The questions Catholics get asked — and the answers as the great seminary manuals explain them. Pohle-Preuss as the spine, Glenn's Tour of the Summa as your bridge to Aquinas, and the major encyclicals in context.
Each question opens the tract where Pohle-Preuss treats it in full.
The traditional division of Catholic dogmatic theology — each one mapped to a Pohle-Preuss volume and the relevant questions of the Summa.
God's knowability, existence demonstrated by reason, essence and attributes.
Read tractThe divine processions, relations, and persons.
Read tractGod as Creator, angels, man, original justice and original sin.
Read tractThe Incarnation, the hypostatic union, the two natures of Christ.
Read tractThe Redemption, Christ's passion, satisfaction and merit.
Read tractDivine motherhood, perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception, Assumption.
Read tractActual and habitual grace, justification, merit.
Read tractThe seven sacraments in general and in particular.
Read tractConscience, law, sin, the virtues and vices, the Commandments.
Read tractThe Church, papal primacy and infallibility, development of doctrine.
Read tractDeath, particular judgement, heaven, hell, purgatory, the resurrection.
Read tractThe purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways; prayer; perfection.
Read tractEncyclicals and conciliar documents that shaped how the Church teaches each tract. Each précis is one screen — read in five minutes, link to the full Vatican text.
Defines as dogma that the souls of the just enjoy the beatific vision immediately after death (or after purgation), and that the damned descend to hell immediately — settling the controversy over the interim state of souls before the General Judgement.
Defines the Catholic doctrine on God the Creator, on divine revelation, on faith and reason, and on the relationship between faith and science — establishing the dogmatic foundations that all subsequent theology presupposes.
Defines the dogma of papal primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church and papal infallibility when the Pope speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals.
Restores the philosophy and theology of St Thomas Aquinas as the Church's authoritative intellectual method — inaugurating the Thomistic revival within which Pohle, Tanquerey, and the entire modern manual tradition write.
The founding document of Catholic social teaching — addressing the condition of workers, the right to private property, the just wage, and the proper roles of the state, the Church, and voluntary associations.
Defines the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ — a visible, hierarchical society animated by the Holy Spirit and governed by the Pope as Vicar of Christ.
A clear path for a complete beginner.
"Theology is taught by God, teaches of God, and leads to God."— St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I, Prologue