets, like Kenny’s, but we don’t recommend these here.
One Volume
The one-volume approach is a fine way to engage philosophy, especially while discerning a vocation as a friar. We recommend John Deely’s Four Ages of Understanding.
There are other fine one-volume histories, but none of them beats Deely’s. Similar to Copleston, Deely approaches the history primarily from the Aristotelian/Thomist perspective. It is also true that he reads “the history” through the lens of semiotics.
Deely occasionally provides too little content with regard to several philosophers in the modern/contemporary camps. Deely’s volume, however, can easily be read alongside Roger Scruton’s Modern Philosophy should one crave a fuller treatment of those thinkers. (Note: Scruton approaches philosophy from a realism-friendly, although not Aristotelian-Thomist, perspective.)
You need two months to finish Deely’s volume. The first two parts should be completed in the first month; the last two parts in the second. Careful attention to Deely’s volume will well prepare you for philosophical studies as a friar.
Finally, one might read Ralph McInerny’s excellent A History of Western Philosophy. McInerny was an excellent philosopher who taught at Notre Dame. His volume takes only a month.