Dr Stephen Loughlin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DeSales University in Centre Valley, USA, and Co-ordinator of the Aquinas Translation Project.

In the intellectual tradition of the Christian faith, few thinkers have had a more profound effect upon both the nature of theology and the materials with which it deals than Thomas Aquinas. A knowledge, therefore, of his major work, the Summa Theologiae, is necessary for the student of theology, let alone any who are concerned with the Western intellectual tradition, so pervasive is Aquinas' thought to the fabric of Western thought. This, together with the immensity, length, and difficulty of the Summa, make a Reader's Guide valuable, even crucial, to a student's first exposure to this work. To address the needs of undergraduates who attempt a readingof this work, Stephen Loughlin presents the basic principles that underlie the Summa Theologiae both as a whole and with respect to its three parts, and the verying treatises found within them.