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THE COMMENTARIES OF ST. THOMAS on a dozen major works of Aristotle invite us to study from close quarters Aquinas' position with regard to Aristotle's philosophy. These commentaries occupy more than 5000 pages in small print, the fruit of immense labor and much research. Thomas' method of commenting was considered highly original in his day because of the clarity of his exposé, the depth of his understanding, his command of the entire thought of the Stagirite, his knowledge of the positions of the different philosophers, his efforts to secure the best translations available, and above all, his meticulous explanations of every single sentence of the text.
Modern students of these commentaries have raised the question whether they contain Aquinas' own philosophical thought or, rather, are they to be considered a faithful rendering of Aristotle's thought? Some have said that the commentaries are useless for a historicocritical exegesis of Aristotle's works.1 Does Thomas warp the latter's doctrine, even adulterate it in some occasions so as to render it more acceptable to Christians? Joseph Owens suggests that Aquinas' allegiance to the Christian faith repeatedly vitiates the scientific objectivity of his commentaries and that his explanations are infected by his own different philosophical views.2 In his study of the commentary of the Nicomachean Ethics, Harry V. Jaffa argues that Thomas does not give a reliable presentation of Aristotle's thought.3 M.-D. Jordan speaks of "Thomas Aquinas's Disclaimers in the Aristotelian Commentaries," so that "Aquinas cannot be burdened with the views expressed in the commentaries."5 Most scholars, however, praise the fight the commentaries shed on Aristotle's often difficult texts and are convinced that they express substantially Aquinas' own Philosophical doctrines.
Other questions are to what extent Thomas accepts what Aristotle writes, and what were his reasons for undertaking this enormous task during the seven last years of his life.6 Was it his desire, as I once heard a young professor of Notre Dame University assert, just to provide material to students for an exercise in analysis and dialectic? Raising this question is answering it: as a magister in sacra pagina Thomas had other concerns - was moreover extremely busy with his lecturing on Sacred Scripture, organizing academic disputes, writing his Summa theologiae and other shorter treatises - than that...