St. Thomas Aquinas was famously nicknamed the ‘Dumb Ox’ by his peers for the combination of his unassuming demeanor and imposing physical stature. This pejorative couldn’t have been more untrue when we consider the way Aquinas’ voice echoes down through history in the philosophical and theological tradition collectively called ‘Thomism.’ Unlike oxen, who are silent and impotent, Aquinas and the Thomistic tradition is a most powerful communicator of philosophical and theological wisdom.

Yet, there is also a ring of truth to the nickname inasmuch as oxen are ruminants that possess four stomachs and ‘chew the cud’ before digesting and incorporating their nutrition. Like these beasts of the field, Aquinas closely and deeply pondered everything he experienced and read in such a way that he could become such a towering figure in the philosophical and theological traditions of the West, and arguably be the primary contributor to the philosopha perennis that nourishes all thinkers through time and place.

What is Thomism?

Thomism is a philosophical and theological system produced by the late medieval thinker, St. Thomas Aquinas, and on the basis of his teachings the consequent propagation, interpretation, development of this system by later commentators in the Thomistic tradition. As a system of thought, Thomism is a reasoned and ordered conceptual framework that articulates the actuality and nature of whole of reality in a way that encompasses both creation and Creator. This articulation includes ‘what,’ ‘how,’ and ‘why’ things are the way they are, and it does so in a way that is sensitive to the philosophical and theological knowledge bequeathed to Aquinas from the whole of the Western tradition, while insuring their synthesis with one another into a coherent and wholistic worldview.

A Thomist is then one who interprets and comments upon the system and teachings of Aquinas as a living intellectual inheritance, because it has been confirmed to be uniquely situated to meaningfully answer the majority of perennially significant questions in philosophy and theology. Thus, in a word, St. Thomas gets a lot of things right. And so much right, that we can readily understand why Aquinas stands so tall in the Western tradition—both the philosophical and the theological—so that we are justified in turning to his writings to seek light for the path ahead.

Now, this is only a most brief answer to our questions, for something more fulsome check out our first few blog posts:

• What is Thomism? (by Robert McNamara & by Gaven Kerr)

• What is a Thomist? (by Robert McNamara)

• Why be a Thomist? (by Robert McNamara)