King’s Releases Free Online Course on Aquinas by Dr. Peter Kreeft

In September, The King’s College released a free, self-paced micro-course by Dr. Peter Kreeft titled “A Sample of Key Concepts from Thomas Aquinas.” This four-lesson course expounds key texts from Aquinas’ Summa Theologica about the existence of God, the relationship of reason and faith, and the connection between God’s will and human will. With half-hour video lectures and readings from Kreeft’s annotation of Aquinas, Summa of the Summa, the course allows students to engage with the primary source text under the teaching of one of the most important Christian apologists of our time. The course also features questions for reflection and a discussion board.

Kreeft has often described his philosophy of teaching as a trialogue, a conversation between the voice of the students, the voice of the professor, and, most importantly, the voice of the text. In the course, Kreeft guides students into deeper understanding of Aquinas’ logic through carefully reasoned lectures, critical questions, and reference to other thinkers.

Kreeft’s signature speaking style makes approachable a text that has captivated the world’s sharpest minds. Explaining Thomas’ reasoning of how humans can know God, Kreeft calls Aquinas’ claims “very modest,” but explains why many readers think the opposite:

Four thousand pages of very rational, highly condensed, very clear, totally logical arguments about God: this guy claims to know everything! He’s got it all in a neat system! Nothing could be further from the truth. Aquinas is not only a mystic, but almost an agnostic. Our knowledge of God is very severely limited.

A flea’s knowledge of you is less inadequate than our knowledge of God, because a flea, though very different than you, is only finite and you are finite. Therefore, there’s some proportion, however remote, between flea’s knowledge and human knowledge. But the difference between human knowledge and divine knowledge is greater than that, Aquinas explicitly says.

Kreeft is a tenured professor at Boston College and a distinguished visiting professor of philosophy at The King’s College. He received his A.B in Philosophy from Calvin College, and his M.A. and Ph.D in Philosophy from Fordham University.

Dr. Mark Hijleh, vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of faculty, said, “The outstanding teaching of Dr. Peter Kreeft is a treasure that we wanted to make available to everyone, to develop their minds and deepen their faith by studying Aquinas’ thought. It is a privilege to have so many brilliant scholars at The King’s College, and we hope this course and other exceptional content we continue to develop will become a resource for many.”

Click here to sign up for “A Sample of Key Concepts from Thomas Aquinas.”