It’ll fit in most men’s pants pockets. It’ll fit in most purses. It’ll fit in a glove box, the top drawer of a desk, or a golf bag. It’s a little book.
A Little Book of Big Wisdom
But as far as size-to-wisdom ratios go, The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas: A Breviary of Philosophy (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2002 110 pages, $10.95) must rank first. It’s difficult to imagine any other book packing as much learning and intelligence—not to mention piety and virtue—into so few pages, in an orderly, systematic fashion no less.
The Christian breviary typically refers to The Liturgy of the Hours, a method of prayer that Christians follow throughout the day, either at odd moments or at scheduled times. By frequently stopping for a few minutes during the day and praying from a breviary, a person recollects himself and remembers what’s important, thus better annealing himself against the push-and-pull and spiritually-scattering events of everyday life.
Divine Philosophy All Day Long
Typically a breviary touches upon religious themes, but there’s no reason it can’t touch on philosophy, especially the divine philosophy of St. Thomas. And that's what this little book does: it pushes to the forefront the intellectual bases of faith and virtue and the conclusions reached via those intellectual bases, and thereby reinforces those things in us during the day.
This Breviary is an excellent condensed snapshot of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas—and therefore an excellent snapshot of simple truth. It gives a solid look at his thought as described by G.K. Chesterton in St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox: “Thomism is the philosophy of common sense.” “The Thomist philosophy is nearer than most philosophies to the mind of the man in the street.” “The Thomist begins by being theoretical, but his theory turns out to be entirely practical.”
Uncommon Common Sense
Consider these passages from the Breviary:
“There is no desire which is not directed towards a good.”
“Nobody can strive after evil for its own sake.”
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
“The human will can be protected from sin only when the reason is preserved from ignorance and error.”
“All fear arises from the love of something.”
“In so far as it is loved, everything becomes a source of pleasure.”
“The rational creature cannot wish not to be happy.”
This is great stuff and, though it's dealing with the highest things, it's accessible to anyone intelligent enough to read this review.
This doesn't mean that the Breviary can be taken lightly. Make no doubt about it: it’s lofty stuff and lofty stuff cannot be gulped down. Each of the 531 passages—many of which take less than ten seconds to read—are short, but thick. An essay could be written on each, a book on most. A person could read this Breviary in forty minutes or over the course of years, depending on how often he puts it down to contemplate the words—which is what one should do when reading a breviary.
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Eric Scheske is an attorney in Sturgis, Michigan and editor of Gilbert! The Magazine of G.K. Chesterton. His articles have appeared in The National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Touchstone, The Detroit Free Press, and Detroit News, among others.
(This article reprinted courtesy of Gilbert! The Magazine of G.K. Chesterton.)
