Fr. Walter Farrell, O. P. - Hardcover 408 pages
This magnificent set of four books is an exposition and guide to the entire Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas. It was written by one of the premier Dominican Thomistic scholars who were active in the scholastic revival of the 1930s and 40s. These books contain the entire Summa transposed into modern English prose, thereby making accessible, for those who are not trained philosophers, the complete theology of Saint Thomas’s Summa. The composition of these four books matches up perfectly with each of the 614 questions of the Summa. This book is meant to be read alongside the actual Summa in order to make it more easily understood by the average reader.
Volume One - The Architect of the Universe - 408 pages
Volume Two - The Pursuit of Happiness - 412 pages
Volume Three - The Fullness of Life - 462 pages
Volume Four - The Way of Life - 430 Pages
The Author
Father Farrell’s four-part Companion to the Summa has been responsible for much of the renewed interest in Thomism in the United States. It is required reading for many Catholic college students and “unrequired reading” for thousands of other lovers of St. Thomas.Its author was born in Chicago in 1902. He attended Dominican schools and was ordained in the Dominican order in 1927, then going to the University of Fribourg for his S.T.D. degree. In 1940 he was awarded the seldom given Dominican honor of the Master of Sacred Theology degree. He served as a Navy chaplain during World War II and was then stationed at the Dominican Houses of Studies in Washington, D. C. and River Forest, Illinois until his death in 1951.
A Word About Loreto PublicationsAll publishing houses have some overarching principles that guide the choice of which books they publish and promote (unless they be primarily interested in monetary gain, in which case they are of no account) and according to which they base their operations and choices. Loreto’s foundation is based upon a specific set of Catholic principles and a school of thought that developed around a religious order founded in 1949 in Cambridge Massachusetts, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the heart of their spirituality lies two essential pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom as described by their philosopher Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M. —“Wisdom is the most perfect knowledge of the most important truths in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly.”—and a fervent desire to train up an army of apostles to convert our beloved nation to the Catholic religion. The spiritual and intellectual life of these ardent Slaves developed by being steeped in the works of people such as Cornelius aLapidé, Dom Gueranger, St. John Eudes, St. Louis Marie deMontfort, Bl. Dom Marmion, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Alphonsus Maria deLiguori, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, especially St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Of course, their attachment and devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and the ancient and immemorial Roman liturgy is legendary.
By Michael Haynes with an Introduction by Archbishop Viganò - PB 164 pages
Sixty years after the Pastoral Council, that the promotional advertising told us was to usher in a new springtime for the Church, is sufficient time for the faithful to stand back and calmly observe the glorious fruits of the work of that Council. We at Loreto have done so, and many Catholics (even some who have spent years committed to implementing the principles of Vatican II) have done so as well. The historical facts appear to us to belie the promises made by Pope John XXIII and others.As Pope John Paul II said, three of the most important fruits of the Council are: the New Liturgy and sacramental rites, the New Code of Canon Law and the New Catechism. With all of these brand new and very modern(ist?) post-Conciliar alterations in the laws and teachings of the hierarchy forced upon the faithful having had its trial of sixty years, it is now time to judge these fruits objectively. Surely, even those who have collaborated, either wholeheartedly or with reservations, in the advancement of these changes must agree that a just and prudent accounting should now be made of the blessings or curses upon the Church and the world resulting from the work of the Council.This penetrating analysis produced by Michael Haynes under the direction of a faithful Priest, and prefaced by a faithful Shepherd, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó is what we hope will be a first of many groundbreaking studies of the new Catechism.
