Thomas Aquinas

Quote ~ Note! ~ Scripture ~ Question

Preview

Life

Life (McInerny, Payne, CH Editors, )

• Born 1225 in Roccasecca, inside region of Naples, which was part of the kingdom of Sicily at that time
• Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thought flowed there because of interaction between these cultures
• Very close to Monte Cassino monastery
• Family Was Low Level Aristocracy
• Uncle was abbot of Montecassino
• Family expects Thomas to become a Benedictine
• 1230 Begins studies at Montecassino
• 1239 Continues studies at University of Naples
• 1244 Instead he joins the Domicans, a Mendicant order
  • Poverty
  • Chastity
  • Obedience
  • Hightly Educated to refute heresy
• Parents kidnap him and keep him prisoner for over a year. "Years afterwards, when he came to write the Summa Theologica, he wrote beneath the question: 'Whether duties toward parents are to be set aside for the sake of religion?' the simple answer: 'Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy to follow Me,' and he quoted from Jerome’s famous letter to Heliodorus: 'Though your father fling himself down on the doorstep, trample him underfoot, go your way and fly with dry eyes to the standard of the Cross.'"
• During the captivity, his family sends a prostitute into his room to undermine his zeal, but Thomas drives her out with a brand snatched from the fire and scratches a cross on his door with the ash from the brand
• 1245 He escapes / is released?
• He goes to the University of Paris, where he is taught by Albert the Great
• 1248 Goes with Albert to Cologne's newly founded Dominican school
• Returns to University of Paris
• 1256 Granted his Master of Theology degree. He is expected to ...
  • Lecture
  • Dispute
  • Preach
• He is refuses a teaching position because he is a Dominican but the pope intervenes
• As all medieval theologians did, he teaches on The Sentences of Peter Lombard
• One story has him in his cell at night dictating to three different secretaries on three different topics.
• Latin translations of Aristotle's works appear. They create gigantic controversy in the Catholic Church
  • Reasons for Controversy
    • Didn't fit neatly into the 7 liberal arts category
    • Differed from Christian theology regarding Creation, the Afterlife, and Providence
  • Peter Abelard VS Bernard of Clairvaux
  • Reactions to Aristotle
    • Rejection - Fransciscans
    • Compartmentalization - Latin Averroists argued that Theology is Theology and Philosophy is Philosopys
    • Acceptance - Thomas argued that Revelation completes the insights Artistotle had from reason alone. Thomas believes that because all humans were created in the image of God, human reason could achieve some insights about God. Human reason could not lead to saving faith, nor could it perceive things--the Trinity, --that could only be grasped by revelation.
  • Thomas draws from Mamonides & Avicenna; Resists Averroes
• c. 1260 Begins Summa contra Gentiles
• c. 1265 Begins Summa Theologica
• 1273 Has experiences with Christ that cause him to stop writing
• 1274 Never makes it to Council of Lyons, dying at Fossanova
• He is controversial for some years after his death, but at the Council of Trent becomes the foundation on which modern Catholicism is erected
  
  

---

Devoutly, I Adore Thee (Thomas Aquinas)

Devoutly I Adore Thee
O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore Thee,
Who truly art within the forms before me;
To Thee my heart I bow with bended knee,
As failing quite in contemplating Thee.
Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived;
The ear alone most safely is believed:
I believe all the Son of God has spoken,
Than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.
God only on the Cross lay hid from view;
But here lies hid at once the Manhood too;
And I, in both professing my belief,
Make the same prayer as the repentant thief.
O thou Memorial of our Lord’s own dying!
O Bread that living art and vivifying!
Make ever Thou my soul on Thee to live;
Ever a taste of Heavenly sweetness give.
Jesus! Whom for the present veil’d I see,
What I so thirst for, O vouchsafe to me:
That I may see Thy countenance unfolding,
And may be blest Thy glory in beholding. Amen.

---

Importance

His Productivity (Reeves, "Part I")

---

You Can Learn More from the Errors of A Great Mind ... (Giesler, "Interview")

"Aquinas is worth reading. He has stood the test of time. And even where he errs, you can learn more from the errors of a great mind than you can learn from the truths of a small mind. You can see a whole lot farther standing on the shoulders of giants."

---

Secretaries

---

Aristotle

DD

---

Maimonides, Avicenna, and Averroes

“In this respect, he epitomized the medieval respect for learning, with its conviction that "truth was where one found it." So he was more inclined to examine the arguments of thinkers than their faith, trusting in the image of the Creator in us all to search out traces of the divine handiwork.“ Burrell, “Mingling”

---

Within Catholicism

• 1317 Give the title "Universal" Teacher
• 1323 Canonized
• 1450 Give the title "Angelic" Teacher
• Made a Doctor of the Church
• 1546 Roman Catholicism pretty much accepts him as the ultimate spokesperson for Catholic doctrine
• 1880 Mad Patron of Catholic Schools

---

Turned the Tide Against Intellectual Islam (Giesler, "Interview")

"He single-handedly withstood the onslaught of intellectual Islam in the thirteenth century. He reversed the course of history."

---

He Has MUCH to Say to Protestants (Giesler, "Interview")

• "He believed in the integration of faith and reason, not the separation. He made a distinction but no disjunction."
• "He believed in original sin, he believed in the effects of sin on the mind, and he believed that the mind was so depraved that it could not know supernatural truths. God’s revealed truths could be accepted only by faith."
• "In truth, most Protestants today could have accepted what the Roman Catholic church taught up to the time of the Reformation. Even Martin Luther and John Calvin believed that the Roman Catholic church, up to the Council of Trent, was basically orthodox—a true church with sound fundamental doctrines as well as significant error. Many of the Catholic beliefs that concern Protestants most were not declared dogma until long after Aquinas."
  • "Aquinas denied the immaculate conception of Mary, and it was not declared dogma until 1854."
  • "Aquinas never believed in the bodily assumption of Mary, which was defined in 1950."
  • "Aquinas didn’t believe in the infallibility of the pope. That was not pronounced until 1870—600 years after Aquinas."
• "People are rediscovering Aquinas as a biblical exegete. He wrote some of the greatest commentaries on the Bible—no one has surpassed his commentary on the Gospels to this day. He has 10 pages on John 1:1, and 78 pages on chapter one. He culls from the Fathers, from the second century up to the thirteenth century, and weaves them together in a continuous commentary. After all, he was a member of the Order of Preachers. They had to preach the Bible every day and go through the entire Bible in three years."

---

Summa Theologica

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

Summa Theologica -Structure

Structure of the Summa Theologica (Kreeft, “The Summa and Its Parts”)

Apart from the content of the Summa Theologica, the actual structure Thomas uses is immensely valuable for us today. Thomas uses a 5-part structure that almost perfectly models what an exemplerary scholarly debate should look like.

---

Parts, Treatises, Questions

“The Summa Theologica is divided into four overall Parts (I, I–II, II–II, and III). Each Part is divided into Treatises (e.g., On the Creation, On Man, On Law). Each Treatise is divided into numbered 'Questions,' or general issues within the topic of the treatise (e.g., 'Of the Simplicity of God,' 'Of the Angels in Comparison with Bodies,' 'Of the Effects of Love'). Finally each 'Question' is divided into numbered 'Articles.'.

The 'Article' is the basic thought—unit of the Summa. What we mean in modern English by an 'article'—an essay—is what St. Thomas means by a 'Question,' and what we mean by a 'question'—a specific, single interrogative sentence—is what he means by an 'Article,' e.g., 'Whether God Exists' Whether the Inequality of Things Is from 'Whether Sorrow Is the Same as Pain?’”

---

Part 1 of 5: The Question

“Each Article begins by formulating in its title a single question in such a way that only two answers are possible: yes or no. St. Thomas does this, not because he thinks philosophy or theology is as simple as a true-false exam, but because he wants to make an issue finite and decidable, just as debaters do in formulating their 'resolution.'.

There are an indefinite number of possible answers to a question like 'What is God?' If he had formulated his questions that way, the Summa might be three million pages long instead of three thousand. Instead, he asks, for example, 'Whether God Is a Body?' It is possible to divide and demonstrate that one of the two possible answers (yes) is false and therefore that the other (no) is true.”

---

Part 2 of 5: Strongest Objections, Fairly Stated

“Second, St. Thomas lists a number of Objections (usually three) to the answer he will give. The Objections are apparent proofs of this opposite answer, the other side to the debate...

These Objections must be arguments, not just opinions, for one of the basic principles of any intelligent debate (woefully neglected in all modern media) is that each debater must give relevant reasons for every controvertible opinion he expresses. The Objections are to be taken seriously, as apparent truth. One who is seeking the strongest possible arguments against any idea of St. Thomas will rarely find any stronger ones, any more strongly argued, than those in St. Thomas himself. He is extremely fair to all his opponents.”

---

Part 3 of 5: I’ve Done My Homework, History of the Debate

“Third, St. Thomas indicated his own position with the formula 'On the contrar' (Sed contra). The brief argument that follows the statement of his position here is usually an argument from authority, i.e., from Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, or recognized wise men..

The medievals well knew their own maxim that 'the argument from authority is the weakest of all arguments.' But they also believed in doing their homework and in learning from their ancestors—two habits we would do well to cultivate today.”

---

Part 4 of 5: My Response, Based on Reason Not Authority

“The fourth part, 'I answer that' (Respondeo dicens), is the body of the Article. In it, St. Thomas proves his own position, often adding necessary background explanations and making needed distinctions along the way. The easiest (but not the most exciting) way to read a Summa Article is to read this part first.”

---

Part 5 of 5: Answering Each Objection

“Fifth and finally, each Objection must be addressed and answered—not merely by repeating an argument to prove the opposite conclusion, for that has already been done in the body of the Article, but by explaining where and how the Objection went wrong, i.e., by distinguishing the truth from the falsity in the Objection.”

---

5 Proofs of God`s Existence

Proof != Faith

Human reason can establish that God must exist, but this act of reason does not achieve saving grace. Only God can take the sterile knowledge of His Existence and transform it into an experiental, salvific faith.

Once a person has achieved saving faith, these proofs can offer comfort.

---

1. Motion

Every thing in motion was put into motion by something else. God is the First Mover.

---

2. Ultimate First Efficient Cause

There must be an efficient cause for all things that exist, and that a sequence of such efficient causes exists in the natural world. Behind all causes producing effects must lie an ultimate first efficient cause, which is God. ("The efficient cause of a sculpture is the sculptor wielding his tools. The efficient cause of a window broken by a falling tree is the tree." mregnor ) God is the First Efficient Cause.

---

3. Ultimate Necessary Cause

"Therefore, if everything is possible not to be, then at one time there could have been nothing in existence. Now if this were true, even now there would be nothing in existence, because that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing . Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even now nothing would be in existence — which is absurd." God is the Ultimate Necessary Cause.

---

4. Ultimate Standard (Gradation or Degrees of a Standard)

"The Fourth Way to demonstrate the existence of God is from the objective degrees of desirable qualities of things. In order for qualities to be objective rather than subjective, degrees of quality must be relative to a fixed point of reference that is the unchanging maximum, or highest, quality possible, i.e. perfection. When everyone uses the same reference point of perfection, degrees of perfection are consistent and not subjective."

---

Teleology

Last, the governing and operating of the universe points to an intelligent force guiding the universe and the elements within it to towards individual and ultimate ends.

---

Faith and Reason

Aquinas, Plato, Aristotle (Reeves, "Part 1")

---

Faith VS Reason

• “The Aristotelians would not accept the old Augustinian views, lest science and reason be stifled. The Augustinians would not accept the Aristotelian view, lest faith be undermined and salvation become a merely intellectual matter. Thomas set out to bring both sides together in a reasonable synthesis.
• His two great works, Summa contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica, became the most complete statement of belief in all Christian theology to that day, and, to a large degree, to this day. Only Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion approach Thomas's thorough and complete treatment of doctrine.
• Thomas had plenty of critics. Aristotelians charged that he had not gone far enough in vindicating science and reason. Augustinians, especially Franciscans, thought he had gone much too far and sacrificed the sovereignty of God. Thomism was not accepted fully in the Roman Catholic church until the sixteenth- century Council of Trent.“

Lawrence, “Edge”

---

Human Reason and Revelation

1. Reason can show you some things about God, but
   1. You cannot achieve saving faith through human reason (the red lines)
   2. You cannot uncover things that can only be known by revelation (the green lines)
2. Once you have received grace and eternal life, you fill in gaps with revealed knowledge
3. Human reason aided by revelation by grace (green and red parallel lines) helps you uncover new truth, such as correct interpretation of Bible texts

---

DT

Aquinas’s views were hugely influential, but at the same time, in their efforts to obtain certainty about theological details, he and his fellow “scholastics” (the univer- sity professors or “schoolmen” of their day) created a reaction. Some thinkers began to argue that we can say much more securely what God and heaven are not than what they are. This acquired the name via nega- tiva: the way of negation, approaching God not by study but by contemplation.

The anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing (c. 1345) observed an intellectual cloud between our minds and God and that this cloud is properly and inevitably there because of the limitation of the human intellect. The cloud can be pierced not by the intellect but only by the arrow of love.

---

DT

DD

---

Four Types of Law

4 Types of Law (Lawrence and Coffman, ”President”)

While sin necessitates government, law undergirds it. Specifically, Aquinas defined four types of law...

---

1. Eternal Law

Eternal Law, which governs the universe, comes from the eternal and immutable decrees of God.

---

2. Natural Law

Natural Law, which enables people of reason to understand eternal law, is also ordained of God, but unlike the secret decrees of God, it is perceptible through reason.

---

3. Human Law

Human Law consists of concrete rules enacted by man...Government, Aquinas taught, is the result of sin and is necessary to mitigate its consequences. Political organization is natural to fallen man and necessary for his development. Even though the church is superior to the state, and the greater purpose of man is eternal life, the temporal world is important, and peace and order, leading to temporal happiness, can be preserved through the state."

---

4. Divine Law

Divine Law, which is the ultimate will of God, is revealed in Scripture.

Odds & Ends

Economics (Lawrence and Coffman, ”President”)

“Even by Aquinas's day, lending at interest was too widespread to root out. The market economy was still developing, though, and Aquinas sought to influence it for the common good with what became known as "just price" theory. Both Aristotle and Aquinas had reservations about merchants, but Aquinas was much more realistic. Aristotle thought that vendors should never sell goods for more than they paid for them. Aquinas thought that vendors deserved to be compensated for their labor, out-of-pocket costs, and risks. The cost of the product, plus related expenses and a small margin for profit, represented the just price. Additional mark-ups were selfish and destructive, even if the new price represented what the market could bear. “

---

Transubstantiation (Lawrence, “Edge”)

“Regarding transubstantiation, Thomas again defended traditional ideas as defined by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. He taught that consecrated Communion bread and wine were changed in very substance into the body and blood of Christ while retaining the "accidental" appearance of bread and wine.

In other words, the priest changed the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, but the elements retained the appearance and taste of bread and wine. This distinction between substance and accident came from Aristotle.

It is misleading to project this concept back into the early church, because early Fathers lacked the philosophical categories to make it work.”

---

Atonement (Lawrence, “Edge”)

“Two views of Christ's atonement clashed in Thomas's day. Anselm saw the atonement as a satisfaction for the sins of God's people. Peter Abelard claimed the atonement was essentially an example of love drawing people to Christ. Thomas affirmed that the atonement had a profound exemplary effect on the people of God, but he strongly emphasized the substitutionary nature of Christ's work. The atonement, he taught, was not only an example for us to follow, but a remedy for sin. Christ's death erased the stain of sin, paid for the offense against God, and negated the power of sin in our lives, enabling us to live a new life.“

---

DT

DD

---

DT

DD

---

Sources