Sacrae Theologiae Summa IVB - On Holy Orders and Matrimony - On the Last Things

This English translation from the original Latin, On the Sacraments of Orders and Matrimony. On the Last Things, is meant for seminarians and theology students who want to learn scholastic and Thomistic theology. This book is the second half of Volume IV of the four volume series under the title of Sacrae Theologiae Summa, which was published in Latin in 1956 by the Bishops' Conference of Spain. On the occasion of his first visit to the USA, Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., who used this manual regularly, said it was the best handbook on dogmatic theology that had ever been produced. He told a group of seminarians that, if they wanted to be theologians, the first thing they should do is master the contents of B.A.C. The Spanish publisher is called B.A.C. The four volumes contain the treatises that cover all the basic dogmas of the Catholic faith and it does it in a detailed and scholarly way, with a heavy reliance on the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. One advantage of this Summa is that it gives the student the "theological note," that is, the grade of certitude for each thesis. Here you will learn what is a defined dogma of the Church, what is theologically certain, and what is just a theological opinion. It is the translator's hope that this volume and those that follow will help theology students, whether seminarians or graduate students, to learn the great Catholic tradition of dogmatic theology which is based on the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the ecclesiastical Magisterium, and the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Read more