Though initially mocked as a thickie ('Dumb Ox'), he became enormously influential throughout the western church during his lifetime and subsequently a major shaping influence throughout the Catholic tradition. This was because of the sheer persuasive power of how he interprets and explains the Christian faith and moral sense, in a rationally coherent and consistent way. To do this, he draws extensively on the pre-Christian philosophy of Aristotle, Plato and the Stoics, which he combined with earlier theological and Biblical thinking.

• http://www.chesterton-library.net/aquinas.txt
• http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/90.html

• http://www.newadvent.org/summa/

• http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aquinas.htm
• http://www.intermirifica.org/thaquinas.htm
• http://radicalacademy.com/philaquinasmdw12.htm
• http://www.socinian.org/thomas_aquinas.html