Tools for doing research into ThomasPlaced on the web: 2002-01-24  If you are doing research into the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht may help you with a broad range of tools that are useful or even necessary for your work. Most of these tools are accompanied by a short introduction, so that they are not only accessible to experienced scholars, but to students and junior researchers as well.
The tools are presented as four categories:
Background,
Primary literature,
Secondary literature,
Method.
Of course the order of our presentation is not necessarily the order in which your research is done. In our view, however, all four categories are essential to any serious enquiry into the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
Because of their interrelation some tools will be mentioned in more than one category.
Background
You can begin with your research by reading a general introduction to Aquinas´ thought and learn something about his life and works. A different approach is to commence with a survey of the Middle Ages, focusing your research on the thirteenth century. It can also be useful to make a more specialized inquiry into the field of thirteenth century Logic, Language Theories and Scholastic Method. The tools for doing so are mentioned in our first category: "Background".
A number of General Introductions to the world and thought of Thomas Aquinas are available, an incomplete list of which you can find here. Some of the general introductions offer a biography of Thomas Aquinas as well. For this reason these introductions are also listed under "Biographies".
Publications about the Middle Ages in general and especially about the thirteenth century are listed under "Historics".
Besides these publications which introduce you to the life, works and time of St. Thomas Aquinas, there are publications that can be helpful in becoming familiar with more technical aspects of the works of Aquinas, like the scholastic method he used. Therefore a list of publications is presented on medieval logic, language theories and scholastic method.
Primary Literature
It is impossible to obtain insight into Aquinas´ thought without reading the texts of the master himself. Therefore something about "Primary literature" will be said here.
If you are able to read the Angelic Doctor in Latin, or willing to learn doing so, you here can find a complete list of all the Latin editions of all of Aquinas´ works, beginning with the Opera omnia editions.
At this place also a list of instruments is offered which may be helpfull while reading these Latin texts: lexicons, concordances, etcetera. Finally, we offer you an incomplete list of the (Latin) sources used by Aquinas.
If, however, your knowledge of Latin is unsufficient, you may be happy to know that a number of Aquinas´ works is available in English. A list of any translations we know of is also available (Click here for translations in English and in German).
Secondary literature
For those who like to obtain a general insight into the way Aquinas thinks about certain topics, or who are interested in what others have said about a particular topic, the "Secondary literature" can be used.
Here, we mention once again the general introductions to Aquinas. Of course the list of thematical works is virtually endless. For this reason a list of some of the more recent publications is offered, presented by subject: on Scripture, on the Trinity, on Christology, on the Sacraments, on Redemption, on the soul, on faith, on knowledge, on moral theology, on friendship, on economics, on analogy and on logic.
Another possibility is to consult periodicals and bibliographies.
Method
Finally, you can reflect on the method which is used when studying Aquinas. The fourth category, "Method", is devoted to this. We distinguish between method with respect to the thought of Aquinas and method with respect to the reception of Aquinas´ theology in subsequent theology.
Insofar as we know, there are no monographical works on the methods that can be used while doing research into the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Neither do we know of any studies that treat the methods for doing research into the reception of Aquinas´ thought in later centuries. Reception, the influence of Aquinas on subsequent theology, has been dealt with by the researchproject ´The Theology of Thomas Aquinas´ of the Catholic Theological University at Utrecht. Literature especially on reception is rare. In fact we know of one work only that is dedicated to reception, which is one of the products of the Institute´s research. Nevertheless there are some other books that do reflect on the methods they are using. They are listed here, although some of them are presented above as general introductions or as thematical works.
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