Saint Thomas Aquinas
Who was Saint Thomas Aquinas?
In the middle of the 13th century, a young Catholic scholar made up his mind to join the newly formed Dominican order of monks.
In the middle of the 13th century, a young Catholic scholar made up his mind to join the newly formed Dominican order of monks.
Though brilliant, the teen was also spectacularly ugly,
suffering from obesity and edema, with one eye grotesquely larger than the
other.
He rarely spoke and was constantly drifting off into his own
thoughts. His combination of size, ugliness, and perpetual silence led to the
nickname “The Dumb Ox.”
His family was so dead-set on keeping him out of the
Dominican order that they kidnapped him and held him captive for more than a year.
Yet he persisted, becoming one of the greatest theologians of
history, today known as Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas’ contributions to philosophy and theology rank
him among the most renowned thinkers of history.
If Augustine was the first great scholar of the medieval
period, Aquinas could be considered the last.
His general outlook is known today as Thomism.
He is remembered for his persuasive case for reconciling
faith and reason; his “Five Ways” to prove the existence of God; an apologetics text titled Summa Contra Gentiles; and his massive work Summa Theologica (“Comprehensive Survey of Theology”).
Thomas Aquinas worked to reconcile the prevailing
philosophies of Aristotle and Plato with Christian theology.
His conclusion was that reason and revelation (faith) are
neither opposites nor in conflict. Rather, both philosophy and faith are
necessary in order to truly comprehend anything.
Aquinas also believed that certain ideas are better
understood through reason than through revelation, and vice versa.
Aquinas also held that there are a select few truths that
reason can only uncover by applying a significant amount of time, intellect,
and knowledge.
Since few human beings have access to significant amounts of
any of those three things, God chooses to reveal those select truths Himself
and save us the work.
Aquinas believed that human intellect was not affected by the
Fall but that our will was, making revelation that much more necessary for
certain truths to be known.
Rather than seeing faith and reason as opposing each other,
Aquinas saw them as intertwined and mutually supportive.
Aquinas’ writings are still used as valuable resources on
Christian thinking.
His Summa Contra Gentiles was written to equip apologists for encounters
with Muslims.
Summa Theologica was his life’s work, a collection of his entire system of
theology.
Unfortunately, Aquinas died before he was able to finish the Summa. He also wrote volumes on dozens of different
philosophical and theological topics.
One of Thomas Aquinas’ most valuable contributions to
theology is also one of the most misunderstood.
His “Five Ways” of proving the existence of God are the First
Mover Argument, the First Cause Argument, the Contingency (Necessity) Argument,
the Ontological (Perfection) Argument, and the Teleological (Design) Argument.
Contrary to popular belief, these are not the highest,
deepest expressions of Aquinas’ theology, nor are they his view of the best or
most powerful means to argue for the existence of God.
Rather, these five arguments were Aquinas’ response to a
request for a simplified, layman-friendly introduction to the defense of God’s
existence.
Many skeptics attack the Five Ways without realizing that
they’re only the condensed versions of much more robust, sophisticated
arguments.
Aquinas’ popularity within Catholicism exploded during the
Reformation, when his views were used to counter certain aspects of Protestant
belief.
Today, Aquinas is considered a saint of the Catholic Church.
Despite his physical limitations and his early death (before
his fiftieth birthday), Thomas Aquinas’ profound thinking is still being used,
even today, to defend all aspects of Christianity.
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