"The Summa Theologica is the best-known work of Italian philosopher, scholar, and Dominican friar SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS (1225¿1274), widely considered the Catholic Church¿s greatest theologian. Famously consulted (immediately after the Bible) on religious questions at the Council of Trent, Aquinas¿s masterpiece has been considered a summary of official Church philosophy ever since. Aquinas considers approximately 10,000 questions on Church doctrine covering the roles and nature of God, man, and Jesus, then lays out objections to Church teachings and systematically confronts each, using Biblical verses, theologians, and philosophers to bolster his arguments. In Volume V, Aquinas addresses: ¿ penance, contrition, and confession ¿ excommunication ¿ matrimony and divorce ¿ slavery ¿ judgment ¿ purgatory ¿ and much more This massive work of scholarship, spanning five volumes, addresses just about every possible query or argument that any believer or atheist could have, and remains essential, more than seven hundred years after it was written, for clergy, religious historians, and serious students of Catholic thought."