Many great thinkers have wrestled with the topic of evil. St. Thomas Aquinas's disputed question On Evil merges as the longest and most comprehensive study on the subject of evil available.
This long-awaited translation is based on the critical edition of the Latin text published by the Leonine Commission in 1982. The disputed question De malo (On Evil) was first presented as a series of oral debates at the University of Paris (1263-1272) and subsequently recorded in the form in which it now appears. The length of the work and the thoroughness of the treatment is eloquent testimony of the importance St. Thomas attached to this topic.
About the Author :
The late John A. Oesterle was the author of Logic: The Art of Defining and Reasoning and the translator of Treatise on Happiness (Notre Dame Press, 1983) and Treatise on the Virtues (Notre Dame Press, 1984).
Jean T. Oesterle is the translator of St. Thomas's and Cajetan's Commentary on Aristotle's Perihermeneias (On the Enunciation).
Review :
"This is a major milestone in translation and a welcome addition to the opus of the great saint available in translation. Highly recommended." —The Reader's Review
"Those who have the required time and tenacity will be richly rewarded by [Aquinas's] treatment of a perennial problem." —Books and Culture
"Great care has been lavished on the text, and the result is a clear and readable rendering. . . . a valuable addition to the growing list of Thomas's works available in English." —Religious Studies Review
". . . a mature and major work [that] deals with both philosophical and theological aspects of the nature of evil, its causes and kinds, the main classes of sin, freedom, original sin, and devils. . . ." —Choice
"Plumbing the theological problem of evil—a classic intellectual and emotional struggle in religion—now seems a newly urgent task, a fact reflected in... a new translation of Aquinas's On Evil by John and Jean Oesterle (Notre Dame)." —Publishers Weekly
