Book Three, Part 2 of the
Summa Contra Gentiles
series is the second part of a treatise on the hierarchy of creation, the divine providence over all things, and man's relation to God.
The
is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. In the
Summa
Aquinas works to save and purify the thought of the Greeks and the Arabs in the higher light of Christian Revelation, confident that all that had been rational in the ancient philosophers and their followers would become more rational within Christianity.
Book 1 of the
deals with God; Book 2, Creation; and Book 4, Salvation.