Summa Contra Gentiles

The Summa contra Gentiles by St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Summa contra Gentes, has traditionally been dated to 1264, though more recent scholarship places it towards the end of Thomas’ life, 1270-73 (see Murphy). The work has occasioned much debate as to its purpose, its intended audience and its relationship to his other works. Thomas' work is divided into several categories: Scriptural commentaries, Aristotelian commentaries, Opuscula (smaller works), disputed questions and theological syntheses. The Summa contra Gentiles is usually classified as a theological synthesis along with his earlier Commentary on the The Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lombard and his well-known Summa Theologica, although there are significant differences in scope and intent between all three of these works.

The Summa contra Gentiles is often portrayed as an early missionary's manual or handbook. Where the Summa Theologiæ was written to explain the Christian faith to theology students, the Summa contra Gentiles is more apologetic in tone, as it was written to explain and defend the Christian truth in hostile situations against unbelievers, with arguments adapted to fit the intended circumstances of its use, each article refuting a certain heretical belief or proposition. Instead of a mere elucidation of the length and breadth of Christian truth, Aquinas explains specific core articles of Christian belief.

It was probably written to aid missionaries in explaining the Christian religion to and defending it against the Muslims and Jews, both of which, especially the former, had a strong Aristotelian philosophical tradition at the time.