Life, Times, and Culture

Overview

In our introductory lecture, we encounter the life, times, and cultural context of Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Dominican friar and theologian who represents the height of medieval scholastic thought. We examine his embrace of Aristotelian philosophy, his formation from a Benedictine monastery to the University of Paris, and his innovative teaching methods through disputed questions that shaped his masterwork, the Summa Theologiae. The lecture concludes with insights into Aquinas’s personal sanctity, including his mystical experiences and his famous declaration that all his writings seemed like “straw” compared to what had been divinely revealed to him shortly before his death in 1274.