- Lived:
- c. 1225–1274 · born at Roccasecca in southern Italy; worked in Naples, Paris, Cologne, and Rome; died at the abbey of Fossanova
- Tradition:
- Medieval Christian scholasticism — the summit of the project to unite Greek reason with biblical faith
- The Big Idea:
- Faith and reason cannot finally contradict each other, because truth has only one source — "grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it."
- In their words:
- "Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it."
- If you remember one thing:
- The quiet giant who built the most complete system of thought in Christian history — and then, one December morning, put down his pen forever, saying that beside what he had seen, everything he had written was straw.