Gilbert Keith Chesterton—semi-officially known as “the oft-quoted G. K. Chesterton”—would have us believe this little volume is a sketch or an outline of Thomas Aquinas’ life and thought. It’s difficult for me, however, to classify this book as anything even roughly resembling a biography. Chesterton clearly places Aquinas in thirteenth-century Italy and France; otherwise, however, he mentions only one specific date or year in the entire book (and not until page 141!). There’s no real chronology. Some friends and enemies are mentioned by name, but most are not.

Nor does Chesterton provide an orderly introduction to Aquinas’ philosophy or theology, though he comes closer in the former case than in the latter. Chesterton wends his way to and fro in Aquinas’ thoughts, sometimes jumping ahead of himself, sometimes doubling back. A systematic introduction this is not.

If anything, Chesterton has written an extended homily. Using Saint Thomas’ life and thoughts as his pericopal text, he seeks to outline the moral values and intellectual motifs necessary for a working, vibrant Christian theology. Chesterton repeatedly extols Thomas’ “common sense” approach to Creation as fundamental to a theology that can take hold in the popular mind. It’s only with a firm assurance in the created, objective world that chief Christian dogmas like Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection provide any real theology. Thomas’ moral virtues, especially his humility and honesty, are necessary for appraising and responding to differing opinions in a way that speaks to one’s opponents.

It was Thomas’ attempts to introduce Aristotelian modes of thinking into a medieval theology dominated by various forms of Platonism that brought him to the attention of the wider church and, for good or ill, defined much of the Roman church’s theology until this very day. In broad strokes, never distracted by too much specificity, Chesterton describes Thomas’ “Baptism of Aristotle” and the conflicts it engendered within the church’s establishment.

Chesterton is appropriately awed by the Saint’s desire to get at the heart of everything, but he is too quick to dismiss the critics of Thomist Scholasticism. “Of some of the [later] Scholastics we can only say that they took everything that was worst in Scholasticism and made it worse.” He implies that no one was up to the task of carrying on Thomas’ work. He never even raises the question whether the Aristotelian basis of Thomism has inherent flaws apart from its practitioners’ skills.

Finally, it’s always worth noting that any of Chesterton’s writings are full of delicious, memorable turns of phrase, e.g., “As a matter of fact, it is generally the man who is not ready to argue, who is ready to sneer. That is why, in recent literature, there has been so little argument and so much sneering.” There’s good reason for Chesterton being oft-quoted.