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Practical Theology: Spiritual Direction from St. Thomas Aquinas PDF

751 Pages·2016·2.74 MB·English
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PRACTICAL THEOLOGY SPIRITUAL DIRECTION FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS PETER KREEFT PRACTICAL THEOLOGY SPIRITUAL DIRECTION FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 358 Ways Your Mind Can Help You to Become a Saint from the Summa Theologiae IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO Quotes from the Summa Theologica, first complete American edition © 1947 by Benziger Brothers, New York In most cases the Scripture quotations in this book have been taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, Second Catholic Edition, © 2006. The Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible: the Old Testament, © 1952, 2006; the Apocrypha, © 1957, 2006; the New Testament, © 1946, 2006; the Catholic Edition of the Old Testament, incorporating the Apocrypha, © 1966, 2006; the Catholic Edition of the New Testament, © 1965, 2006 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Some of the Scripture quotations, especially from the Psalms and the Wisdom books, are taken from the Douay-Rheims Version of the Bible. The notation differs from that of modern versions like the RSV. Cover art: St. Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli, 1476 National Gallery, London Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Cover design by Enrique Javier Aguilar Pinto © 2014 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-58617-968-7 Library of Congress Control Number 2014943996 Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS Introduction 1. Religion 2. The need for theology 3. Saints compared with theologians 4. How to interpret the Bible 5. The (a) reality and (b) inadequacy of our innate knowledge of God 6. The “problem of evil” 7. God’s necessity: “His essence is existence” 8. All perfections are in God 9. All that is, is good 10. Only three kinds of goods 11. Seeing God everywhere: the presence of God in all things 12. “Seeing” God in Heaven 13. Reason’s power to know God 14. Knowing God by analogy 15. We, not God, are the analogy 16. God’s knowing is creative 17. Human science = the knowledge of God’s art 18. Is God alive? 19. Predestination and free will 20. Does God love mosquitoes? 21. Why God loves all the different things in the universe and why we should too 22. Inequality is good 23. Do men or angels rank higher in God’s love? 24. Reconciling justice and mercy 25. How we can aid predestination 26. Personalism 27. Pain or sin: Which is worse? 28. God and evil 29. Why good must be stronger than evil 30. Do angels know the future? 31. How is the human heart known by God, men, angels, and demons? 32. The ultimate reason for patience 33. The greatest sin 34. Do creatures withdraw us from God? 35. Why is it important that we have only one soul, not many? 36. The innocence of the body 37. Why practicing the presence of God is the key to sanctity 38. Love vs. knowledge 39. Proof that we have free will 40. Free will is based on reason 41. Human freedom and divine grace 42. Do we know objective truth? 43. Human equality and inequality 44. The goodness of human authority 45. Chance 46. The connection between monotheism and peace 47. How our free choices share in God’s sovereign government 48. God’s action and presence in all things 49. How God is in His creatures 50. Angels can teach us 51. Guardian angels are real 52. Why evil spirits assault us 53. How “everything has a purpose” changes the meaning of life 54. Why life must have some single ultimate purpose or end 55. How even trivia are related to our union with God 56. Why wealth can’t make you happy 57. Why human honors can’t make you happy 58. Why being famous can’t make you happy 59. Why power can’t make you happy 60. Why a perfect body in perfect health can’t make you happy 61. Why pleasure can’t make you happy 62. Why even moral virtue alone can’t make you happy 63. Why nothing but God can possibly ever make you completely happy 64. What role our bodily senses play in our happiness 65. Happiness is the “Beatific Vision” 66. How we can get there from here 67. God alone suffices 68. Don’t expect perfect happiness in this life 69. Eternal security? 70. Happiness is unattainable by human power 71. The importance of knowledge 72. Why God can’t force us to will the good 73. Is there such a thing as partial freedom and responsibility? 74. Is sin due to ignorance? 75. Will vs. passions 76. Does God move my will or do I? 77. Man vs. animal 78. Reason and freedom 79. Being as such is good; all being is good 80. A map of good and evil 81. How much of life does ethics cover? 82. Listening to reason is listening to God 83. The sacredness of conscience 84. Holy subjective intentions or holy objective deeds? 85. Holiness in the passions 86. “My love is my gravity” (Augustine) 87. Love is cosmic 88. Loving God more than knowing God 89. Love’s end is union 90. Ecstasy 91. Zeal 92. St. Thomas the “soft-hearted” 93. Hatred 94. Self-hatred? 95. Hating the truth 96. The danger of unnatural desires 97. A recipe for happiness 98. Love and pleasure 99. Is pleasure helpful or harmful? 100. The pleasures of contemplation 101. Accentuate the positive 102. Three evils: sorrow (misery) is worse than pain, and sin is worse than sorrow (misery) 103. The worst thing about physical pain 104. The importance of well-disposed emotions 105. The importance of reason in morality 106. The proper role of feelings in a good man’s life 107. Why there are four cardinal virtues 108. The need for supernatural virtues 109. Is man innately good? 110. How to become virtuous 111. Moderation and extremism 112. “The greatest of these is love” 113. The reason there must be a “natural law” morality 114. The three dimensions of ethics 115. Spiritual vs. carnal sins 116. Evil and ignorance one more time 117. Passion and responsibility 118. Why God doesn’t give us enough grace to overcome sin 119. “The Devil made me do it”? 120. Why there is always hope for conversion even of the worst sinner

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