Benedict M. Guevin, OSB and CUA Press have done the anglosphere a great service in  bringing  Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP’s St. Thomas in plus simple (Cerf, 2019) into English as A Brief Life of St. Thomas Aquinas: The Theologian in His Context (CUA Press, 2024). As the latest editions of Torrell’s two volume magnum opus on Aquinas  together run almost one thousand pages, this two hundred page synthesis is a welcome introduction  to the Angelic Doctor’s writings, especially for beginners and non-specialists.

Torrell indicates in his foreword that his audience for this book is not academics looking for the latest research on the dating of key texts. Instead, he is writing for beginners who have limited exposure to even Aquinas’s  most famous works. A Brief Life is meant to encourage these beginners to read Aquinas’s  texts for themselves by introducing to them to Thomas as a person. Torrell does this principally by showing how the context of his life was far richer than the idealized picture of a tranquil friar alone with his books.

The first part of the book presents the high points and narrative arc of Torrell’s Saint Thomas Aquinas: Volume 1 The Person and His Work (CUA Press, 2023). In ten short chapters, Torrell traces Thomas’ life and work beginning with his upbringing in Montecasino, then through his teaching in Rome, Orvieto, and Paris, and ultimately his final residency in Naples and death. Unlike in the larger volume, where Torrell extensively engages with secondary literature, here he recounts the narrative of St. Thomas’ life with only quotations from Aquinas himself, and only minimal references to the dating of the texts.  

The beginning chapters of this biographical section reveal the tensions and responsibilities of Aquinas’s  early life. In “Early Years,” Torrell illuminates the politics Thomas’ family faced, the saint’s Benedictine upbringing in the abbey of Montecasino, and of course his famous flight from his family to join the Dominican order. Without recounting many of the more dramatic stories, Torrell moves on quickly to Aquinas’s  academic responsibilities as apprentice to Albert, Bachelor of the Sentences, and then Master of the Sacred Page. The chapters “Commentaries on Isaiah and the Sentences,” and “Master of Sacred Scripture” give the reader a sense of Aquinas’s  medieval and Dominican context, introducing them to Peter Lombard’s Sentences and the centrality of commenting on scripture and preaching for Aquinas as a Master of the Sacred Page.

From a textual perspective, Torrell introduces his readers to many lesser-known works such as his Commentary on Isaiah, as well as providing the background for Aquinas’s  more well- known early works the Commentary on the Sentences and the De veritate. Here, as in the rest of the book, the Dominican scholar gives his readers a taste of the careful manuscript studies that led to his dating of various works, without overburdening them with the details.

In the middle chapters “The Man of Combat” and “Sojourn at Orvieto,” Torrell highlights the aspects of Aquinas’s  life that are less well known: his polemics and his poetry. “The Man of Combat” chapter especially chronicles Thomas’ many interventions into the fierce debate between the seculars and the mendicants that embroiled the University of Paris. Despite his many responsibilities, Aquinas found time to defend his order and the religious life in a series of polemical works. Torrell also draws the reader’s attention to the Angelic Doctor’s composition of the office of Corpus Christi.

The chapters entitled “Summa Contra Gentiles” and “Summa Theologiae” are destined to be the most read of the entire work. In each of these chapters, Torrell presents the background, motivation, and structure of these signature texts. These chapters are relatively separate from the overall narrative of the book, so they can easily be excerpted to give to students before their first reading of Thomas. The chapter on the Summa includes a helpful summary of  Torrell’s argument for the exitus-reditus schema as the structure of the work, as well as the criticism it has elicited from other scholars.

The chapters on Aquinas’s second time teaching in Paris begin with the academic controversies of the University of Paris in the middle of the thirteenth century.  Torrell introduces the philosophical background of the debates on the eternity of the world, substantial form, and the unity of the agent intellect with an eye to their theological importance. He also highlights the distinctiveness of Thomas’ approach to the controversies, as witnessed by both the Angelic Doctor’s written responses and by the humility with which he treated his interlocutors. Furthermore,  Torrell gives color to Thomas’ daily life through its descriptions of the quodlibetal disputes and Thomas’ famous use of secretaries. These chapters are also home to  Torrell’s most sustained treatments of Thomas’ commentaries on the works of Aristotle and Neoplatonic philosophers.

A Brief Life’s chronology of Aquinas’s  life ends with “Last Time Teaching in Naples, 1272- 1273,” which describes his final courses and then death on the way to Lyon. Here  Torrell returns to the theme of Aquinas  as scripture commentator, exhorting his readers to recognize the value of Aquinas’s  most mature works: commentaries on St. Paul’s letters and the Psalms, as well as the understudied “Life of Christ” treatise in the Summa Theologiae. The chapter closes with a brief account of the vision of straw and then Thomas’ final journey and death.

After the biographical section,  Torrell addresses Aquinas’s  use of authorities. In the “Thomas and His Sources” chapter, he makes the case for the primacy of scripture, a “reverential” reading of the fathers (properly understood), and a critical engagement with Greek and Arab philosophy. Readers interested in the recovery of scripture and the Fathers as sources for theology or the relationship between philosophy and theology will find both key passages from Thomas himself and thought-provoking arguments from  Torrell in this chapter.

The book concludes with two chapters that capture some of  Torrell’s most influential insights from Saint Thomas Aquinas: Volume 2 Spiritual Master. In “God Who Loves the World,”  Torrell present Thomas’ theology of God the creator, Christology, and theology of charity in terms of the exitus of creation from God and its reditus back to God through Christ and his

charity. The final chapter “What is Most Noble in the World” highlights many of the most important features of Aquinas’s moral theology.  Torrell emphasizes the dynamism of Thomas’ account of the image of God, the relationship between nature and grace, and the centrality of friendship.

A Brief Life will not replace the two volume Saint Thomas Aquinas series on an academic’s shelf, but with this simple work  Torrell has greatly expanded the pool of readers who can benefit from his scholarship. Any beginner—whether an undergraduate student, seminarian, or just someone interested in theology—who wants to start reading Aquinas or venture beyond the Summa would benefit from the synthesis and introduction to Aquinas  and his texts A Brief Life provides.

The first portion of this book could also be helpful to anyone who does not have a background in the details of Aquinas’s  life or need to brush up on his overall body of work. . These first 130  pages present a sweeping picture of Aquinas’s life that makes an excellent prelude before diving into the relevant pages of The Person and His Work.

However, academic readers should be aware that A Brief Life has few citations. Other than two bibliography references to Person and His Work and Spiritual Master, there is not a single citation, reference, bibliography entry, or index in the entire work. Occasional quotations from other scholars are noted only briefly (eg., E. Gilson) without reference to their source and primary sources are not cited at all. There is usually enough context to help the reader find the original text, but the lack of references may confuse beginners looking for the full passage behind the quotation. There is no doubt Torrell’s quotations are accurate, as reviews of the original citation-less French text attest, but a second edition with fuller citations, a thematic index, and a list of recommended English translations would be most welcome.
Torrell’s apologies for the simplicity of this book are unnecessary. A Brief Life’s brevity does not impede him from doing what he does best – presenting the context  of Aquinas  backed up by the latest manuscript research – in a form digestible to the beginner. He is bound to touch the hearts of many readers by presenting a full picture of Thomas’ life and works, plus showing the Angelic Doctor at his dogmatic finest. It is an accomplishment for anyone to produce an effective synthesis of their work; for someone of  Torrell’s erudition and breadth of research to do so in his nineties is simply a triumph.

Reviewed by: Molly Egilsrud