The Aquinas Review
- Reflections by the Editor, Dr. Ronald P. McArthur, President
Emeritus
(Winter/Spring 2004 Newsletter)
The Aquinas Review was first published in the fall of
1994 in an effort to stimulate a continuing conversation with
an ever-widening audience about some of the important topics
which should concern us all, both as men and as Christians.
The review arose naturally from the distinctive character
of Thomas Aquinas College, its program and its aims. Below,
founding president of the College and Editor of The Aquinas
Review, Dr. Ronald P. McArthur, reflects on the goals and
purpose of the publication.
When founding our college, we thought that we had the right
principles, and that we had proposed a curriculum which was
compatible with them - a curriculum worth pursuing as a good
in itself, and not merely as useful. While our previous experiences
in teaching and learning were along the very lines of our
curriculum-to-be, it was still to be different from any others
we had seen. 
The seminar discussion of Great Books was not new, nor were
the tutorials in language, mathematics and the modern sciences.
In all this St. John's College had led the way, providing
a most successful alternative to the confused and rudderless
character of American education. We were attempting, however,
to provide, over and above those studies, a philosophical
and theological direction which was demanded by our faith;
we were convinced that without such direction our efforts
could not be Catholic. Hence we were adding tutorials in philosophy
and theology, to be conducted according to the doctrine and
method of St. Thomas Aquinas, the common Doctor of the Universal
Church. We were convinced that this was the only possible
way we could be aiming at genuine Catholic liberal education.
All this understood from the beginning, we still knew that
neither the principles nor the curriculum would guarantee
the successful founding of a college. The most pressing questions,
granted our own experience with such a program, were whether
there would be students who would come to such a different
kind of school, whether if they came they would be enthusiastic
about their studies, and if so whether that enthusiasm would
remain.
Those questions were decisively answered by our first class:
There were very able students who wanted to come, they came
with an uncommon desire to learn, and their enthusiasm remained
after their matriculation. The college was so successful from
the beginning that it became almost immediately a Catholic
community of learners, and a bond was formed among the students,
which remained after they graduated and which has remained
up to the present.
Since our program was meant to be a beginning in the life
of learning, and since there were more and more alumni with
the passing of years, Dr. Thomas Dillon, the College's current
President, along with others here on campus thought that by
starting a journal we might enhance our relationship with
the alumni and at the same time make known our efforts to
a wider audience. So, in 1994, we published the first issue
of The Aquinas Review, which, we hoped, would kindle
a desire to keep alive the intellectual life of the alumni
and arouse in others an interest in the kinds of questions
and concerns which launched Thomas Aquinas College.
We publish The Aquinas Review in the hope of maintaining
and enlarging a community of learners which extends beyond
the confines of the four years spent on our campus. We have
published, and continue to publish, good articles by our graduates
and others who share our purposes. I appeal to those who are
interested in our aims and our program to read them, and to
let us know your reactions to them and even to The Aquinas
Review itself.
Contact the Editor of The Aquinas Review at pr@thomasaquinas.edu
or by mail: Editor, The Aquinas Review, Thomas Aquinas
College, 10,000 North Ojai Road, Santa Paula, CA 93060.
For a free subscription to The Aquinas Review please
contact Mimi Price at mprice@thomasaquinas.edu or by phone
at 1-800-634-9797.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2004
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