The Aquinas Institute‘s goal is simple: to get all of Aquinas‘s works into as many hands as possible.
It is a goal both inspiring and intimidating. Visualizing the completed Opera Omnia fires enthusiasm, but surveying and mapping the vast range of Aquinas‘s untranslated works can make a completed bi-lingual Opera seem chimerical. The single biggest mountain in this range: the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Weighing it at 1,501,918 words, second in size only to the Summa Theologiae, the Sentences commentary has been translated only in bits and snatches.
Until now. In 2013, when we received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to further the translation of Book IV of the Sentences Commentary, our goal began to seem less fanciful. One volume of Book IV is already out in a beautiful, bi-lingual edition, with a second volume set for release on November 21, and more to follow in the coming months.
We are grateful, therefore, to announce that this year the Aquinas Institute has received a second grant from the NEH, this time supporting work on Books II and III. Much hard work lies ahead, but the goal is now in sight. Our team has already translated much of Book II, but it will take time to finish the translation, put in footnotes, compare our Latin with the Leonine Commission‘s provisional critical texts, and check everything for accuracy.
Meanwhile, we want to make sure these volumes reach as many people as possible. One way we are pursuing that goal is by selling books this October at a steep discount when purchased from our own website. Join us as we celebrate the month of Our Lady of the Rosary, as well as the feasts of two Carmelite doctors of the Church, by offering the Summa Theologiae at a 50% discount. The first published volume of Book IV of the Sentences commentary is half the price if purchased from our website. If money has been an obstacle to anyone getting his or her own copies of Aquinas‘s works, we hope this will help.
A second way to get books out to people is by visiting conferences. Dr. John Mortensen will be at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture‘s fall conference with a display of our published volumes. If you plan to be there, stop by and say hello! We‘d love to see you.