Transformed by Knowledge: How Catherine of Siena Put Thomas Aquinas’s Theology into Action

Catherine of Siena begins her Dialogue by describing a soul who has been „dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge“ in order to know God better, „for after knowledge follows love,“ which love in turn drives the soul to seek and „clothe herself“ in truth. The practical application and subsequent effects of this movement between knowledge and love forms a central theme in the remainder of the book. Catherine adopts a Thomistic perspective throughout, demonstrating how Aquinas’s intellectualist conception of human nature and our final end can be put into practical action, increasing love for God and our neighbors and helping us develop moral as well as theological virtues.

Christina Van Dyke is Term Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Calvin University. Author of A Hidden Wisdom: Medieval Contemplatives on Self-Knowledge, Reason, Love, Persons, and Immortality (Oxford University Press, 2023), associate editor of the Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy (2010), and co-author of Aquinas’s Ethics: Metaphysical Foundations, Moral Theory, and Theological Context (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), Van Dyke has published widely on Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics and account of human nature, mysticism in the medieval Christian tradition, and historical methodology.