Thomas Aquinas, the great scholastic figure, spent his life considering great theological questions. Gerd Heumesser invites religiously interested readers to join the great 13th-century theologian on a spiritual walk through the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar—beginning with the commemoration of the birth of Christ, marking Easter as the central point of the Church’s celebrations, all leading to the feast of Pentecost.
This lighthearted yet profound spiritual book begins with a walk guided by St. Thomas through the life and ministry of Jesus. The second chapter focuses on the “unredeemed man,” the counterpart to Christ the Redeemer, by considering Aquinas’ theology on venial and mortal sin. In the third and fourth chapters, Heumesser describes the Thomistic understanding of both the way and the result of the salvation offered by Christ.
He ends the book by leading his readers to the last things, to the way of God as it will inevitably occur for all humans. “God and the World,” the title of the sixth and final chapter, delves into the Incarnation, God in man and man in God: the unity that begins with Christmas unfolded in its entirety. Heumesser’s book succeeds in encouraging his readers to embark on a spiritual path of self-knowledge guided by Christianity’s greatest theologian.
The theology of Thomas Aquinas is suitable for leading today’s secular and increasingly godless world back to the salvation of the Gospel, and the author’s engaging style makes for an enjoyable as well as useful read. A list of sources, sorted by chapters and sections, enables further reading for an in-depth study of theological questions—as compelling today as in the 13th century.
