Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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SUMMA THEOLOGICA

The principal doctrinal synthesis in Catholic theology, written by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). The method used was the application of Aristotelian philosophy in the systematic and rational explanation of dogma and morals, without any substantial modification of the traditional teaching of the Church. Its central theme is God considered under aspects: 1. he is studied as Being, not only in himself but also outside himself, as the source of all things; 2. he is then seen as the Good, that is, as the end of created beings and especially of angels and men; 3. he is finally studied as the Way of humanity to God, not humanity in the abstract, but of the fallen human being who needed an incarnate God to be saved.