This book is one of a new series designed to introduce major thinkers on education to students and teachers. The subjects of the other volumes so far published range from Plato to Rudolf Steiner, from Rousseau to Newman to Maria Montessori; it is good to see Aquinas on the short-list, so to speak, of philosophers of so important a topic. Vivian Boland takes a broad approach to his theme, arguing that Aquinas' ideas on education can be understood only in the contexts of his life, which was largely that of a teacher, and of his thought as a whole. Teaching and learning are not sharply delineated exercises, separable from the rest of life, as one might think of a ball-game, but an activity of the whole person, an expression of one's total understanding and commitments, in which one engages far beyond the narrow confines of the classroom.

The book has four parts: an intellectual biography of St Thomas, an exposition of the main passages in which he directly discusses teaching, an account of the reception and influence of his writings in general, and finally a discussion of the contemporary relevance of his ideas. The biography is a standard summary, useful to those readers of the series who are new to Aquinas, which includes an explanation of teaching methods in medieval universities and argues that Thomas' choice of the Dominicans was in large part motivated by his desire to teach. The second part ranges widely over Aquinas' oeuvre, showing how he returns repeatedly to the theme of teaching, sometimes in unexpected places.

In the early commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, St Thomas makes the point, under the influence of Augustine, that while a human teacher can provide the words that point the pupil to the truth, he or she cannot provide the power of understanding in us: that comes from God. Later on, he clarifies this point, steering a middle way between a Platonic idea of innate knowledge on the one hand, and, on the other hand, two beliefs that he found in the Arabic commentators: Avicenna's, that some other power thinks through and for us, and Averroes', that we think not as individuals but by participating in a universal intelligence. The Platonist view allows no real contribution from outside to the process of learning; the Arabic views share a refusal to grant real independence to the mind of the thinking individual. St Thomas argues that God bestows on rational creatures the power to understand, but that this needs to be actively exercised and developed, through the appropriation of sensory experience by the mind, normally with the help of other people. The teacher acts like a doctor or gardener, helping to provide the conditions that will enable the active intelligence of the pupil to do its work. Underlying all this is Aquinas' realism: truth has what Boland calls ‘public, objective character’. At the same time, there are limits to the powers of our reason: philosophy can support faith and revelation, but not replace them.

The account so far draws primarily on De Veritate, on the Summa Theologiae and on the commentaries on Aristotle. The final section of Part 2, on pedagogy, uses the commentary on Boethius' De Trinitate to explore the different methods appropriate to different branches of learning, such as natural science, mathematics and theology. All knowledge begins with the senses and the imagination; different branches of knowledge can attain different degrees of certainty; knowledge of things divine uses the imagination, but goes beyond it, and is what brings happiness to human beings. The prologues of Aquinas' works reveal his concern to put theory into practice and develop teaching methods appropriate to his actual students; indeed, he justifies the writing of his massively influential Summa Theologiae primarily in terms of its pedagogical approach. The ultimate inspiration for all this is, of course, Christ, and an interesting chapter, based on the Commentary on St John, examines Jesus as a teacher. ‘The disciples learn by spending time with him; listening to what he says and experiencing how he lives.’ The pupil must begin by trusting the teacher, and must have his or her own desire to know. Jesus is as a teacher both the servant of and an example to his students, above all in his passion and death. He also teaches interiorly, through love conveyed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, something made possible by a certain quietness in the soul.

Boland's account of themes and later history of Aquinas' work tends to be cautiously suggestive rather than to develop fully the ways in which his thought might contribute to current debates. It will sometimes be difficult too for the non-specialist to grasp the significance of key terms given in ‘scholastic English’ (‘possible intellect’ is one example of rather opaque transliteration). However, there is a wealth of material here of interest and contemporary relevance. The quaestio, with its respectful attention to the opponent's argument, remains a model for how to integrate understanding in a way that is neither dismissive nor relativistic. Thomas' insistence that education is more like gardening than like filling up empty jars offers a radical challenge to the fundamental assumptions of many of today's policy-makers and students alike. At a time when there are plans to make sex education compulsory in the classroom for five-year-olds, as if it were mathematics, it is vital to rediscover Aquinas' understanding that different methods of teaching are appropriate for different topics. His awareness of the need for teachers to be free to develop appropriate pedagogical methods; of the importance of personal contact and friendship between teacher and pupil; of the need for time and stillness to be receptive to learning; of the fundamental role of love for the subject – each of these strike at the heart of our own society's commercialised, technologised and utilitarian approach to education. The unity of creation poses major questions in an academic culture obsessed with specialisation. The fundamental connection between learning and moral formation, grounded in the idea that human life has a shared and definable purpose, is something that needs at the present time to be proclaimed from the house-tops.

All of this leaves us with a question that Boland raises sharply, but does not resolve: can Aquinas' reflections on education be properly appropriated by resolutely secular thinkers? The more that one insists, for very good reasons, on rooting his philosophy in his theology, the harder it becomes to convince our agnostic contemporaries of his relevance. It seems urgent, however, both to be able to explain how one might do just that, and to engage in the task of doing it.