Responding to the recent upsurge of interest in Thomas Aquinas, this book goes straight to the heart of the contemporary debates about Thomism. * Focuses on the concept of authority, both in terms of Aquinas's own attitude to authority, and how the Church authorities have used Aquinas's texts. * Engages with appropriations of Aquinas's work by a range of theologians, from liberal Catholics to the creators of radical orthodoxy. * Argues for future readings of Aquinas which are substantially different from those which have gone before.