Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern

(Chicago: Dee, 1998), 88

  • “Under present conditions a belief in the ultimate consistency of the world is no more justifiable than a belief in God.” (10)
  • “with his talents and family connections he could easily have become the archbishop of Naples...”: interesting to think how he could have been a forgotten archbishop rather than what he is
  • he admired and was inspired by St. Francis of Assisi
  • with the rediscovery of Aristotle and faced with new scientific discoveries in the period, medieval Christians needed to reconcile faith and reason (~30)
  • G.K. Chesterton describes St. Thomas Aquinas as “Organized common sense” (47)
  • Feynman’s “next great era of awakening of human intellect” is qualitative and points back to Aquinas (50)
  • Thomas is essentially practical, especially in his politics (like Aristotle) (54)
  • The author is no real fan of Aquinas: When Descartes published Discourse on Method..."Modern philosophy had begun, and the cobwebs of Aristotle and Thomism were swept away forever." (72-73)