These bio's of great Christians appear regularly on the newsgroup bit.listserv.christia. They're worth the visit to that group regularly...

THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST, FRIAR, AND THEOLOGIAN (28 January 1274)

In the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas lived, the works of
Aristotle, largely forgotten in Western Europe, began to be available
again, partly from Eastern European sources and partly from Moslem
Arab sources in Africa and Spain. These works offered a new and
exciting way of looking at the world. Many enthusiastic students of
Aristotle adopted him quite frankly as as an alternative to
Christianity. The response of many Christians was to denounce
Aristotle as an enemy of the Christian Faith. A third approach was
that of those who tried to hold both Christian and Aristotelian views
side by side with no attempt to reconcile the two. Aquinas had a
fourth approach. While remaining a Christian, he immersed himself in
the ideas of Aristotle, and then undertook to explain Christian ideas
and beliefs in language that would make sense to disciples of
Aristotle. At the time, this seemed like a very dangerous and radical
idea, and Aquinas spent much of his life living on the edge of
ecclesiastical approval. His success can be measured by the
prevalence today of the notion that of course all Christian scholars in
the Middle Ages were followers of Aristotle.

Aristotle is no longer the latest intellectual fashion, but Aquinas's
insistence that the Christian scholar must be prepared to meet other
scholars on their own ground, to become familiar with their
viewpoints, to argue from their premises, has been a permanent and
valuable contribution to Christian thought.

Some Christian scholars today are undertaking, with varying degrees
of success, to explore the relations between Christianity and various
contemporary studies or world-outlooks that have been used as
weapons by opponents of Christianity. Examples that come to mind
include the following:

     William G Pollard, Anglican priest, nuclear physicist at the
     Oak Ridge Laboratory (government-connected), Executive
     Director of the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies (not
     government-connected), and author of Chance and
     Providence and Physicist and Christian (both out of print).

     John Polkinghorne, FRS, Anglican priest, head of Queen's
     College, Cambridge, nuclear physicist, and author of Science
     and Creation, Science and Providence, and various other
     works, including most recently The Faith of a Physicist, now
     (Jan 1997) on display at your local bookstore. (For
     non-scientists, I will point out that "FRS" denotes a Fellow of
     the Royal Society, a member of the elite of British scientists.)

     G B Sanders, author of Christianity After Freud. (For a brief
     summary of his thesis, send the message GET GEN04 RUFF to the
     address , or consult the Web
     page at http://www.aber.ac.uk/~spk/christia .

     Various writers on "liberation theology" who have undertaken
     to show that Marxism, properly interpreted, does not imply
     the falsity of Christianity.

PRAYER (traditional language)
     Almighty God, who hast enriched thy Church with the singular
     learning and holiness of thy servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten
     us more and more, we pray thee, by the disciplined thinking
     and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion
     by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
     who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one
     God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language)
     Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the
     singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas:
     Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined
     thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our
     devotion by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ
     our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
     one God, for ever and ever.

Psalm 37:3-6,32-33 or 119:97-104
Wisdom 7:7-14
Matthew 13:47-52 (Trin)