Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate and the Structure of the Summa contra gentiles

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that there are noteworthy textual and thematic links between Thomas’ Commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate and the Summa contra gentiles that shed light on the contents and peculiarities of these two works. While it is commonly held through codicological research that these two texts are closely related, I have not found some of the precise thematic links I will be discussing announced, much less explored, in the literature or commentary tradition. I present these connections in order to account more perspicuously for Thomas’ conception of metaphysics over and against that of revealed theology, especially with respect to how those two domains figure into the odd structure of the Summa contra gentiles.