Karol Wotjyla, the future Pope John Paul II, wrote his dissertation on the relationship of the thought of St John of the Cross to that of St Thomas Aquinas. Throughout his career, Wotjyla/John Paul returned to the thought of St Thomas, especially in the encyclicals he published on moral theology, faith and reason, and the Eucharist. This volume explores, in a scholarly fashion, the creative manner in which Wotjyla/John Paul built upon Aquinas's thought.
"At the beginning of his Pontificate (at the Angelicum, in 1979) as well as shortly before his death (in Memory and Identity, 2005) John Paul II insisted on St Thomas Aquinas's importance for contemporary theology, and on the tragic consequences of a refusal of metaphysics. By its wide range of contributions by well known specialists, the present book helps contemporary readers understand John Paul II's inspiration and contributes to the 'new renaissance of Thomistic theology' the editors are calling for". Georges Cardinal Cottier, OP, Rome