A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding St. Thomas Aquinas’s Teaching about the Actual Composition of Essence and Esse in Created Beings

by Dr. Peter Anthony Achilles Redpath

This book explores St. Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysical principles, focusing on the relationship between essence (what a being is) and esse (the act of being) in finite creatures. Redpath highlights Étienne Gilson’s 20th-century revival of Aquinas’s teachings, emphasizing how these principles were misunderstood historically and remain challenging even among Thomists. Redpath critiques such misinterpretations, exploring the intricate composition of essence and existence that defines created beings.

The guide discusses the philosophical and theological implications of Aquinas’s doctrine, particularly its significance in understanding God’s nature as pure being and how this contrasts with the contingent nature of created entities. Redpath contextualizes Aquinas’s insights within the history of medieval philosophy, discussing the influence of thinkers like Aristotle, Avicenna, and Boethius on Aquinas’s synthesis of metaphysics and Christian theology.

Redpath emphasizes the centrality of “born-again Thomism,” a modern approach aiming to revive and clarify Aquinas’s teachings. By examining Aquinas’s metaphysical framework through arguments on the distinction between essence and esse, the guide seeks to bridge historical gaps in understanding and reaffirm the relevance of Thomistic thought for contemporary philosophical inquiry.

Paperback: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99

TESTIMONIALS

TBA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter A. Redpath (retired Full Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, New York) is author, editor, co-editor of 22 books and many dozens of articles and book reviews. An internationally recognized scholar, since 1980 he has given over 200 invited guest lectures nationally and internationally. Among his many accomplishments, he is CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership, LLC; former Founder and Chair of the Thomistic Studies Graduate Concentration in Christian Wisdom for Holy Apostles College and Seminary (USA); an Affiliate Scholar with the University Abat Oliba Graduate program (Barcelona, Spain). Peter is also co-founder of the Gilson Society (USA) and the International Etienne Gilson Society, the Adler-Aquinas Institute, and the Angelicum Academy and Great Books Academy homeschool programs (both founded with the help of Mortimer J. Adler); former executive editor of the Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS) for the Dutch publisher Editions Rodopi, B.V., and special series editor for Rodopi and Brill/Rodopi. Presently, he is a member of the editorial board of Brill Publishing’s Philosophy and Religion (PAR) series, a member of the Advisory Board of the Lyceum Institute, and Officer in Charge of Medieval Christian Philosophy and Academic Liaison to the Holy See for Global Scholarly Publications. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

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