I am at present long into the admittedly foolhardy project of translating the whole of the Summa Theologiae. Will I ever finish? Well, at least I have started, though I can't remember any more exactly when I started. In any case, as I fashion the latest drafts of the various questions, I make them available here in .pdf format. I am constantly making unannounced revisions to these files. But the latest versions are those available here on any given day.
Part 1 and Part 1-2 and Part 2-2 are complete in a loose sense. That is to say, I'm constantly revising them as I have occasion to re-read them or receive corrections from others. A slightly earlier version of the Treatise on Law (Part 1-2, questions 90-108) came out in book form in 2009 from St. Augustine's Press (click here for the Amazon site). Likewise, a slightly earlier version of The Treatise on Human Nature (Part 1, questions 75-102) came out in book form in 2010 from St. Augustine's Press (click here for the Amazon site).
Comments are welcome, no matter what their nature. At present I am especially interested in receiving corrections to the treatises in Part 2-2 from the treatise of prudence on. (Experts on religious life are especially invited to look at ST 2-2, qq. 184-189). I have already incorporated the truly amazing number of corrections that I have received to this point. I am grateful to all of you who have sent corrections, especially to a few people who have gone way beyond anything I could have dreamt of or hoped for.
I have sold the rights to the translation to the Aquinas Institute, under the able leadership of John and Beth Mortensen. At some time in the future they will publish, in traditional book form, my translation of the Summa, along with Beth Mortensen's translation of the Supplement, which is extracted in its entirety from Book 4 of St. Thomas's early commentary on the Sentences -- a work that Beth has, very conveniently, already translated and published in four volumes. In addition, if I, like St. Thomas, fail to finish Part 3, Beth will finish for me. Still, my health is at present pretty good (notwithstanding the psoriasis apparently induced by the Moderna Covid vaccine), I have not had any notable mystical experiences lately (unlike St. Thomas shortly before he stopped writing), and I have only 52 questions to go as of today ...
My main concern all along has been that the translation should remain available for free online into the indefinite future, and John has graciously agreed to host the translation on the Aquinas Institute website once I have finished it. (John claims that this helps, and does not hinder, book sales.) I am also looking into another way of keeping the translation, along with certain other items on my website, online after I die. I'll keep you posted on that front.
Finally, to counter some possible misunderstandings, I use asteriks in the translation to mark words that have been taken from alternate readings in the Leonine edition of the Summa. This happens very infrequently, and my judgments are based entirely on what seems to me to make better philosophical and theological sense rather than on any putative expertise of my own with respect to manuscripts. Brackets, on the other hand, are placed around words which (a) augment clarity and (b) are reasonably thought to express what is understood in a given context, but are not quite so obvious that I feel confident enough to use the word or phrase without brackets -- a practice that I have also adopted along the way when I am indeed completely confident.
AJF - AMGD
| Prima
Pars (Part 1) |
Pars Prima-Secundae (Part 1-2) |
Pars Secunda-Secundae
(Part
2-2) |
Tertia
Pars (Part 3) |