Abstract

The first of commentators of Thomas Aquinas did come from the Netherlands. Master Henry of Gorkum, a small town in the Netherlands between Utrecht and Rotterdam, accomplished his studies in Paris, and made a considerable career in Cologne. Henry transposed what he took to be the central theological insights of Thomas into a literary form that was fit for educating students. What are these insights? In summarizing the Summa Theologiae and in writing a tract called De divinis nominibus, how did Henry introduce his students to the work of what he deemed the most important theologian since Augustine? This contribution offers an answer to these questions, and it proposes a number of insights of Henry because of which it is still worthwhile in our days to study his writings.