Abstract

This admirable volume is the first book of a new translation of the Summa Contra Gentiles by the general editor, Dr. Pegis. Made from the manual Leonine text of 1934, the closest critical edition of St. Thomas, it is meticulously presented with precise references to sources, a concise analysis of argument and a double index of matters and authors. The translation has a clear simplicity which systematically denies itself any attempt to improve the original text: the editor properly thinks it his “business to set down what St. Thomas said, not what he meant” and, therefore, resists the urge to clarify or interpret by personal additions to his statement. The resulting version is so literally faithful that it incorporates some Latin words bodily into the English language. Thus, Ch. 14 is headed: “That to Know God We Must Use the Way of Remotion”. The fifty years’ old version of Fr. Joseph Rickaby has the flowery heading: “That in order to a Knowledge of God we must use the Method of Negative Differentiation”. The new translation is obviously closer to the simple original but its self-discipline tends to sacrifice native idiom and may affront or bewilder the literary reader.