RIK VAN NIEUWENHOVE. Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation

Introduction:

No scholar of Thomas Aquinas questions the centrality that contemplation had in his life. “Homo magnae contemplationis et orationis”, maintained one of the witnesses in the process of canonization. Evidently, the theology of contemplation that Thomas developed early in his career is rooted in his own personal experience. However, this essential fact has not been taken advantage of by Thomist research in recent decades.