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    The Silence of ST

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    DavidAWW
    The document discusses Thomas Aquinas ceasing work on his Summa Theologiae and entering a state of silence. It notes that when asked why he stopped writing, Aquinas said "all that I have written is but straw" after a profound experience. The author cites a biography saying Aquinas' failure to finish exhibits a "more" to life than theology. His silence teaches more about doing theology than words could. The silence is not from lack of things to say, but from a glimpse into the inexpressible depths of God.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Silence of ST

    Uploaded by

    DavidAWW
    99 views6 pages
    The document discusses Thomas Aquinas ceasing work on his Summa Theologiae and entering a state of silence. It notes that when asked why he stopped writing, Aquinas said "all that I have written is but straw" after a profound experience. The author cites a biography saying Aquinas' failure to finish exhibits a "more" to life than theology. His silence teaches more about doing theology than words could. The silence is not from lack of things to say, but from a glimpse into the inexpressible depths of God.

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    The Silence Of St

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    The Silence Of St

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    The document discusses Thomas Aquinas ceasing work on his Summa Theologiae and entering a state of silence. It notes that when asked why he stopped writing, Aquinas said "all that I have written is but straw" after a profound experience. The author cites a biography saying Aquinas' failure to finish exhibits a "more" to life than theology. His silence teaches more about doing theology than words could. The silence is not from lack of things to say, but from a glimpse into the inexpressible depths of God.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    99 views6 pages

    The Silence of ST

    Uploaded by

    DavidAWW
    The document discusses Thomas Aquinas ceasing work on his Summa Theologiae and entering a state of silence. It notes that when asked why he stopped writing, Aquinas said "all that I have written is but straw" after a profound experience. The author cites a biography saying Aquinas' failure to finish exhibits a "more" to life than theology. His silence teaches more about doing theology than words could. The silence is not from lack of things to say, but from a glimpse into the inexpressible depths of God.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    The Silence Of St. Thomas « The Dish http://dish.andrewsullivan.

    com/2013/07/21/the-silence-of-st-thomas/

    The Silence Of St. Thomas


    JUL 21 2013 @ 8:25AM

    Search...

    The Years Of Writing


    Dangerously

    The Miracle Of Francis

    Robert P. Imbelli recalls this storied detail from the life of Thomas
    Aquinas:

    1 of 6 4/17/2016 5:44 PM
    The Silence Of St. Thomas « The Dish http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/07/21/the-silence-of-st-thomas/

    As The World Turns

    It is well-known that Thomas Aquinas ceased writing his


    Summa Theologiae before completing it. When asked why, a
    long tradition recounts that he told his secretary, Reginald of
    Piperno: “After what I have seen today I can write no more: for
    all that I have written is but straw.”

    He pivots from the anecdote to cite this passage from Denys Turner’s How To Read
    The Entire Internet
    new biography, Thomas Aquinas: a Portrait:

    Theology matters only because – and when – there is more to


    life than theology, and when that “more” shows its presence
    within the theology that is done. So Thomas fails to finish,
    thereby exhibiting the presence of this “more” in the most
    dramatic way possible – by leaving space for it. His final
    Your Moments Of Dishness
    sentence is not an empty and disappointing failure to finish. It
    is an apotheosis. By his silence Thomas does not stop teaching
    theology. He does not stop doing theology. On the contrary, by
    his silence he teaches something about doing theology that he
    could not have taught by any other means.

    It brings to mind this description of the great medieval theologian’s final


    months from Josef Pieper’s classic book, The Silence of St. Thomas: The End Of The Dish
    (Multiple Posts)

    The last word of St. Thomas is not communication but silence.


    And it is not death which takes the pen out of his hand. His
    tongue is stilled by the super-abundance of life in the mystery of
    God. He is silent, not because he has nothing further to say; he
    is silent because he has been allowed a glimpse into the
    expressible depths of that mystery which is not reached by any
    Living The Dishhead Dream
    human thought or speech…

    The mind of the dying man found its voice once more, in an
    explanation of the Canticle of Canticles for the monks of
    Fossanova. The last teaching of St. Thomas concerns, therefore,
    that mystical book of nuptial love for God, of which the Fathers
    of the Church say: the meaning of its figurative speech is that
    God exceeds all our capabilities of possessing Him, that all our The War
    knowledge can only be the cause of new questions, and every
    finding only the start of a new search.

    2 of 6 4/17/2016 5:44 PM
    The Silence Of St. Thomas « The Dish http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/07/21/the-silence-of-st-thomas/

    (Image: “Saint Thomas Aquinas” by Diego Velázquez, 1632, via


    Wikimedia Commons)

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    The Silence Of St. Thomas « The Dish http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/07/21/the-silence-of-st-thomas/

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    The Silence Of St. Thomas « The Dish http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/07/21/the-silence-of-st-thomas/

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    5 of 6 4/17/2016 5:44 PM
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