"[O]ne of the most famous philosophers who has ever lived, and today we still recognize him as a truly revolutionary thinker" (James Hannam), Thomas Aquinas was nicknamed the "Angelic Doctor" by the Roman Catholic Church, and his philosophy and theology—in which he sought to weld the teachings of Scriptures with the rational philosophy of Aristotle—has provided her with one of her strongest intellectual bulwarks ever since.
Thomas Aquinas was born in Italy into a family with royal connections. From an early age his parents had already mapped out his future for a career in the Church, for which they enrolled him in the University of Naples. In 1244 he joined the Dominican order against his family wishes, instead of the more comfortable Benedictine (the family locked him up in family castle hoping he would recant). His talent was, however, quickly recognized and he was moved to the University of Paris where he studied under its famous teacher, Albert the Great, receiving his doctorate in theology in 1257. He spent all the rest of his life as a professor at the university, and there produced the works for which he is still famous, the work of apologetics, Summa contra Gentiles (1261-64), commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle, and, of course, Summa Theologica, his most famous work that summed up his theology and philosophy, which he began in 1265, but had to discontinue due to ill health in 1273 and remained uncompleted at his death the following year.
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