Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal

by Norman L. Geisler

Norman L. Geisler reintroduces evangelicals to the man they forgot,"" clarifying Aquinas' teachings about the nature of God, Scripture, faith, reason, and other key issues of apologetics and ethics.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801038448
• ISBN13: 9780801038440
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group (MI)
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Best Evangelical "Take" on Thomas Aquinas

This is by far the best introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas written by a committed Evangelical Christian. I'm a Catholic myself, but I found Geisler's commentary on Thomas to be invaluable. Geisler covers the major Thomistic issues, including a brief biography of Thomas, the first principles, the interpretation of Holy Scripture, the proofs of God's existence, the doctrine of analogy, a Thomistic theodicy explaining the problem of evil, and much more. What I found especially helpful in this book was Geisler's description of the attributes of God, as expressed by Thomas. God's Pure Actuality is covered in detail, as well as the attributes that follow from it, e.g., God's immutability, eternality, unity, omnipotence, omniscience, and goodness. What we discover by reading Geiser (and Thomas himself, of course!) is that these issues remain as relevant today as they did during the thirteenth century. This is a must read for any Thomist, or for anyone who is interested in Thomism!

Geisler and Aquinas

The phrase "Should Old Aquinas Be Forgot" graces the the cover of Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal, by Norman L. Geisler (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, c. 1991). The author's a prolific (more than 30 books), controversial (one of my friends gets hypertension at the sound of Geisler's name), peripatetic (every time I hear of him he's affiliated with yet another school of some sort) scholar who resides somewhere on the fundamentalist fringes (he's a graduate and one-time faculty member of Dallas Theological Seminary) of Evangelicalism! Yet however one regards him, Geisler's a brilliant guy whose work's worth considering. Quite honestly, I mention Geisler's work on St. Thomas not for its intrinsic worth but for the mere fact someone like him would write it. Better studies of Thomas Aquinas have been written. (If you're curious consult works by Jacques Maritain, Etienne Gilson, Josef Pieper, M.-D. Chenu, or (best of all) G.K. Chesterton). Geisler's study of Thomas deals adequately with the subject, though more in the fashion of a professor's lecture notes than a fully-digested exposition. But what interests me is the harmony Geisler finds between St. Thomas and the kind of American "evangelicalism" he and R.C. Sproul represent. Sproul, incidentally, says of Geisler's work: "This is 'must reading' for every thinking Christian. I am thrilled by this careful analysis of St. Thomas." Geisler glances at a whole host of American evangelicals who have disparaged Aquinas and finds them largely ill-informed and off-target in their criticism. I thoroughly agree: statements by the likes of Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, Francis Schaeffer, and Arthur Nash illustrate some fundamental misunderstandings of "The Angelic Doctor." I always wondered, when reading some of Francis Schaeffer's assaults on Aquinas years ago, if he'd actually read him or was just using some of his seminary professors' lecture caricatures as the final word on St.Thomas. A hardy handful of evangelicals, Geisler says, "a strong but too often silent minority [e.g. John H. Gerstner, Arvin Vos, R.C. Sproul] among us who are directly dependent upon Aquinas for our basic theology, philosophy, and/or apologetics" (p. 14), must more openly espouse Aquinas' views. In this they obviously imitate C.S. Lewis, finding Aquinas a fertile field for healthy theological vineyards. Geisler argues there are eight contributions Aquinas can make today. "First, Aquinas's view of nature and interpretation of Scripture is helpful in the current debate on inerrancy and hermeneutics" (p. 21). A Fundamentalist Aquinas is not, but he has a lofty appreciation for Scripture's divine inspiration. "Second, Aquinas can help us build a solid theistic basis for doing historical apologetics" (p. 21). "Third, Aquinas, can provide a philosoph¬ical answer to the growing influence of the finite god of process theology" (p. 21). "Fourth, Thomistic analogy seems to be the only adequa

Best introduction to Thomas Aquinas.

Some may pass over Aquinas because he is the "Angelic Doctor" of the Catholic Church, but his philosophy is indispensable to Protestants as well when contemplating biblical inerrancy, the nature of evil, and the relationship between free will and grace. Geisler's book is the best introduction I could find, clearer than Chesterton's and less dense than Gilson's (though both are also indispensable).