".The Pope identifies fideism in religion and the deep skepticism in contemporary Western intellectual culture about the very possibility of a truly universal human rationality as twin engines of destruction which undermine a common conversation about the human good and which make impossible the development of real community both within and across cultures. The current Pope's project of defending the role of a robust and humane understanding of reason in face of both religious and secular obscurantism is the latest installment in a series of protests by previous popes, all of which have featured a reassertion of the significance of the synthesis of faith and reason in the work of the Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas.The focus of the collection is not Thomas the philosopher but Thomas the theologian of doctrine mined from sacred Scripture. In the foreword, the distinguished Thomist, Fergus Kerr, calls the book "the first comprehensive set of critical appreciations of Thomas Aquinas's discussion of the principal themes of Christian doctrine, by an international team of authors, approaching his work in a creative and scholarly manner, highlighting his continuing relevance as a great Christian theologian. There are twelve essays and the topics include the relationship between Scripture and doctrine, the nature of salvation and justification, the incarnation, the sacraments and Mariology. Throughout there is an effort to rebut some of the inherited stereotypes about Thomas: that he has stuffed the Christian revelation into an Aristotelian cupboard, that his exegesis is fatally pre-critical and naïve, that the loyalty to Greek reason overwhelms revelation, that he represents a break with the Patristic tradition. The picture that emerges is of a careful exegete, thoroughly informed by Tradition, especially the Greek Fathers, with a theological method of exegesis which appropriately synthesizes revelation and reason, and whose results in depth and coherence have enduring significance.

In their traditional theology, Anglicans have unique resources for healing the rift, which has appeared between faith and reason both in culture and theology, which can build resources for a dialogue of civilizations. To that end a recovery by Anglicans of their Thomistic roots is in order. This lovely, scholarly book shows where to dig." - Leander Harding, Anglical Theological Review, May 2007.