The Summa Theologiae is a work of astounding breadth and scope: five folio vol-umes of
closely packed print, and more closely packed thought; incredibly, it was a work intended, not
for the learned and wise, but for beginners. Walter Farrell, O.P., fully honors that intention with
his four Companion volumes to the Summa, which together offer an easy guidebook to St.
Thomas's greatest work. These are not simply more books about St. Thomas or about the
Summa; rather, they are a distillation of the Summa into popular and accessible form, a unique
introduction to the thought of the Angelic Doctor and a defense of the truths, natural and divine,
by which human life is lived.
Volume I: The Architect of the Universe presents St. Thomas's rich and masterly study of God,
man, and the world, as found in the first part of the Summa. In neat and orderly fashion, Farrell
follows the Angelic Doctor's lead, considering the universal harmony of creation and its Creator,
providing the arguments of God's existence, studying the divine nature and attributes, and
examining the procession of creatures from their divine Creator, the manner of their production
and their distinction into angelic, corporal, and human natures. A bold rebuke of the confusions
and deceptions peculiar to the modern age, A Companion to the Summa, Volume I: The Architect
of the Universe powerfully illuminates the fundamental truths about the nature of the human
person and the orderly planning of the divine architect.
