Preaching was immensely important in the medieval Church. Renowned medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas expended much time and effort preaching. Today, however, Aquinas’s sermons remain relatively unstudied and underappreciated. This is largely because their sermo modernus style, typical of the thirteenth century, can appear odd and inaccessible to the modern reader. In Reading the Sermons of Thomas Aquinas, Randall Smith guides the reader through Aquinas’s sermons, explaining their form and content. In the process, one comes to appreciate the sermons in their rhetorical brilliance, beauty, and profound spiritual depth while simultaneously being initiated into a fascinating world of thought concerning Scripture, language, and the human mind. The book also includes analytical outlines for all of Aquinas’s extant sermons. Reading the Sermons of Thomas Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide is an indispensable volume for those interested in the thought of Aquinas, in the intellectual and spiritual milieu in which he worked, and in the manifold ways of preaching the Gospel message.
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RANDALL SMITH (PhD, University of Notre Dame) holds the J. Michael Miller Endowed Chair of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. He is the author of over thirty scholarly articles and six books, including Reading the Sermons of Thomas: A Beginner’s Guide; Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture of Medieval Paris; From Here to Eternity: Reflections on Death, Immortality, and the Resurrection of the Body; and Bonaventure’s Journey of the Soul into God: Context and Commentary. Smith also writes a regular column for The Catholic Thing.
