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/

OTHER PHILOSOPHY BOOKS

The Development of Political Theory by Richard Bishirjian

The Development of Political Theory by Richard Bishirjian

The Development of Political Theory: A Critical Analysis by Richard Bishirjian Students of political science properly hunger for comprehensive approaches to political theory which place in theoretical perspective the major ideas which govern the world today. This...

read more
Metaphysics, Truth and St. Thomas Aquinas

Metaphysics, Truth and St. Thomas Aquinas

Metaphysics, Truth and St. Thomas Aquinas by Dr. Donald G. Boland In studying natural wisdom, Dr. Boland takes a look at how Aristotle defends the principle of non-contradiction, focusing on the great philosopher's treatment of the causes that prompted the ancients to...

read more
Thomas of the Creator

Thomas of the Creator

Thomas of the Creator by Dr. Donald G. Boland Based on the works of St. Thomas, in particular his two Summas and his commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics, this book is divided into three parts; 1) The Existence of God; 2) His Essence; 3) His Attributes,...

read more
Political Science and Saint Thomas Aquinas

Political Science and Saint Thomas Aquinas

Political Science and Saint Thomas Aquinas by Dr. Donald G Boland This book seeks to provide a relatively complete basis for the understanding of political science as presented by Aristotle, with the help of Saint Thomas Aquinas mainly by way of his (partial)...

read more
Ethics Today and Saint Thomas Aquinas

Ethics Today and Saint Thomas Aquinas

Ethics Today and Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Complete Course on Moral Philosophy for Our Time and All Times by Dr. Donald G. Boland This book seeks to provide a complete moral philosophy based on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. The first part deals with the principles or...

read more
Natural Law – Australian Style

Natural Law – Australian Style

Natural Law - Australian Style: A Study in Disputation focusing on the Work of Peter Singer, John Finnis and Tracey Rowland by Dr. Donald G. Boland This book is a critique of the three most prominent Australian "authorities" on Law and Ethics of the present day,...

read more
The Battle for the 20th Century Mind by Ronda Chervin

The Battle for the 20th Century Mind by Ronda Chervin

The Battle for the 20th Century Mind by Ronda Chervin TBA     Paperback: $19.95 | Kindle: $9.99 Reviews A review of Dr. Ronda Chervin’s, The Battle for the 20th Century Mind (St. Luis, MO: En Route Books and Media, 2022) by Francis Etheredge Ronda Chervin sets out her...

read more
Conscious Energy and the Evolution of Philosophy

Conscious Energy and the Evolution of Philosophy

Conscious Energy and the Evolution of Philosophy by Joe P. Provenzano This is a book about philosophy, but it is a book for everyone—everyone who has ever wondered about the meaning of the universe and human life—because it provides answers to two fundamental...

read more
Three Acts: A Commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus

Three Acts: A Commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus

Three Acts: A Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus by Brandon Spun This guide to Plato’s Theaetetus is both an introduction to philosophy and an analysis of the dialogue according to the three acts of the mind. It suggests that Plato explores the problem of knowledge by...

read more
Philosophy Begins in Wonder

Philosophy Begins in Wonder

Philosophy Begins in Wonder by Stephen D. Schwarz with Kiki Latimer This book is the compilation of over fifty years of teaching Ethics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of the Person, and Virtue Ethics in the classroom setting. Philosophy Begins in Wonder offers...

read more
The Gender Link to the Human Soul by Kimberly Bruce

The Gender Link to the Human Soul by Kimberly Bruce

The Gender Link to the Human Soul by Kimberly Bruce The Gender Link to the Human Soul establishes gender as an element of the soul retained in this life and for all eternity. This is demonstrated in the brilliant philosophical insights of Thomas Aquinas and John Paul...

read more
How to Listen & How to Speak by Dr. Peter Redpath

How to Listen & How to Speak by Dr. Peter Redpath

How to Listen & How to Speak: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants to Renew Commonsense and Uncommonsense Wisdom in the Contemporary World by Dr. Peter Redpath While the subject of this monograph is chiefly human communication in the form of listening and speaking,...

read more
Words, Concepts, Reality: Aristotelian Logic for Teenagers

Words, Concepts, Reality: Aristotelian Logic for Teenagers

Words, Concepts, Reality: Aristotelian Logic for Teenagers By Thaddeus Kozinski, Ph.D. When we hear the word logic, we tend to think of arguments, premises and conclusions, claims and evidence for claims. But this is only half of it. Arguments are made of words, and...

read more
Soulful Organizational Leadership by Arthur William McVey

Soulful Organizational Leadership by Arthur William McVey

Soulful Organizational Leadership by Arthur William McVey In the "Postmodern" organizational era, the concept of soul, spirituality, rationality, telos, virtue, happiness, and meaning is becoming increasingly a mainstream component in scientific psychology. This...

read more
Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Twentieth Century

Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Twentieth Century

Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Twentieth Century by Alan Vincelette This presentation of Catholic philosophy in the twentieth-century reveals a remarkable diversity of views. Dr. Vincelette presents this diversity in an expository manner without applying the kind of...

read more
Broken Hearts in a Broken World by Gerard M. Verschuuren

Broken Hearts in a Broken World by Gerard M. Verschuuren

Broken Hearts in a Broken World by Gerard M. Verschuuren Brokenness has become endemic in our days. In poll after poll, the vast majority of respondents say that our country is fundamentally broken. Our political system is broken. Our economy is broken. Our very...

read more
The Thomist Tradition: Avoiding Scylla and Charybdis

The Thomist Tradition: Avoiding Scylla and Charybdis

The Thomist Tradition: Avoiding Scylla and Charybdis by Dr. Donald G Boland As with every great philosopher and theologian, the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, though perhaps the clearest expressed of all, has inevitably been subject to a variety of interpretations....

read more
Voyage to Insight

Voyage to Insight

Voyage to Insight by Dr. Ronda Chervin En Route Books and Media has reprinted Ronda Chervin and Lois Janis’ book Voyage to Insight with fresh, exciting graphics. It can be read straight through or you can add your own insights into the book and even dialogue about...

read more