Traditional Dogmatic Theology in English.

Traditional Dogmatic Theology in English.

Can you please recommend really good textbooks in dogmatic theology?

-Certainly! In English, it's quite easy: Aquinas's Summa with Garrigou-Lagrange's commentaries (plus a few other authors). There isn't much more in English translation. (If you want to go deeper you should go into the old Latin Manuals.*)

Here is a bibliography of Dogmatic works in English. Note: For everything that is listed here as "available online" there is also a corresponding permanent link on the sidebar of the blog (to the right). See especially Section IV ("Opera Scholastica / Scholastic Works").


I. Reference Works, Dogmatic Manuals, and Aquinas.

• Catholic Encyclopedia. Available online.
• The New Catholic Dictionary. Available online.
• Denzinger, Henry. The Sources of Catholic Dogma. New Hampshire: Loretto Publications, 1955.
• Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, 1955. (Introduction available online.) Reprint available from TAN Books.
• Tanquerey, Adolphe. Manual of Dogmatic Theology. Tournai: Desclée, 1959.
• Thomas Aquinas. Summa Contra Gentiles. Available online (abridged).
• -----------. Summa Theologiae. Available online.

II. Introductions & Fundamental Theology (cf. ST I.1)**

• Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginald. Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought. St. Louis: Herder, 1950. Out-of-print. Also available online.
• ----------. "Where is the New Theology Leading Us?" Catholic Family News, October 1998. Original French version available online.
• Walsche, T.J. The Principles of Catholic Apologetics: A Study of Modernism Based Chiefly on the Lectures of Pere Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. London: Sans & Co., 1926. Out-of-print.
• Agius, George. Tradition and the Church. Boston: Stratford, 1928. Reprint available from TAN Books.

III. De Deo Uno, Trino, et Creatore (cf. ST Ia)

• Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginald. The One God: A Commentary on the First Part of St. Thomas’ Theological Summa. St. Louis: Herder, 1943. Out-of-print.
• ----------. The Trinity and God the Creator. Commentary on St. Thomas’ Theological Summa. St. Louis: B. Herder, 1952. Out-of-print. Available online.
• ----------. Predestination. St. Louis: Herder, 1943. Reprint available from TAN Books.
• ----------. Providence. St. Louis: Herder, 1937. Reprint available from TAN Books. Also available online.

IV. Christology, Mariology, Eschatology (cf. ST IIIa)***

• Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginald. Christ the Savior: A Commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas. St. Louis: Herder, 1952. Reprint available from TAN Books. Also available online.
• -----------. Life Everlasting. St. Louis: Herder, 1952. Reprint available from TAN Books. Reprint available from TAN Books. Also available online.

*Click here for a very impressive seminary curriculum based on the traditional Latin Manuals (which seminary, nevertheless, I cannot in itself recommend, due to doctrinal reasons).

** I do not know of any solid full-scale ecclesiology textbooks available in English--and neither Aquinas nor Garrigou wrote extensively on that subject. However, you will find good ecclesiological treatises in the manuals of Ludwig Ott and Adolphe Tanquerey (under "Section I" above).

*** Garrigou's commentary on the Sacraments in the Tertia Pars has not been translated into English yet. For a solid exposition on the Sacraments, see Aquinas ST III.60-90 & Supplement 1-68, as well as Ludwig Ott's and Adolphe Tanquerey's manuals.