An interesting perspective can be reached by entertaining these ideas tabula rasa, making no attempt to answer any religious questions. Analyzing Summa for its mythic value is perhaps more interesting than its potential religious value, because instead of looking into the Summa Theologica to find the sum of what can be known about God, we can look instead to see the entirety of Thomas Aquinas's religious imagination, and that is highly valuable.
For instance, it is significant that Aquinas's religion quickly became an attempt to categorize the entirety of knowledge into a compendium. This literally signifies something about Aquinas's character—he was curious exhaustively. Many people are curious, but few people can write over 750,000 words about the same topic, all within the same schemas. Aquinas's imagination is rigorous and orderly, as he attempts to gain all knowledge, categorizing his ideas as he goes.
One might say Aquinas is an idea hoarder, but then that begs the question: What does Aquinas understand to be so valuable about all these speculative ideas? Well, he has a deep, rigorous understanding of the Christian story and philosophy, so one might say that he cherishes his religion with utmost sincerity, so he collects ideas that feel crucial to him in his climb toward some kind of sublime breakthrough or enlightenment. Certainly, it is evidence of commitment to even complete a work like this, so what Aquinas shows us is the power of the human mind.
