Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas (1225-1274): The hinge between Islamic-recovered Aristotle and Christian theology. Where Augustine brought Plato in — Aquinas brought Aristotle in. Summa Theologica — the cathedral of medieval thought in words. Reason and faith not enemies — reason leads to the threshold, faith crosses it. Natural theology: God knowable through reason alone up to a point. Revelation: God known fully only through scripture and tradition. The synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem — philosophy in service of theology. Without Aquinas: no coherent Catholic intellectual tradition. Without Aquinas: no understanding of how the medieval mind worked.
c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, theologian, and philosopher. He is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Catholic theology and Western philosophy.[6][7]
Thomas was a proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism. He argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith.[8] He embraced[9] several ideas put forward by Aristotle and sought to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.[10] Among his best-known ideas include his Five Ways for proving the existence of God, his virtue ethics, and his sacramental theology. In addition to its vast influence on Catholic thought, his philosophy has influenced modern virtue ethics, aesthetics, and cognitive theory.
Thomas's best-known work is the unfinished Summa Theologica, or Summa Theologiae (1265–1274), which is a comprehensive guide to the theology of the Catholic Church. His body of work also includes the Disputed Questions on Truth (1256–1259), the Summa contra Gentiles (1259–1265), and numerous commentaries on Christian Scripture and on Aristotle. He is also known for his Eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.[11]
Thomas has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period"[12] and is generally considered to be one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers.[13] As one of the 38 Doctors of the Church, he is known by multiple titles, including Doctor Angelicus ("Angelic Doctor"), Doctor Communis ("Universal Doctor"), and Doctor Humanitatis ("Doctor of Humanity").[
Theology
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Thomas Aquinas viewed theology, "the sacred doctrine", as a science,[74] by which he meant a field of study in which humanity could learn more by its own efforts (as opposed to being totally dependent on having divine revelation planted into our minds). For Thomas, the raw material data of this field consists of written scripture and the tradition of the Catholic Church. These sources of data were produced by the self-revelation of God to individuals and groups of people throughout history. Faith and reason, being distinct but related, are the two primary tools for processing the data of theology. Thomas believed both were necessary—or, rather, that the confluence of both was necessary—for one to obtain true knowledge of God.[74]
Thomas blended Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine by suggesting that rational thinking and the study of nature, like revelation, were valid ways to understand truths pertaining to God. According to Thomas, God reveals himself through nature, so to study nature is to study God. The ultimate goals of theology, in Thomas's mind, are to use reason to grasp the truth about God and to experience salvation through that truth. The central thought is "gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit" ('grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it').