Summa Contra Gentiles

The Summa contra Gentiles was written by St. Thomas Aquinas between 1258 and 1264. The work has occasioned much debate as to its purpose, its intended audience and its relationship to his other works. Thomas' work is divided into several categories: Scriptural commentaries, Aristotelian commentaries, Opuscula (smaller works), disputed questions and theological syntheses. The Summa contra Gentiles is usually classified as a theological synthesis along with his earlier Commentary on the 'Sentences' of Peter Lombard and his well-known Summa Theologica, although there are significant differences in scope and intent between all three of these works.