Friday, October 20, 2017

St. Thomas’ Earliest Treatment of the Sacraments Now in Print — and a 50% Sale on Other Volumes

As we have covered in the past (e.g., here and here), The Aquinas Institute has undertaken the project of publishing a Latin/English Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor in approximately 60 hardcover volumes. The progress has been impressive so far: the Summa Theologiae; the Pauline Commentaries; the Matthew and John Commentaries; the Job Commentary. All of these books, due to their high-quality texts and bindings and their comparatively low cost, have now become standard go-to editions for teachers, students, theologians, philosophers, and general readers.

After years of work under an NEH grant, The Aquinas Institute is happy to announce that the edition of Book IV of St. Thomas's early masterpiece, the Scriptum super Sententiarum or Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, is starting to be available in print, with volume 1, distinctions 1-13, just released. If you order this book directly from The Aquinas Institute, you can get it at a 50% discount (more on that below).

This past July I had the privilege of teaching the Albertus Magnus Summer Program in Norcia, devoted to the subjects of sacraments in general, baptism, and the Eucharist, using a preliminary copy of this volume. It was a great experience getting into the youthful Aquinas's wrestling with major questions of his day (and of ours, such as his treatment of whether and when sinners, and what kind of sinners, should be admitted to holy communion!). Once again, as with my own collection of parts of the Scriptum on love and charity, I found that reading the Scriptum on sacraments significantly enriched and enhanced my understanding not only of Aquinas's process of thinking and maturation, but, more importantly, of the sacred realities themselves, which are the end of all theology. It was a true intellectual banquet, and one that I highly recommend to readers with a serious interest in scholastic theology. (Earlier at NLM, I published a portion of text from this volume: St. Thomas's "division" of the Mass into its parts.)

Also worth of note is that the Latin edition of the Scriptum that is printed in this volume (and that will be used for all the volumes of the Scriptum) is derived from the classic Mandonnet-Moos volumes and corrected against the not-yet-released critical edition of the Leonine Commission, with whom the Aquinas Institute is collaborating. That feature makes these volumes the best Latin editions as well as the only English editions.

Please note, as well, that there is a 50% sale on all Aquinas Institute books during October only:
  • Summa theologiae (8 hardcover vols.): normally $360, on sale for $180
  • Commentaries on Paul (5 hardcover vols.): normally $225, on sale for $112.50
  • Commentaries on Matthew and John (4 hardcover vols.): normally $180, on sale for $90
  • Commentary on Job (1 hardcover): normally $45, on sale for $22.50
  • Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences (4 hardcovers--the first in print, the others to follow over the coming year): each volume normally $45, on sale for $22.50
To take advantage of the sale, visit The Aquinas Institute website.

The Aquinas Institute is well under way with Books II and III, with a new NEH grant. Other works will appear from time and time. Their publication will be duly noted here and at Thomistica.net.

Here are some photos of the new volume of the Opera Omnia.







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