Summa Made Simple

Gluttony doesn’t end when the meal does. According to Thomas Aquinas, it leaves behind six lasting effects—what he calls the “daughters” of gluttony. And they show up where you least expect: in your thoughts, your words, and your behavior. Why do people talk too much after indulging? Why does clarity disappear? Why do large family gatherings spiral into conflict? This episode connects the dots—rev...

Most people think gluttony means one thing: eating too much. Aquinas disagrees. In this episode, we break open a far sharper insight:gluttony has five distinct forms — and most of them have nothing to do with quantity. You might not overeat…and still be deeply caught in it. Eating too early. Obsessing over “perfect” food. Needing it expensive. Eating fast, mindlessly, constantly. Suddenly, glutton...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from £5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you! You’ve been told gluttony is about eating too much. It isn’t. It’s about why you eat. Gluttony, as the Summa defines it, isn’t about the amount on your plate. It’s about whether your desire for food is ordered — governed by reason — or whether...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! You followed every rule. One meal. No seconds. And according to Aquinas, it still counted for nothing. In this episode, we unpack why Lent falls before Easter — not after — and why that order matters more than most people think. Then Aquinas...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Modern culture tells us to “listen to your inner child.” To “Just do it!” and to “Obey your thirst!” Aquinas would say that’s exactly the problem. In this episode, we explore one of the most unexpected claims in the Summa : intemperance is ch...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! We’ve heard a thousand sermons about excess. Almost none about deficiency. In this episode, we dive into the vice of insensibility — the strange and nearly forgotten sin of refusing legitimate pleasure. Can denying wine, sex, or even simple j...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! You don’t have a discipline problem. You have a dictator problem. In this episode, we unpack why abstinence and fasting aren’t medieval leftovers but weapons against the quiet tyranny of desire. Drawing from Aquinas, we break down the differe...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Some pleasures don’t just tempt you—they hijack you. In this episode, we unpack why temperance isn’t about being boring or repressed, but about protecting your freedom, your integrity, and your sanity. Aquinas shows how unchecked desire corru...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Does more pleasure mean more happiness? Or does lived experience say otherwise? Drawing from Aquinas, this episode shows why excess quietly sabotages enjoyment, and how the virtue of temperance doesn’t suppress desire but trains it. From food...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Perseverance is more than willpower — it’s a virtue that keeps you holding on to good goals when things get hard. In this episode, we explore two vices that oppose perseverance: effeminacy (softness, indulgence, avoiding hardship) and pertina...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Starting is easy. Lasting is not. In this episode, we break down what perseverance really is — not as raw willpower, but as a virtue that shows up in two very different ways: the perseverance you need to get through ordinary days, and the per...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Patience gets talked about constantly, yet not many can actually define it. In this episode, we strip away the soft, modern version of patience and get precise: patience is the virtue that helps us bear the sorrow other people cause us — with...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Magnificence is the virtue concerned with spending large sums on great undertakings — which is exactly why most people assume it has nothing to do with them. In this episode, we confront that assumption head-on. We unpack what magnificence ac...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! We all know what it feels like to step back from something we could — and probably should — take on. That shrinking, that discouragement, that fear of failing again after past failures… that’s exactly what this episode tackles. And the tradit...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Vainglory isn’t just about wanting attention — it’s one of the seven deadly sins that quietly poisons everyday life. In this episode, we dig into the messy fallout it creates: discord, obstinacy, the need to be “different” just to stand out,...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Glory isn’t the problem — empty glory is. In this episode, we break down the vice of vainglory and why it’s everywhere today, especially online. You’ll hear what makes the desire for glory praiseworthy, what makes it hollow, and how to think...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Most people assume ambition is harmless — even admirable. But once you pin down what ambition actually is, the picture changes fast. In this episode, we break open a definition that reveals why ambition can cross the line into sin, and why th...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! We talk about “respecting nature” all the time — the oceans, the forests, the planet. But what about human nature? In this episode, we take a hard look at the sin of presumption — the temptation to push past our limits and manipulate what’s m...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Magnanimity might sound lofty, but it’s meant to be lived. In this episode, we dig into the hidden practical wisdom of Aquinas’s Summa —the kind that’s tucked between the objections and replies. Step by step, we uncover some of the practical...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! We all want to be respected, admired, even celebrated—but that craving can easily twist into vanity. In this episode, we go straight to the heart of the tension between ambition and humility and uncover the forgotten virtue that helps us bala...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! We love to talk about resilience or fortitude —but most of us have no idea what it really looks like. It isn’t just grit. It isn’t just endurance. And it definitely isn’t pretending you’re fine when you’re not. In this episode, we unpack the...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! Fear is supposed to protect us—but what if it’s the very thing that’s killing our courage? In this episode, we pull fear apart and find two very different forces at work: one that keeps us alive, and one that keeps us from living. The first w...

Love this content? Become a paying subscriber and help create more. Support via Substack (from $5 a month) | Support on Patreon (from $1 a month) Thank you ! When we hear the word martyrdom , we often imagine distant lands and people caught in the grip of extremists. But martyrdom isn’t only a story that happens “somewhere else.” In this episode, we uncover the unexpected faces of martyrdom in our...

Doing good is supposed to make us feel good , right? WRONG! Let's be honest. Doing good doesn't always give us a warm fuzzy feeling. In fact, it often down-right sucks. But why is that the case? Find out in this episode of "Summa Made Simple", where we discuss why doing the right thing isn't usually pleasant and delightful. Read the relevant Article from the Summa Theologica here: Part 2 of 2, Que...

Feelings often get in the way of things and mess things up. So why even have them if they cause so much trouble? Find out in this Episode of "Summa Made Simple", where we explore the usefulness of emotions and the good role they can play in our lives. Read the relevant Article from the Summa Theologica here: Part 2 of 2, Question 123, Article 10. Whether the brave man makes use of anger in his act...