Summary Of The Summa Of St. Thomas, or Compedium Of Theology - Volume III - Charles René Billuart

This third volume continues Billuart’s structured summary of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, focusing on moral theology, especially the principles governing human action and the path to human fulfillment in God.

The work examines human acts in detail, including their moral structure, voluntariness, and the conditions that determine moral responsibility. It then turns to the passions, virtues, and vices, explaining how the rational soul orders human behavior toward the good through habit and reason.

A central theme of the volume is the ultimate end of human life—beatitude—and how it directs all moral activity. Billuart carefully presents Aquinas’s teaching that true happiness cannot be found in created goods but only in the possession of God as the highest good.

The volume maintains a clear scholastic organization, aiming to make the moral teaching of the Summa accessible while preserving its philosophical depth and theological precision.