Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God), credited to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God) by Saint Thomas Aquinas. (Translated by The Fathers of the English Dominican Province.) Read in English by M.S.C. Lambert, LC The Summa Contra Gentiles was composed by Thomas Aquinas between 1259 and 1265, in four books broadly covering teachings on God, on Creation, on Providence, and on tenets specific to Christianity. This Summa is not to be confused with his final Summa, the Summa Theologiae. The latter is specifically "theological" and directed to a Christian audience (hence Summa "Theologica"), whereas the former, as the "Contra Gentiles" indicates, is directed toward "non-Christian" thinking. Implicitly a defence of the Catholic Christian faith, the first three books constitute a sort of rational apology of Christian thought, where philosophical arguments are deployed to defend Christian beliefs and usually only evoke Scripture in a latter instance to show its concordance with these largely-rational conclusions; the fourth book, however, is theological in character given that its content deals primarily with topics derived from Christian revelation. Although Thomas Aquinas certainly aims to discredit pagan, Jewish, Muslim or Christian-"heretical" positions incompatible with the Catholic Christian religion in this work, at the same time he incorporates whatever is salvageable from their thought, thus often quoting in his favor the very authors he discredits on other positions: therefore the "Contra Gentiles" of this Summa is not to be understand as an outright rejection of non-Christian thought, but rather as a sort of rational "purification" unto its Catholic assimilation, in disposing open minds to revealed Christian truths.

Recording facts

• Recording title: Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)
• Author credits: Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 102
• Listed recording duration: 9:28:47

Opening tracks: first 24 of 102

1. 001 - I. IN WHAT CONSISTS THE OFFICE OF A WISE MAN (preceded by Translator's Preface) — 7:53
2. 002 - II. THE AUTHOR'S INTENTION IN THIS WORK — 3:56
3. 003 - III. IN WHAT WAY IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE KNOWN THE DIVINE TRUTH — 6:55
4. 004 - IV. THAT THE TRUTH ABOUT DIVINE THINGS WHICH IS ATTAINABLE BY REASON IS FITTINGLY PROPOSED TO MAN AS AN OBJECT OF BELIEF — 5:31
5. 005 - V. THAT THOSE THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE INVESTIGATED REASON ARE FITTINGLY PROPOSED TO MAN AS AN OBJECT OF FAITH — 5:10
6. 006 - VI. THAT IT IS NOT A MARK OF LEVITY TO ASSENT TO THE THINGS THAT ARE OF FAITH, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE ABOVE REASON — 5:40
7. 007 - VII. THAT THE TRUTH OF REASON IS NOT IN OPPOSITION TO THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH — 3:56
8. 008 - VIII. IN WHAT RELATION HUMAN REASON STANDS TO THE TRUTH OF FAITH — 2:42
9. 009 - IX. OF THE ORDER AND MODE OF PROCEDURE IN THIS WORK — 3:50
10. 010 - X. OF THE OPINION OF THOSE WHO AVER THAT IT CANNOT BE DEMONSTRATED THAT THERE IS A GOD, SINCE THIS IS SELF-EVIDENT — 4:15
11. 011 - XI. REFUTATION OF THE FOREGOING OPINION AND SOLUTION OF THE AFORESAID ARGUMENTS — 5:51
12. 012 - XII. OF THE OPINION OF THOSE WHO SAY THAT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD CANNOT BE PROVED, AND THAT IT IS HELD BY FAITH ALONE — 4:59
13. 013 - XIII. ARGUMENTS IN PROOF OF GOD'S EXISTENCE — 25:53
14. 014 - XIV. THAT IN ORDER TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IT IS NECESSARY TO PROCEED BY THE WAY OF REMOTION — 3:45
15. 015 - XV. THAT GOD IS ETERNAL — 4:48
16. 016 - XVI. THAT IN GOD THERE IS NO PASSIVE POTENTIALITY — 4:11
17. 017 - XVII. THAT IN GOD THERE IS NO MATTER — 3:48
18. 018 - XVIII. THAT IN GOD THERE IS NO COMPOSITION — 4:40
19. 019 - XIX. THAT IN GOD THERE IS NOTHING VIOLENT OR BESIDE NATURE — 2:32
20. 020 - XX. THAT GOD IS NOT A BODY — 25:32
21. 021 - XXI. THAT GOD IS HIS OWN ESSENCE — 4:18
22. 022 - XXII. THAT IN GOD EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE ARE THE SAME — 9:19
23. 023 - XXIII. THAT THERE IS NO ACCIDENT IN GOD — 5:43
24. 024 - XXIV. THAT THE DIVINE BEING CANNOT BE SPECIFIED BY THE ADDITION OF ANY SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE — 4:14

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