I started reading this honors thesis which is called "Benedictine Allegorical Exegesis on the Psalms: The Monastic Search for God Through Scripture and Its Pertinence for Today". It needed a reader/editor -- several grammar issues -- but seems competent otherwise. It discusses the role of grammatica in medieval education, relying on Leclercq and a few other sources, before moving specifically to monastic exegesis of the Psalms. I put some references on Bee University under monasticism. I was reading in order to work on the next post on Leclercq for EE. The most recent one is The Gates Are Drawn Apart. I should organize them on a page, one day.
I am on The Infinity of God on Tour of the Summa. I can't remember if I saw it recommended on Feser or on Disputations, but I also found Companion to the Summa online in whole, and am trying to read it alongside of the Tour. I am on The Ineffable.
CttSumma is literally a companion or commentary. From the introductory description:
The Companion to the Summa is the most remarkable and successful attempt to put into modern English for a lay audience the essential arguments and insights of Aquinas' greatest work, the Summa theologiae. Fr. Farrell wrote almost sixty years ago, in the late 30's and early 40's, so we cannot fault him for the use of language that was acceptable at that time but might sound inappropriate today. His colorful and imaginative paraphrase deserves to be taken off the shelf and reviewed by all serious seekers of theological truth. In an age which looks upon the theology of the Catholic tradition as irrelevant to contemporary problems we leave it to your judgment to read and see if Aquinas, as mediated by the brilliant imagination of Fr. Walter Farrell, has a contribution to make.
It took me a little bit to realize that this wasn't going to be a paraphrase, but it is extremely worthwhile as a history read as well as a Thomistic one, by a contemporary of Ronald Knox, CS LEwis, Fulton Sheen and indeed Frank Sheed whose company published the book, and in that kind of intellectual/defense of the faith style. I suppose it is because I read so many of this type of author through my conversion process that I always suspected the prejudice of not only the concilium, but some of the communion authors against traditional Thomists. Not that Knox or Lewis or Sheed were specifically Thomists, but the point holds. For that matter, it's hard to read Flannery O'Connor without realizing that Thomism looked very different to the pre-conciliar intellectual than it would if you read Chenu, Congar, Rahner, de Lubac and others without a salt shaker at hand.
I wrote about my renewed study plans at Athelas: Resolved for Now. An important key is to stay off X except for brief visits to catch up on the news, though even that might not be necessary if I keep up with my Google Reader. Basically, the stupidity and coarseness have their effect on my mind, mostly resulting in depression and discouragement, though there are a few brighter gleams of humor, sincerity and even reminder of something profound and true, occasionally.
I am progressing through
Thomas Aquinas (A Beginner's Guide)
The first two are paper books and I think I will bring them back to Oklahoma with me.
All these are integrated because though the scholastic approach to knowing God is distinct from the monastic one, it is the same God. I can almost see where He Is, where the Thomistic sources carefully sketch out where language and reason fall silent. I can't see Him, because He is Light, but I can see the dearness of those millions and billions of galaxies, the scatter of glitter compared to His grandeur. My mind becomes silent too -- but this silence and "nada" are what makes everything else significant, even presidential campaigns and woke nonsense.
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