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Thomas Aquinas
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Saint Thomas Aquinas |
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Thomas Aquinas |
Oxford Dictionary of Saints:
Thomas Aquinas |
Thomas Aquinas (c.1225–74), Dominican friar and theologian. Born of a knightly family at Rocca Secca near Aquino, Thomas was educated from the age of five to thirteen at the monastery of Monte Cassino (founded by Benedict), and later at the university of Naples for five years. There he met and was attracted by the Dominican friars; he planned to join their Order. This caused great indignation in his home, partly because the Dominicans were mendicants. Thomas, however, had set his heart on the intellectual apostolate of the friars. This did not prevent his family from pursuing, capturing, and imprisoning him for over a year at Rocca Secca; but he joined the Dominican Order in 1244. The rest of his life was divided between Paris and Italy, studying, lecturing, and writing incessantly until his death at the early age of forty-nine. His first master was Albert the Great, who soon recognized his worth: he is said to have prophesied that although Thomas was called the ‘dumb ox, his lowing would soon be heard all over the world’. Thomas was described by a contemporary as ‘tall, erect, large and well-built, with a complexion like ripe wheat and whose head early grew bald’. His deep contemplative devotion at prayer, which was sometimes ecstatic, was matched by an intense power of concentration and an ability to dictate to four secretaries at once. His own handwriting survives; it is cramped and almost illegible, making very frequent use of abbreviations because the poverty of the friars obliged them to use parchment very sparingly. His first teaching appointment was at Paris in 1252, at the Dominican convent of S. Jacques. Here he wrote a spirited defence of the mendicant orders against William of St.-Amour, a Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the De Ente et Essentia, and works on Isaiah and Matthew. In 1256 he became Master in Theology at the early age of thirty-one. Towards 1259 he began his Summa contra Gentes, i.e. a theological statement of the Christian faith argued partly by the use of pure reason without faith against Islam, Jewry, heretics, and pagans, probably not so much for the use of missionaries in foreign lands as for a university milieu, such as Naples or Toledo, where these opinions were well known. Islam had produced famous Aristotelian thinkers and Thomas's aim was to answer them from Aristotle himself.
But this work was set aside for some years because Thomas was sent to Italy in 1259, where he stayed for ten years, teaching at Anagni, Orvieto, Rome, and Viterbo and organizing the schools of his Order. He completed the work Contra Gentes c.1264, and started the most important work of his life, the Summa Theologica, c.1266. This work which fills five substantial volumes is a comprehensive statement of his mature thought on all the Christian mysteries: it proceeds through objections and authoritative replies in each article to a concise summary of his view on the matter under discussion, after which the various objections are answered. Although in his own time there were several summae (others were composed by Franciscans such as Bonaventure), and in the later Middle Ages many of his positions were attacked, the emergence of a series of gifted Dominican commentators and the explicit approval of Pius V and later of Leo XIII powerfully assisted its adoption as the standard theological text in many schools and universities. Its intrinsic excellence, its insistence on Aristotle combined with Platonist philosophy, its patristic learning and clear reasoning, have commended it to generations of theologians. But it remained unfinished.
In 1269 he was recalled to Paris for three years. The king, Louis IX, highly esteemed him and consulted him; so also did the university of Paris. Once, as a guest at the king's table, he was absorbed in thought and quite oblivious of his surroundings. To the astonishment of all, this huge friar (who had grown very corpulent in middle age) banged his fist on the table and exclaimed: ‘Tht's finished the heresy of the Manichees.’ A gentle reproof from his prior was followed by the friar's apology and the immediate arrival of a scribe to take down his argument.
In 1272 Thomas was recalled to Naples as regent of studies. Here on 6 December he experienced a revelation of God, after which he dictated no more, but said that all he had written in comparison to what he had then seen was like so much straw. He died on his way to the Council of Lyons on 7 March after a partial breakdown or a stroke, caused no doubt by constant overwork. Quite apart from his oral teaching, his writings alone on theology, philosophy, and scripture with the study necessary to produce them would have taken several normal lifetimes. Throughout he was modest and unassuming and all his life a man of deep prayer and spiritual insight. His devotion in serving God through theological scholarship may be compared with that of Bede through historical and patristic work. He also met the needs of the faithful by writing commentaries on the Creed, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary, besides preaching on the commandments and the Creed. He was canonized in 1323; his body was translated to Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, in 1368 and thence to the Jacobins' church, Toulouse, in 1974. Pope Pius V declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1567; his Summa Theologica was accorded special honour at the Council of Trent. The substance of his work, but not all its details, remains as an authentic statement of Christian doctrine. Feast: formerly 7 March, but since 1970, 28 January.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- Contemporary Lives by William da Tocco and Ptolemy of Lucca in AA.SS. Mar. I (1668), 655–747; K. Foster, The Life of St. Thomas Aquinas (1959; biographical documents, translated and edited); studies by M. Grabmann, Thomas Aquinas, his personality and thought (translated from the German, 1928); M. C. D'Arcy (1930); J. Maritain (1931) and A. Walz (Eng. tr. 1951); F. C. Copleston (1955); M. D. Chenu (1959). Works in Leonine edition (1882 ff.), Ottawa edition (1941 ff.), Eng. tr. by T. Gilby. See also: A. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D'Aquino: his Life, Thought and Works (1975); R. Barron, Thomas Aquinas Spiritual Master (1995)
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
St. Thomas Aquinas |
The Italian philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1224-1274) was one of the foremost minds of medieval scholasticism. He is recognized as the leading theological authority within the Roman Catholic Church.
The central question facing Christian thinkers in the 13th century was the attitude to be taken toward Aristotle and the use to be made of his thought by theologians committed to a Christian view of the nature of God, man, and the universe. By the middle of the century the writings of Aristotle, for the most part unknown in the Latin West until the end of the 12th century, were readily available in Latin translation and were being taught in the arts faculties at universities in England, France, and Italy. In combination with the writings of Averroës, which were used to interpret Aristotle, this new intellectual material provided the early 13th century with the developed, integrated philosophical system for which they had been searching. On the other hand, because of the completeness and self-sufficiency of the Aristotelian system, Christian theology seemed less necessary as an avenue to truth, which because of Aristotle, was now accessible to man by natural reason, without revelation.
For those who were unwilling to relinquish the primacy of Christian revelation and who felt that Aristotle had not made the latter obsolete, there were still particular aspects of the Aristotelian system as they knew it that directly conflicted with Christian truth. For example, the Aristotelian notion of God as a distant and unapproachable prime mover, the idea of the eternity of the world, the notion of necessity and determinism, the idea that there was one intellect shared by men into which souls were absorbed after death, thus denying personal immortality, and the idea that all love is based ultimately on self-interest caused problems for Christian doctrine, which affirmed a personal, transcendent God who created the world freely and in time, who was concerned about particular individuals, and who would ultimately reward with eternal life the person who loved God rather than self.
In the 13th century men believed that all truth was one and that there could be no serious conflict between philosophy and theology or between Aristotle and Christianity. Since for them Christianity could not be wrong and since Aristotle was an established, ancient authority, the natural tendency was to bring Aristotle and Christianity into agreement. It was part of the achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas that he created a theological and philosophical system that remained basically Christian while incorporating significant elements from the Aristotelian world view. Many historians have viewed this system, sometimes referred to as the Thomist synthesis (a synthesis of theology and philosophy, of faith and reason, as well as Aristotelianism and Christianity), as the most important achievement in medieval thought and an archetype of philosophical and theological thinking for the modern period.
Thomas was not alone in this endeavor, nor did his version go unquestioned. He was criticized in his lifetime by such important theologians as Bonaventure, and some of Thomas's solutions were condemned along with a variety of others at Paris in 1277. His reputation, however, remained of major import from the 13th century on, and through the respect accorded him at the Council of Trent in the 16th century and the emergence of a neo-Thomist movement among Catholic philosophers he has had a significant impact on modern thought.
Early Life and Education, 1224-1252
Thomas was born into the Italian lower nobility, the youngest son of Landolfo of Aquino, Lord of Roccasecca and Montesangiovanni and justiciary of Frederick II, Emperor of Germany and King of Naples. Thomas's father lived to see most of his sons, including Thomas, abandon the causes to which he had devoted his life, shifting their allegiance from the Hohenstaufen emperor to the papacy and from the older monastic institutions to the newer mendicant orders.
At the age of 5 or 6, Thomas was placed in the care of the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino with the intention that he should become a monk and, eventually, abbot of this, one of the most prestigious monastic communities in Europe. After 8 years of instruction he was forced by political circumstances to leave Monte Cassino with the other oblates and to complete his education in Naples at a Benedictine house connected with the university there.
Thomas remained in Naples 5 years. During this time he came in contact with several influences that changed the course of his life. First, he was attracted to the opportunities for intellectual growth and service offered by the universities. In particular, he came into contact with Greek and Arabic learning, especially the thought of Aristotle and Averroës, which had been recently translated. Second, he was attracted to the newer mendicant orders, which espoused an apostolic life of service in the world (rather than the cloistered meditation typical of Monte Cassino) and which played an active role in the intellectual life of the university.
By 1243 Thomas had made a momentous decision: turning his back on his family and the plans that had been made for his career, he joined the Dominicans and received the habit in 1244. Foreseeing that his family would oppose his decision and try to intervene, Thomas allowed himself to be taken immediately out of their reach, initially to Rome and then on to Bologna. Before reaching Bologna he was captured by his older brother and returned home. After a year during which Thomas would not change his mind, he returned to the Dominicans at Naples, from where he journeyed northward to begin his theological education.
From 1245 until 1252 Thomas studied at the Dominican houses at Paris and Cologne under the leading Dominican theologian on the Continent in that period, Albertus Magnus. When Albertus organized the house of studies at Cologne in 1248, Thomas accompanied him as his student and assistant, lecturing on sections of the Scriptures and being ordained to the priesthood. In 1252 Albert recommended Thomas to be one of the two Dominican lecturers on the Sentences of Peter Lombard at Paris and thus to become a candidate for the degree of master of theology, in spite of the fact that Thomas was 3 or 4 years too young for that stage in his career.
Teaching Career at Paris, 1252-1259
Thomas remained in Paris for 7 years, living at the Dominican house of studies and lecturing, debating, and writing. His first important work was his commentary on the Sentences, polished during 1254-1256, which for over 200 years remained one of the major sources for the thought of Thomas. After his 4 years of study Thomas was granted the license to teach, and for 3 additional years he was one of the two regent masters of theology for the Dominicans at Paris. During this period he wrote several important philosophical treatises, the most remarkable being De ente et essentia and De veritate, which revealed even at this early stage his Aristotelian approach to philosophical questions.
Thomas faced strong opposition from the secular masters at Paris. In the mid-13th century in Paris animosity toward the mendicants had been growing among the secular masters of theology and arts, an animosity that was founded on the belief that some mendicants were theologically unorthodox, that in any case they had no right to belong to the university, and that, as semimonastic persons, they should not be copying the functions of secular priests. This animosity toward both Dominicans and Franciscans delayed Thomas's recognition by his colleagues, and the debate over the place of the mendicants within the structure of the university occupied much of Thomas's time.
Teaching Career in Italy, 1259-1268
Upon his return to Italy, probably at the request of the general chapter, or governing body, of the Dominicans, Thomas lectured at the Dominican convents in central Italy that were connected with the residence of the papal court: Anagni, Orvieto, Rome, and Viterbo. Here he came in contact with the improved translations of Aristotle directly from the Greek that were being compiled by a Dominican, William of Moerbeke. On the basis of this new source material and his growing desire to provide an acceptable interpretation of Aristotle's thought, Thomas began a series of commentaries on the works of Aristotle that rank among the most significant ever written.
A similar product of Thomas's ability as an expositor and commentator that dates from this period is the Catena aurea, or Golden Chain, a commentary on the four Gospels. Unlike his commentaries on Aristotle, however, this work is not Thomas's own interpretation but gathers passages from other writers to enlighten the meaning of Scripture.
Italy provided Thomas with the opportunity and incentive to expand the types of philosophical and theological problems with which he dealt in his writings. He wrote De regimine principum, an important political treatise that discussed the principles governing society and the political activity of rulers, basing his work in part on Aristotle's Politics. Moreover, he became more aware of the conflicting issues within Islamic theology - particularly, concerning the problem of expressing the freedom and power of God without, on the one hand, making God's freedom so extensive that it can become arbitrary and irrational in its operation or, on the other hand, limiting God's activity within the bounds of a deterministic system.
In part as a result of this awareness of the importance of the problem of the freedom and power of God and the importance of Islamic theology for the Western theologian, Thomas composed two works: De potentia, which dealt with the question of God's omnipotence and of His creative power; and a theological manual, the Summa contra Gentiles, written to provide the Christian missionary with a clear, precise statement of the Christian faith along with a defense of its basic doctrines. The latter work, probably begun while Thomas was still in Paris, and at the suggestion of the Dominican missionary Raymond of Peñafort, was primarily intended to be of use in attempting to convert the Mohammedans. Similarly, it could be helpful in converting the Jews.
Return to Paris, 1268-1272
Late in 1268 or early in 1269 the Dominican order sent Thomas back to Paris for a second period of teaching. The crisis which he found there and which may have occasioned his being summoned back was quite different from the earlier controversy between the seculars and mendicants, although that animosity was still in evidence. The type of Christian Aristotelianism that Thomas and Albertus Magnus had been intent on creating was being threatened from two sides. On the one hand, the anti-Aristotelian forces within theology had increased and were reaffirming a strong Augustinian approach that rejected Aristotle on a number of points and limited his use as an authority in theological argumentation. On the other hand, there was an attempt to teach an unchristened Aristotelianism in the arts faculty by a group known as the Latin Averroists, led by such figures as Siger of Brabant and Boethius of Dacia.
In this crisis, toward which the intellectual currents of the century had been building, Thomas tried to establish a middle position. He believed that Aristotle could be shown to agree with Christian truth in the majority of instances and therefore could be used as a source in argumentation, although not in theology on the level with Scripture or the Fathers.
One of the most crucial issues was the question of the eternity of the world. Thomas's position, against Bonaventure and others, was that although the world was created in time, as revelation teaches, this doctrine could not be demonstrated by reason alone which, in this matter, can provide no final solution.
This conclusion is typical of the way in which Thomas approached the relation of faith and reason, Aristotle and Christian truth. Faith completes rather than contradicts reason. Although some things can be known only through reason because revelation is not concerned with those things, and although some things can be known through both reason and revelation, such as the existence and unity of God, there are many truths necessary for salvation which are inaccessible to man apart from revelation, such as the doctrine of creation in time or the mystery of the Trinity. Aristotle, because he lived before Christ, could go only so far, and his thought must be completed by Christian revelation.
Thomas therefore accepts the idea of God as prime mover but goes on to identify Aristotle's God with the personal God of revelation, who has knowledge and concern for individuals. Thomas rejected the Averroistic notion of one active intellect for all mankind, and he argued that there was only one substantial form in man, the rational soul, which, with its individual intellect, provides the psychological foundation for personal immortality. Similarly, Thomas accepted the Aristotelian idea that man is naturally a political animal who finds his fulfillment in a quest for happiness within human society. But for Thomas that is only one end of man which, although important, is secondary to the primary end of man, the love of God, an end that is learned only through revelation.
Many of these conclusions are found in Thomas's most important work, the Summa theologiae, or Summa theologica, written in this period, although it was begun earlier in Italy, probably at Rome, and completed by a disciple after Thomas's death. Most of his reputation is based on this work. It is a systematic analysis and defense of the Christian faith, arranged topically, beginning with the nature of God and moving through creation and salvation to the last things and the beatific vision. Within each topic Thomas, in proper scholastic style, presented the most important questions and arranged his argument by initially presenting the pro and con arguments, then his analysis of the issue, and then his rebuttal to the initial objections.
Last Years, 1272-1274
At the request of the general chapter in Florence in June 1272, which he attended, Thomas went to Naples to establish a program of theological studies at the Dominican house, near the university. His writings from this period, although numerous and of high quality in comparison to those of his contemporaries, did not maintain the level of the works written in previous periods in his life. In December 1273, on the feast of St. Nicholas, his writing career came to an end. As an early biographer described it, the change resulted from a vision or mystical experience. When his secretary asked him why he had ceased to write, Thomas answered, "All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me."
Thomas set out early in 1274 to attend the second Council of Lyons. He soon became ill and broke his journey at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanuova, where he died in March.
Further Reading
The best biography of St. Thomas Aquinas in English is Vernon Joseph Bourke, Aquinas' Search for Wisdom (1965). Other useful biographies are Martin C. D'Arcy, St. Thomas Aquinas (1930; rev. ed. 1953), and Jacques Maritain, St. Thomas Aquinas (trans. 1931; rev. ed. 1958). The best work on the background of Thomas's writings is Marie Dominique Chenu, Towards Understanding Saint Thomas (1950; trans. 1964).
For a survey of Thomas's thought the following works are all of high quality, although each takes a somewhat different approach: Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought (trans. 1950); Frederick Copleston, Aquinas (1955); and Étienne Henry Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (trans. 1956). Among the works on Thomistic metaphysics, the following are especially helpful: Herman Reith, The Metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas (1958); George Peter Klubertanz, St. Thomas Aquinas on Analogy: A Textual Analysis and Systematic Synthesis (1960); and Joseph Owens, An Elementary Christian Metaphysics (1963). One of the few works in English treating the political views of Thomas is Thomas Gilby, The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas (1958). Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism, with Other Essays (trans. 1930), is a recommended study of Thomas's esthetic theory.
Oxford Dictionary of Politics:
St Thomas Aquinas |
(c.1225-74) Catholic theologian and political philosopher, regarded as one of the great figures of medieval thought. The tradition he founded became known as ‘Thomism’. The basis of his political theory is contained in his commentary on Aristotle's Politics, in De regimine principum (On the Rule of Sovereigns), written while at the papal court in Italy (1259-68) and completed by others, and in the Summa Theologiae, II, First Part, Questions 90-7.
Following Aristotle, he held that the state is a natural, not a conventional (such as a society, company, or club), institution; and it is a perfect society (communitas perfecta). It is natural, not conventional because human beings are social animals. They need to form a society for their survival, prosperity, and cultural development. Gregarious animals do this by instinct; humans do it by using reason. It is perfect in that (in principle) it can satisfy all the ends of human life, and is not dependent on any higher society, unlike the family (also a natural society), which is dependent on a larger community for survival and material and cultural development.
All power, according to Aquinas, comes from God since it involves the power of life and death which, in Church doctrine, is the prerogative of God—here Aquinas deviates from Aristotle. But he returns on stream when he argues that (1) sovereignty (be it monarchy, parliamentary government, or popular government) is natural, and that (2) it comes (albeit from God) through the people governed. It is natural in that without a governing body capable of making binding decisions anarchy would result and people could destroy each other. It comes through the people, because, whatever the form of government, it must reflect the wishes of the governed. The sovereign or government, in the view of Aquinas, is the representative of the governed (popularly called ‘the people’): ‘If the people (multitudo) do not have the power to institute laws freely or to rescind laws imposed by a superior power, a custom prevailing among such people, however, obtains the force of law, insofar it is by it [the custom] that those who impose them on the people are allowed to do so’ (ST, II, First Part, Question 97, Article 3).
The State is, therefore, not in any way dependent on the Church. Each has a separate end and a separate role. But Aquinas believed in a supernatural end for humankind. In the pursuit of this end the Church is a perfect society, since in this respect, it does not depend on any other body. Moreover, unlike the State, it is an autonomous perfect society. In the Thomist view the Church as such is in no way subordinate to the State, whereas the State must take the interests of the Church into account, since its end is loftier and it is the ultimate end of the citizen. Aquinas likens the relationship of Church to State to that of the soul to the body. Each has its own particular role to play but ultimately the soul's is higher.
This unity of purpose comes about in the citizen who has one end but separate spiritual and material needs. The citizen's relationship to the State is also holistic. He is subordinate to the State as the part is to the whole, the members to the body. But this does not give the State unlimited power over its subjects. For one thing, it is never permissible to obey a law which is contrary to divine law. For another, civil laws and decrees that are contrary to natural (i.e. moral) law are invalid. In this Aquinas was voicing the views of most medieval political theorists, as in his support for the legitimacy of tyrannicide. As political power, after God, rested with the governed, the government holds power in trust. If the ruler or rulers abuse that trust by tyrannical behaviour, it can be withdrawn, even if this means deposing the tyrant.
— Cyril Barrett
The Religion Book:
Aquinas, Thomas |
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), a Dominican scholar, is recognized as one of the greatest systematic theologians. His system has become known as Thomism, and his crowning work, Summa Theologica, is often compared with a vast Gothic cathedral. In the words of theologian Justo Gonzalaz, it is "an imposing monument in which each element of creation and the history of salvation has a place and stands in perfect balance and symmetry." Aquinas was one of the school of theologians whose body of work is called scholasticism because its methodology was forged in academic institutions that would later grow into what we know as universities. One of their main contributions to the field of theology was the reintroduction of the thought and wisdom of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. This movement introduced the process of logic and science into what had been, until scholasticism, mainly a field dominated by faith and acceptance of doctrine. For instance, in his famous "five ways," or arguments for the existence of God, Aquinas was able to produce a logical, philosophical "proof" that God was real, based not on scriptural passages to be accepted without question but on a step-by-step system of logic. Religion thus became something to be thought about and pondered with the analytical left side of the brain, rather than a feeling intuited by the right. He helped to elevate the study of religion to an academic science, integrated with the humanities.
People have argued ever since that there is a dark side to this achievement. Twentieth-century Star Trek-influenced Christians have even been known to call Thomas "the Vulcan's theologian." Treating Christianity as an intellectual endeavor can produce a dry, logical religion void of warmth, love, grace, and magic, much like actor Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of the television show's methodical Mr. Spock from the Vulcan planet. But Saint Thomas himself argued that he never intended his logical theological system to replace grace and mystery. Rather, he intended it as a healthy proof that truth incorporates both.
Sources: Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.
Oxford Companion to French Literature:
Thomas Aquinas |
Aquinas, Thomas (c.1225-1274). Philosopher and theologian. For his thought see Scholasticism. For modern Thomism, based on his thinking, see Maritain.
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
St Thomas Aquinas |
Aquinas, St Thomas (c. 1225-74) Born in the castle of Roccasecca in the kingdom of Naples in Southern Italy, into the family of the counts of Aquino, Aquinas was brought up in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino. At the age of fourteen he was sent to complete his studies at the university of Naples, one of the few universities of the time where a full range of Aristotelian doctrine was studied. Here he became influenced by, and at the age of twenty joined, the Dominican order. He studied in Paris, and then Cologne, under Albert the Great, and returned to Paris in 1251/2. He subsequently resided at Orvieto, Rome, Viterbo, Paris again, and Naples, constantly writing and engaging in the doctrinal and philosophical debates of the day. His works include numerous translations and commentaries on Aristotle, theological writings, and the two major texts for which he is best known, the Summa contra Gentiles (‘Against the Errors of the Infidels’), a ‘text-book’ for missionaries, and the Summa Theologiae, begun in 1266, and universally acknowledged to be the crowning achievement of medieval systematic theology.
Throughout his writings Aquinas's major concern is to defend a ‘naturalistic’ or Aristotelian Christianity, in opposition not only to sceptics but also to the surrounding tendency to read Christianity in Neoplatonic terms, derived largely from Augustine, and also channelled to the 13th century through such writers as Avicenna. Aquinas takes issue with the occasionalism of the Neoplatonists, which reduces mankind to spectators of the world order in which all causality is ultimately an expression of God's will; like Aristotle he is concerned to protect the notion of a genuine human agent who is the responsible author of his or her own actions. The human being is a composite, but not a queer amalgamation of two things, a soul in a body like a sailor in a ship, as Plato is supposed to have held. Like Aristotle, Aquinas held that it is meaningless to ask whether a human being is two things (soul and body) or one, just as it is meaningless to ask whether ‘the wax and the shape given to it by the stamp are one’ (De Anima, 412 b 6). On this analogy the soul is the form of the body. Life after death is possible only because a form itself does not perish (perishing is loss of form), and is therefore in some sense available to reactivate a new body. It is therefore not I who survive bodily death, but I may be resurrected if the same body becomes reanimated by the same form. It is notable that on Aquinas's account a person has no privileged self-understanding. We understand ourselves, as we do everything else, by sense experience and abstraction, and knowing the principles of our own lives is an achievement, not a given. In the theory of knowledge Aquinas holds the Aristotelian doctrine that knowing entails some similarity between knower and known; a human's corporeal nature therefore requires that knowledge start with sense perception. The same limitation does not apply to beings further up the chain of being, such as angels.
In the domain of theology Aquinas deploys the distinction emphasized by Eriugena between reason and faith. Although he lays out proofs of the existence of God (see Five Ways) he recognizes that there are doctrines, such as that of the Incarnation and the nature of the Trinity, known only through revelation, and whose acceptance is more a matter of moral will. God's essence is identified with his existence, as pure actuality. God is simple, containing no potential. But we cannot obtain knowledge of what God is (his quiddity), and must remain content with descriptions that apply to him partly by way of analogy: what God reveals of himself is not himself. After a brief period in 1277 in which several of his views were condemned, the Dominicans officially imposed his teachings on that order. He was canonized in 1323, with the difficulty that his life did not display the necessary miracles being met by Pope John XXII who said that every question he answered was a miracle. His synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian doctrine was eventually to provide the main philosophical underpinnings of the Catholic church.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Saint Thomas Aquinas |
Thomas Aquinas, Saint (əkwī'nəs) [Lat.,=from Aquino], 1225-74, Italian philosopher and theologian, Doctor of the Church, known as the Angelic Doctor, b. Rocca Secca (near Naples). He is the greatest figure of scholasticism, one of the principal saints of the Roman Catholic Church, and founder of the system declared by Pope Leo XIII (in the encyclical Aeterni Patris, 1879) to be the official Catholic philosophy.
Life
St. Thomas came of the ruling family of Aquino, was educated as a child at Monte Cassino, and later studied at Naples. To his family's disappointment he entered (1244) the new Dominican order. In 1245 he began to study in Paris with Albertus Magnus, whose favorite pupil he became, and in 1248 he accompanied Albertus to Cologne. From there, Thomas went again (1252) to Paris, where he gained a great reputation and became professor of theology. He was leader of the friars in the controversy that occurred when the seculars sought to limit the friars' privileges at the university. After 1259 he spent several years in Italy as professor and adviser at the papal court.
His return to Paris (1269) was probably precipitated by the furor over Siger de Brabant and his Averroistic reading of Aristotle. The doctrinal struggle with Siger resulted in victory for Thomas and the triumph of his position. In 1272 he left Paris for Naples to organize a house of studies. Two years later when he and his companion, Brother Reginald, were at Fossanuova, on the way to the Council of Lyons, where he was to be a papal consultant, St. Thomas died.
He was canonized in 1323 and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567. His tomb is in the Basilica of St. Sernin at Toulouse. Feast: Mar. 7. In art St. Thomas is usually associated with a sacramental cup (representing his devotion to the sacrament) or a dove (representing the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) or depicted with a sun on his breast.
Philosophy and Work
St. Thomas's student nickname was the Dumb Ox, because he was slow in manner and quite stout. He was, however, a brilliant lecturer and a clear, sharp thinker, as his works show-not only in their rigid application of reason, but also in their Latin diction, which is admirably exact and simple. His spiritual character is manifest in the humility and charity of his conduct and the use to which he put his theories in his devotional works, notably in the Mass and office for the feast of Corpus Christi (June 21), which he wrote at Urban IV's request (1264). The four hymns of this Mass and office, Laude Sion Salvatorem, Pange Lingua, Sacris solemniis, and Verbum supernum (ending with O Salutaris Hostia), are classed among the greatest of Christian hymns.
No single work of St. Thomas can be said fully to reveal his philosophy. His works may be classified according to their form and purpose. The principal ones are Commentary in the Sentences (a series of public lectures; 1254-56), his earliest great work; seven quaestiones disputatae (public debates; 1256-72); philosophical commentaries on Aristotle's Physics, Metaphysics, De anima, Ethics, part of the De interpretatione, and the Posterior Analytics; treatises on many subjects, including the Summa contra Gentiles (1258-60); and, most important of all, Summa theologica (1267-73), an incomplete but systematic exposition of theology on philosophical principles. St. Thomas's philosophy is avowedly Aristotelian; the methods and distinctions of Aristotle are adapted to revelation.
The 13th cent. was a critical period in Christian thought, which was torn between the claims of the Averroists and Augustinians. Thomas opposed both schools, the Averroists led by Siger de Brabant, who would separate faith and truth absolutely, and the Augustinians, who would make truth a matter of faith. St. Thomas held that reason and faith constitute two harmonious realms in which the truths of faith complement those of reason; both are gifts of God, but reason has an autonomy of its own. Thus he vindicated Aristotle against those who saw him as the inspiration of Averroës and heresy.
The first principle of philosophy according to St. Thomas is the affirmation of being. From this he proceeded to a consideration of the manner in which the intellect achieves knowledge. For humans all knowledge begins by way of the senses, which are the medium through which he grasps the intelligible world, the universal. According to the position of Thomas, which is known as moderate realism, the form or the universal may be said to exist in three ways: in God, in things, and in the mind (see universals). He argues that it is by the knowledge of things that we come to know of God's existence. In the natural order what God is can be known only by analogy and negation.
Thomas's conviction that the existence of God can be discovered by reason is shown by his proofs of the existence of God. His metaphysics relies on the Aristotelian concepts of potency and act, matter and form, being and essence. A thing that requires completion by another is said to be in potency to that other; the realization of potency is called actuality. The universe is conceived of as a series of things arranged in an ascending order of potency, an act at once crowned and created by God, who alone is pure act. Two other pairs of metaphysical concepts-matter and form, essence and being-are special cases of potency and act. St. Thomas's moral philosophy is derived from these distinctions as well, since the opposite of being does not exist and since the good is identical with being, evil is but the absence of good.
Influence
For a long time Thomas was either ignored or misunderstood by even the greatest philosophers, but his teachings ultimately triumphed. That they are official in the Roman Catholic Church does not mean that Catholics may not adhere to other philosophies, notably the Scotist teachings, developed from the doctrines of Duns Scotus. St. Thomas's synthesis is now recognized as one of the greatest works of human thought. His wide-embracing philosophy can be applied to every realm of human life.
The terms New Thomism, neo-Thomism, and neo-scholasticism are used for a school of philosophy of the 20th cent. The Catholic leaders of this school were Étienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain, who sought to apply Thomistic principles to modern economic, political, and social conditions. Non-Catholics also have adapted Thomistic principles to modern life; a leader among them is Mortimer Adler.
Bibliography
His works have been widely translated, the more important ones in various versions. Volumes of selections of his works are also available. See G. K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas (1933); E. Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (1956); M. D. Chenu, Toward Understanding St. Thomas (1964); J. A. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D'Aquino (1974).
Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology:
Thomas Aquinas |
(ca. 1225-1274)
One of the most profound scholars and subtlest logicians of his day. Aquinas was born around 1225 in Roccasecca, Italy. He was educated under the Benedictine Monks of Monte Cassino and in the University of Naples, and entered the Society of Preaching Friars, or Dominicans, at 17 years of age. His mother, indignant that he should take the vow of poverty and thus remove himself from the world for life, employed every means in her power to induce him to change his mind. In order to remove Aquinas from her influence, the friars relocated him from Naples to Terracina, from Terracina to Anagnia, and from Anagnia to Rome.
His mother followed him in all these changes of residence but was not permitted to see him. At length she induced his two elder brothers to seize him by force. They kidnapped him while he was traveling to Paris, where he had been sent to complete his course of instruction, and they carried him off to the castle of Aquino, where he had been born. Here Aquinas was confined for two years, but he found a way to correspond with the superiors of his order, and he finally escaped from a window in the castle.
Aquinas exceeded most men in the severity and strictness of his metaphysical disquisitions and thus acquired the name of "Seraphic Doctor." He was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323.
Because of his association with Albertus Magnus, he shared many legends of magical powers. For example, it was said that because his study was placed in a great thoroughfare where the grooms exercised their horses, Aquinas found it necessary to apply a magical remedy to this nuisance. He made by the laws of magic a small brass horse, which he buried two or three feet underground in the middle of this highway so that horses would no longer pass along the road. The grooms were compelled to choose another place for their daily exercises.
Another legend claimed that Aquinas was offended by the perpetual chattering of an artificial man made of brass, constructed by his tutor Albertus Magnus, and he dashed the automaton to pieces. Aquinas was also supposed to have written some tracts on alchemy.
However, his credulity regarding demonology and witchcraft had an unfortunate influence on witchhunters, and he was later cited as an authority by such writers as Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, authors of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum. Although Aquinas did not accept the concept of a pact with the Devil, he endorsed the belief of diabolical association, and the incubus and succubus. He echoed Albertus Magnus in claiming that when Satan tempted Christ on the mountain-top, he carried Christ on his shoulders, and this belief was used by later witchhunters to endorse the theory of transvection, or magical transport of witches through the air. Aquinas also believed in the power of the evil eye used by old women who had an association with the Devil. His argument that heretics should be burned was later used to justify the burning of witches.
It should be stressed that Aquinas's credulity was characteristic of his time, and his theses concerning the Devil reflected the conclusions of theological dogmas of his day. Nevertheless, his discussions were used by later and lesser individuals to justify the witchcraft delusion.
The major works of Aquinas include the Summa Theologica and the Summa contra Gentiles. His great intellectual and theological achievements have somewhat overshadowed the mystical side of his character, and it should be remembered that he ended his life as a contemplative mystic.
He died March 7, 1274, in Fossanova, Italy.
Sources:
St. Thomas Aquinas and His Legacy. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1994.
Stockhammer, Thomas. Thomas Aquinas Dictionary. New York: Philosophical Library, 1965.
Oxford Companion to the Mind:
St Thomas Aquinas |
(1225–74). The greatest of the medieval scholastics. Aquinas was primarily a theologian, but in his theological work he was led to develop a comprehensive treatment of the philosophical issues at stake; hence we can extract from his writings a philosophical psychology which he considered capable of standing on its own feet, without requiring support from Christian revelation.
St Thomas, the seventh son of Landulf, count of Aquino, was born at the family's castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino (about halfway between Rome and Naples). He was educated at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples. In 1244 he decided to join the newly established Dominican order, and afterwards studied at the University of Paris and at the Dominicans' institute in Cologne, where one of his teachers was St Albert the Great. Aquinas lectured at various times at the universities of Paris and Naples and at the papal court. He died while on his way to the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Lyon, and was canonized in 1323.
Aquinas rejected much contemporary Christian theorizing about man, based on the thought of St Augustine and, via Augustine, on Plato and Neoplatonism, and instead took over and developed many of Aristotle's conclusions. Like Aristotle, he viewed human activity as taking place on three levels: vegetative (comprising the powers of nutrition, growth, and reproduction), sensitive (comprising sensory activity and locomotion), and intellectual (comprising reason and will). Among bodily creatures, only man possesses reason and will, but these powers are found also in angels and, in a very much higher manner which we cannot adequately comprehend, in God; and it is because man shares, to some degree, in these divine attributes of reason and will that the Scriptures speak of man as made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1: 26–7).
Aquinas followed Aristotle in defining the soul of a living being as its substantial form, i.e. as that inherent principle by which it is the kind of entity or substance that it is; and he contrasted the soul as form with the matter that it organizes or 'informs': both soul and matter are necessary constituent principles of the living being. So, he believed, all living creatures have souls, but only human beings have spiritual souls. Aquinas rejected the medieval Augustinians' belief that in man there are three distinct souls, vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual, each accounting for human activity at its corresponding level. This view, he said, would destroy man's natural unity by breaking him up into three distinct entities; rather, there is just the one soul, which is responsible for all of a man's activities, regardless of the level to which they belong.
Following Aristotle, Aquinas distinguished the five external senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and four 'internal senses'. These latter are: the 'common sense' by means of which sense impressions or 'phantasms' produced by different external senses are referred to a single entity existing outside the perceiver; secondly, the imagination (imaginatio or phantasia), which stores sense impressions and can combine them into complex images of hitherto unperceived things and events; thirdly, the 'cogitative power' (vis cogitativa), which corresponds to instinct in animals and by which we can apprehend things and events in the world as either beneficial or harmful to us; and finally the sense memory (vis rememorativa), in which information gained by the cogitative power is stored.
In sensory cognition we appropriate the sensible forms of objects, that is, their observable characteristics, without the matter of the objects themselves; so (for example) in seeing a silver coin I receive its colour into my sense organ, but not the actual matter of the coin. Likewise, he thinks, the two kinds of human activity at the rational level, thinking and willing, involve receiving into the soul the intelligible form of whatever one's thinking or willing is about. For an entity or substance in the external world is made to be the sort of thing that it is by possession of a certain nature or form — the form of oak tree, for example — and we understand and think about things by mentally receiving their forms: in this way, as Aristotle said, 'the mind is in a way all things'. But matter as such, considered in isolation from any determining form, is unintelligible, and so we can 'latch on' to a thing in thought only by mentally disengaging or 'abstracting' its intelligible form from the material conditions of sensation. This process of abstraction, Aquinas said, is carried out by a power called the agent intellect (intellectus agens), and another power, the receptive intellect (intellectus possibilis), then receives and stores the forms abstracted by the agent intellect. Thus the form of (say) cat which is present in cats themselves, thereby making them the kind of animal they are, is also present in the minds of human beings, thereby making them capable of thinking about cats. In this way Aquinas accounted for the fact of intentionality, that is, the fact that our thoughts are about things. The form of something, as stored in the receptive intellect, is a concept. Unlike sensations, which are particular modifications of the sense powers, concepts are universals because they enable us to think about a potentially indefinite number of things of a given kind, and the receptive intellect employs these concepts in carrying out such intellectual operations as judging, reasoning, and deliberating. A form present in someone's mind as a concept is, Aquinas said, obviously present in a very different way from that of a form present in an external thing, and he called this mental mode of presence 'intentional being' (esse intentionale).
Against the Latin Averroism of Siger of Brabant and others, St Thomas denied that the agent intellect is a single entity which is distinct from all human beings but in which the latter somehow participate. Rather, he said, it is a constituent power of each human mind. There are, then, as many agent intellects as there are men.
Because he believed that human beings can acquire concepts only by abstracting forms from sense appearances, Aquinas can be called an empiricist. He insisted that without some sensory input on which the mind's abstractive power could get to work, no concepts would ever be constructed, nor would any rational activity ever take place: there are no 'innate ideas'. Moreover, any actual use of concepts in thinking or willing must — at least in this life, in which the soul is embodied — be constantly referred to sense contents, either of perception or memory or imagination. This necessary human orientation to sensory data is what Aquinas called 'conversion to sense experience' (conversio ad phantasmata).
Since concept formation involves the abstraction of intelligible forms from all material conditions, Aquinas concluded that the formation and utilization of concepts are activities that cannot in principle be performed by any physical organ or organism. For, he said, if there were a physical organ of thought it would be unable to do something that it obviously can do, namely, receive the forms of all physical objects, but would be restricted to receiving the forms of only one particular kind of object, as the eye is restricted to receiving colours. Nor would any physical organ be capable of that self-conscious awareness which is so prominent a feature of human thought. Our concepts are, then, present in us in a non-material way; hence that which performs mental acts must be a wholly non-material, that is, spiritual, principle. So the human soul, as well as being the substantial form of the body — that by which the human body is a body — must also be a spiritual substance in its own right.
Because man's soul is a spiritual substance, it can survive death. For it is not made up of physical parts and is, therefore, unlike the body, free from corruption and dissolution. Admittedly, since man depends on his sense organs to provide him with appropriate objects of thought — things to think about — it seems that a disembodied soul will be unable to exercise its mental abilities without some special help from God; and in any case, since the human soul is the substantial form of the human body, disembodiment is clearly an unnatural condition for it. Thus, although we can have reason to accept the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body only on the basis of God's revelation, that doctrine is entirely appropriate to the human condition. For only if soul and body are eventually reunited will there be a fully constituted human being once more; until then, the souls of the departed will exist in a condition that is abnormal, contrary to nature (praeter naturam).
For Aquinas, man is not the highest of all created beings, because angels far exceed him in intellectual power. But he is the highest of all bodily creatures, and as a partly material, partly spiritual being, man forms the bridge, so to speak, between the physical and spiritual realms.
How does a human being come into existence? Is he generated out of physical elements, as is a plant, or is some higher, non-physical agency required? Aquinas replies that since the soul is a purely spiritual entity it must be created directly, out of nothing, by God. But there is no pre-existence of souls: when God creates a soul he immediately infuses it into the appropriate matter which is present in a woman's womb.
Just as man's cognitive powers are present on both sensory and rational levels, so it is with what Aquinas calls man's appetitive or striving functions. The latter include such activities as wishing, willing, desiring, intending, and feeling emotions. Here we shall concentrate on Aquinas's account of the will, which he defines as the rational appetite, that is, the appetite or tendency that belongs to the rational part of the soul. As rational, it is directed not to any particular good, as are the sensory appetitive powers, but rather to goodness as such: it is the power by which man strives towards that which he rationally apprehends as in some way good or desirable. Aquinas analyses the process of deciding to do something into a whole series of 'component' acts, some belonging to the intellect and some to the will. The decisive choice (electio) which results in some action's being performed is an act of the will, but the will cannot function without the intellect's aid; we can will something only if we have already recognized it to be good. However, Aquinas also believes that the will very often operates freely, i.e. without being determined to any particular outcome. For, he says, we choose to do one thing rather than another because our intellect apprehends the goodness of what is chosen, but nothing short of the supreme and final good of man (which, for Aquinas, ultimately consists in the vision of God in heaven) can irresistibly attract the human mind; everything other than this will be attractive in some respects but unattractive in others. Hence the will can choose freely among goods which fall short of the complete and ultimate good. This is St Thomas's principal argument for the freedom of the will, or 'free choice' (liberum arbitrium), as he calls it; but he also argues that unless man were capable of making free choices, 'advice, exhortations, precepts, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain'.
While some of Aquinas's arguments rest upon outdated theses of Aristotelian science, his major conclusions concerning thinking, willing, and the nature and destiny of the human soul escape this limitation and still find defenders today. P. T. Geach's Mental Acts, for example, is a particularly interesting analysis of human mental activity that owes much to Aquinas.
Aquinas's account of the nature and workings of the mind is presented, above all, in the Summa theologiae (English translation in 60 vols., ed. T. Gilby, 1963–75), especially vols. xi–xiii, and in the Summa contra Gentiles (English translation by A. C. Pegis et al., 1955–7), especially vol. ii. A useful selection of readings is A. C. Pegis, (ed.), Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas (1948).
(Published 1987)
St Thomas, the seventh son of Landulf, count of Aquino, was born at the family's castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino (about halfway between Rome and Naples). He was educated at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples. In 1244 he decided to join the newly established Dominican order, and afterwards studied at the University of Paris and at the Dominicans' institute in Cologne, where one of his teachers was St Albert the Great. Aquinas lectured at various times at the universities of Paris and Naples and at the papal court. He died while on his way to the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Lyon, and was canonized in 1323.
Aquinas rejected much contemporary Christian theorizing about man, based on the thought of St Augustine and, via Augustine, on Plato and Neoplatonism, and instead took over and developed many of Aristotle's conclusions. Like Aristotle, he viewed human activity as taking place on three levels: vegetative (comprising the powers of nutrition, growth, and reproduction), sensitive (comprising sensory activity and locomotion), and intellectual (comprising reason and will). Among bodily creatures, only man possesses reason and will, but these powers are found also in angels and, in a very much higher manner which we cannot adequately comprehend, in God; and it is because man shares, to some degree, in these divine attributes of reason and will that the Scriptures speak of man as made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1: 26–7).
Aquinas followed Aristotle in defining the soul of a living being as its substantial form, i.e. as that inherent principle by which it is the kind of entity or substance that it is; and he contrasted the soul as form with the matter that it organizes or 'informs': both soul and matter are necessary constituent principles of the living being. So, he believed, all living creatures have souls, but only human beings have spiritual souls. Aquinas rejected the medieval Augustinians' belief that in man there are three distinct souls, vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual, each accounting for human activity at its corresponding level. This view, he said, would destroy man's natural unity by breaking him up into three distinct entities; rather, there is just the one soul, which is responsible for all of a man's activities, regardless of the level to which they belong.
Following Aristotle, Aquinas distinguished the five external senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and four 'internal senses'. These latter are: the 'common sense' by means of which sense impressions or 'phantasms' produced by different external senses are referred to a single entity existing outside the perceiver; secondly, the imagination (imaginatio or phantasia), which stores sense impressions and can combine them into complex images of hitherto unperceived things and events; thirdly, the 'cogitative power' (vis cogitativa), which corresponds to instinct in animals and by which we can apprehend things and events in the world as either beneficial or harmful to us; and finally the sense memory (vis rememorativa), in which information gained by the cogitative power is stored.
In sensory cognition we appropriate the sensible forms of objects, that is, their observable characteristics, without the matter of the objects themselves; so (for example) in seeing a silver coin I receive its colour into my sense organ, but not the actual matter of the coin. Likewise, he thinks, the two kinds of human activity at the rational level, thinking and willing, involve receiving into the soul the intelligible form of whatever one's thinking or willing is about. For an entity or substance in the external world is made to be the sort of thing that it is by possession of a certain nature or form — the form of oak tree, for example — and we understand and think about things by mentally receiving their forms: in this way, as Aristotle said, 'the mind is in a way all things'. But matter as such, considered in isolation from any determining form, is unintelligible, and so we can 'latch on' to a thing in thought only by mentally disengaging or 'abstracting' its intelligible form from the material conditions of sensation. This process of abstraction, Aquinas said, is carried out by a power called the agent intellect (intellectus agens), and another power, the receptive intellect (intellectus possibilis), then receives and stores the forms abstracted by the agent intellect. Thus the form of (say) cat which is present in cats themselves, thereby making them the kind of animal they are, is also present in the minds of human beings, thereby making them capable of thinking about cats. In this way Aquinas accounted for the fact of intentionality, that is, the fact that our thoughts are about things. The form of something, as stored in the receptive intellect, is a concept. Unlike sensations, which are particular modifications of the sense powers, concepts are universals because they enable us to think about a potentially indefinite number of things of a given kind, and the receptive intellect employs these concepts in carrying out such intellectual operations as judging, reasoning, and deliberating. A form present in someone's mind as a concept is, Aquinas said, obviously present in a very different way from that of a form present in an external thing, and he called this mental mode of presence 'intentional being' (esse intentionale).
Against the Latin Averroism of Siger of Brabant and others, St Thomas denied that the agent intellect is a single entity which is distinct from all human beings but in which the latter somehow participate. Rather, he said, it is a constituent power of each human mind. There are, then, as many agent intellects as there are men.
Because he believed that human beings can acquire concepts only by abstracting forms from sense appearances, Aquinas can be called an empiricist. He insisted that without some sensory input on which the mind's abstractive power could get to work, no concepts would ever be constructed, nor would any rational activity ever take place: there are no 'innate ideas'. Moreover, any actual use of concepts in thinking or willing must — at least in this life, in which the soul is embodied — be constantly referred to sense contents, either of perception or memory or imagination. This necessary human orientation to sensory data is what Aquinas called 'conversion to sense experience' (conversio ad phantasmata).
Since concept formation involves the abstraction of intelligible forms from all material conditions, Aquinas concluded that the formation and utilization of concepts are activities that cannot in principle be performed by any physical organ or organism. For, he said, if there were a physical organ of thought it would be unable to do something that it obviously can do, namely, receive the forms of all physical objects, but would be restricted to receiving the forms of only one particular kind of object, as the eye is restricted to receiving colours. Nor would any physical organ be capable of that self-conscious awareness which is so prominent a feature of human thought. Our concepts are, then, present in us in a non-material way; hence that which performs mental acts must be a wholly non-material, that is, spiritual, principle. So the human soul, as well as being the substantial form of the body — that by which the human body is a body — must also be a spiritual substance in its own right.
Because man's soul is a spiritual substance, it can survive death. For it is not made up of physical parts and is, therefore, unlike the body, free from corruption and dissolution. Admittedly, since man depends on his sense organs to provide him with appropriate objects of thought — things to think about — it seems that a disembodied soul will be unable to exercise its mental abilities without some special help from God; and in any case, since the human soul is the substantial form of the human body, disembodiment is clearly an unnatural condition for it. Thus, although we can have reason to accept the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body only on the basis of God's revelation, that doctrine is entirely appropriate to the human condition. For only if soul and body are eventually reunited will there be a fully constituted human being once more; until then, the souls of the departed will exist in a condition that is abnormal, contrary to nature (praeter naturam).
For Aquinas, man is not the highest of all created beings, because angels far exceed him in intellectual power. But he is the highest of all bodily creatures, and as a partly material, partly spiritual being, man forms the bridge, so to speak, between the physical and spiritual realms.
How does a human being come into existence? Is he generated out of physical elements, as is a plant, or is some higher, non-physical agency required? Aquinas replies that since the soul is a purely spiritual entity it must be created directly, out of nothing, by God. But there is no pre-existence of souls: when God creates a soul he immediately infuses it into the appropriate matter which is present in a woman's womb.
Just as man's cognitive powers are present on both sensory and rational levels, so it is with what Aquinas calls man's appetitive or striving functions. The latter include such activities as wishing, willing, desiring, intending, and feeling emotions. Here we shall concentrate on Aquinas's account of the will, which he defines as the rational appetite, that is, the appetite or tendency that belongs to the rational part of the soul. As rational, it is directed not to any particular good, as are the sensory appetitive powers, but rather to goodness as such: it is the power by which man strives towards that which he rationally apprehends as in some way good or desirable. Aquinas analyses the process of deciding to do something into a whole series of 'component' acts, some belonging to the intellect and some to the will. The decisive choice (electio) which results in some action's being performed is an act of the will, but the will cannot function without the intellect's aid; we can will something only if we have already recognized it to be good. However, Aquinas also believes that the will very often operates freely, i.e. without being determined to any particular outcome. For, he says, we choose to do one thing rather than another because our intellect apprehends the goodness of what is chosen, but nothing short of the supreme and final good of man (which, for Aquinas, ultimately consists in the vision of God in heaven) can irresistibly attract the human mind; everything other than this will be attractive in some respects but unattractive in others. Hence the will can choose freely among goods which fall short of the complete and ultimate good. This is St Thomas's principal argument for the freedom of the will, or 'free choice' (liberum arbitrium), as he calls it; but he also argues that unless man were capable of making free choices, 'advice, exhortations, precepts, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain'.
While some of Aquinas's arguments rest upon outdated theses of Aristotelian science, his major conclusions concerning thinking, willing, and the nature and destiny of the human soul escape this limitation and still find defenders today. P. T. Geach's Mental Acts, for example, is a particularly interesting analysis of human mental activity that owes much to Aquinas.
Aquinas's account of the nature and workings of the mind is presented, above all, in the Summa theologiae (English translation in 60 vols., ed. T. Gilby, 1963–75), especially vols. xi–xiii, and in the Summa contra Gentiles (English translation by A. C. Pegis et al., 1955–7), especially vol. ii. A useful selection of readings is A. C. Pegis, (ed.), Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas (1948).
(Published 1987)
— F. J. Fitzpatrick
- Bibliography
- Copleston, F. C. (1955). Aquinas.
- Geach, P. T. (1957). Mental Acts.
- Lonergan, B. J. F. (1967). Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas.
- Weisheipl, J. A. (1974). Friar Thomas D'Aquino.
Quotes By:
St. Thomas Aquinas |
Quotes:
"By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments."
"Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious."
"Well-ordered self-love is right and natural."
"To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them."
"Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder."
"A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational."
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St. Thomas Aquinas
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"Aquinas" redirects here. For other uses, see Aquinas (disambiguation).
| St Thomas Aquinas | |
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 Thomas Aquinas depicted in stained glass |
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| Born | Thomas Aquinas 1225 Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily |
| Died | 7 March 1274 Fossanova, Kingdom of Sicily |
| Occupation | Priest, Philosopher, Theologian |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Genres | Scholasticism, Thomism |
| Subjects | Metaphysics, Logic, Theology, Mind, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics |
| Notable work(s) | Summa Theologica, Summa Contra Gentiles |
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Thomas Aquinas, O.P. (
/əˈkwaɪnəs/ ə-KWY-nəs; 1225 – 7 March 1274), also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus ([the] Angelic Doctor), Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis.[1] "Aquinas" is not a surname, but is a Latin demonym for a resident of Aquino, his place of birth. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.
Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood.[2] The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. As one of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools."[3]
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Contents
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Biography
Dominican (1225–1244)
Thomas was born in Roccasecca c. January 28, 1225, according to some authors in the castle of his father, the Count Landulf of Aquino, placed in Roccasecca, in the same Contea di Aquino (Kingdom of Sicily, in the present-day: Italy, in the Lazio, province). Thomas was of Langobardic origin by his father and through his mother, Theodora Countess of Theate, he was related to the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman emperors.[4][not in citation given] Landulf's brother Sinibald was abbot of the original Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino. While the rest of the family's sons pursued military careers,[5] the family intended for Thomas to follow his uncle into the abbacy;[6] this would have been a normal career path for a younger son of southern Italian nobility.[4]
At the age of five, Thomas began his early education at Monte Cassino but after the military conflict that broke out between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilled into the abbey in early 1239, Landulf and Theodora had Thomas enrolled at the studium generale (university) recently established by Frederick in Naples.[7] It was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy.[8] It was also during his study at Naples that Thomas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order to recruit devout followers.[9] Here his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia.[10]
At age nineteen, Thomas resolved to join the Dominican Order. Thomas's change of heart did not please his family, who had expected him to become a Benedictine monk.[11] In an attempt to prevent Theodora's interference in Thomas's choice, the Dominicans arranged for Thomas to be removed to Rome, and from Rome, sent to Paris.[12] On his way to Rome, his brothers, per Theodora's instructions, seized him as he was drinking from a spring and took him back to his parents at the castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano.[12] He was held for two years in the family homes at Monte San Giovanni and Roccasecca in an attempt to prevent him from assuming the Dominican habit and to push him into renouncing his new aspiration.[8] Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomas's release, extending the detention,[13] a detention which Thomas spent tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order.[8] Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans. At one point, two of his brothers hired a prostitute to seduce him, but he drove her away, wielding a burning stick. According to legend, that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate.[14] By 1244, seeing that all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the family's dignity, arranging for Thomas to escape at night through his window. In her mind, a secret escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans. Thomas was sent first to Naples and then to Rome to meet Johannes von Wildeshausen, the Master General of the Dominican Order.[15]
Paris, Cologne, Albert Magnus, and first Paris regency (1245–1259)
In 1245, Thomas was sent to study at the University of Paris' Faculty of Arts where he most likely met Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus,[16] then the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James in Paris.[17] When Albertus was sent by his superiors to teach at the new studium generale at Cologne in 1248,[16] Thomas followed him, declining Pope Innocent IV's offer to appoint him abbot of Monte Cassino as a Dominican.[6] Albertus then appointed the reluctant Thomas magister studentium.[4] When Thomas failed his first theological disputation, Albertus prophetically exclaimed: "We call him the dumb ox, but in his teaching he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world."[6]
Thomas taught in Cologne as an apprentice professor (baccalaureus biblicus), instructing students on the books of the Old Testament and writing Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram (Literal Commentary on Isaiah), Postilla super Ieremiam (Commentary on Jeremiah) and Postilla super Threnos (Commentary on Lamentations).[18] Then in 1252 he returned to Paris to study for the master's degree in theology. He lectured on the Bible as an apprentice professor, and upon becoming a baccalaureus Sententiarum (bachelor of the Sentences)[19] devoted his final three years of study to commenting on Peter Lombard's Sentences. In the first of his four theological syntheses, Thomas composed a massive commentary on the Sentences entitled Scriptum super libros Sententiarium (Commentary on the Sentences). Aside from his masters writings, he wrote De ente et essentia (On Being and Essence) for his fellow Dominicans in Paris.[6]
In the spring of 1256, Thomas was appointed regent master in theology at Paris and one of his first works upon assuming this office was Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem (Against Those Who Assail the Worship of God and Religion), defending the mendicant orders which had come under attack by William of Saint-Amour.[20] During his tenure from 1256 to 1259, Thomas wrote numerous works, including: Questiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth), a collection of twenty-nine disputed questions on aspects of faith and the human condition[21] prepared for the public university debates he presided over on Lent and Advent;[22] Quaestiones quodlibetales (Quodlibetal Questions), a collection of his responses to questions posed to him by the academic audience;[21] and both Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate (Commentary on Boethius's De trinitate) and Expositio super librum Boethii De hebdomadibus (Commentary on Boethius's De hebdomadibus), commentaries on the works of 6th century philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.[23] By the end of his regency, Thomas was working on one of his most famous works, Summa contra Gentiles.[24]
| Saint Thomas Aquinas | |
|---|---|
 St. Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolomeo |
|
| Doctor of the Church | |
| Born | c. 1225 Aquino, Kingdom of Sicily |
| Died | 7 March 1274 Fossanova Abbey, Kingdom of Sicily |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism |
| Canonized | July 18,1323, Avignon, France by Pope John XXII |
| Major shrine | Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France |
| Feast | 28 January (new), 7 March (old) |
| Attributes | The Summa Theologica, a model church, the Sun |
| Patronage | Academics; against storms; against lightning; apologists; Aquino, Italy; Belcastro, Italy; book sellers; Catholic academies, schools, and universities; chastity; Falerna, Italy; learning; pencil makers; philosophers; publishers; scholars; students; theologians.[25] |
Naples, Orvieto, Rome, and Santa Sabina (1259–1269)
Around 1259, Thomas returned to Naples where he lived until he arrived in Orvieto around September 1261. In Orvieto, he was appointed conventual lector, in charge of the education of friars unable to attend a studium generale. During his stay in Orvieto, Thomas completed his Summa contra Gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea (The Golden Chain).[26] He also wrote the liturgy for the newly created feast of Corpus Christi and produced works for Pope Urban IV concerning Greek Orthodox theology, e.g. Contra errores graecorum (Against the Errors of the Greeks).[24] In 1265 he was ordered by the Dominican Chapter of Agnani to establish a studium for the Order in Rome at the priory of Santa Sabina.[27][28] He remained there from 1265 until he was called back to Paris in 1268.[29] It was in Rome that Thomas began his most famous work, Summa Theologica,[26] and wrote a variety of other works like his unfinished Compendium Theologiae and Responsio ad fr. Ioannem Vercellensem de articulis 108 sumptis ex opere Petri de Tarentasia (Reply to Brother John of Vercelli Regarding 108 Articles Drawn from the Work of Peter of Tarentaise).[23] In his position as head of the studium, conducted a series of important disputations on the power of God, which he compiled into his De potentia.[29]
The quarrelsome second Paris regency (1269–1272)
In 1268 the Dominican Order assigned Thomas to be regent master at the University of Paris for a second time, a position he held until the spring of 1272. Part of the reason for this sudden reassignment appears to have arisen from the rise of "Averroism" or "radical Aristotelianism" in the universities. In response to these perceived evils, Thomas wrote two works, one of them being De unitate intellectus, contra Averroistas (On the Unity of Intellect, against the Averroists) in which he blasts Averroism as incompatible with Christian doctrine.[30] During his second regency, he finished the second part of the Summa and wrote De virtutibus and De aeternitate mundi,[29] the latter of which dealt with controversial Averroist and Aristotelian beginninglessness of the world.[31] Disputes with some important Franciscans such as Bonaventure and John Peckham conspired to make his second regency much more difficult and troubled than the first. A year before Thomas re-assumed the regency at the 1266–67 Paris disputations, Franciscan master William of Baglione accused Thomas of encouraging Averroists, calling him the "blind leader of the blind". Thomas called these individuals the murmurantes (Grumblers).[31] In reality, Thomas was deeply disturbed by the spread of Averroism and was angered when he discovered Siger of Brabant teaching Averroistic interpretations of Aristotle to Parisian students.[32] On 10 December 1270, the bishop of Paris, Etienne Tempier, issued an edict condemning thirteen Aristotlelian and Averroistic propositions as heretical and excommunicating anyone who continued to support them.[33] Many in the ecclesiastical community, the so-called Augustinians, were fearful that this introduction of Aristotelianism and the more extreme Averroism might somehow contaminate the purity of the Christian faith. In what appears to be an attempt to counteract the growing fear of Aristotelian thought, Thomas conducted a series of disputations between 1270 and 1272: De virtutibus in communi (On Virtues in General), De virtutibus cardinalibus (On Cardinal Virtues), De spe (On Hope).[34]
Final days and "Straw" (1272–1274)
In 1272 Thomas took leave from the University of Paris when the Dominicans from his home province called upon him to establish a studium generale wherever he liked and staff it as he pleased. He chose to establish the institution in Naples, and moved there to take his post as regent master.[29] He took his time at Naples to work on the third part of the Summa while giving lectures on various religious topics. On 6 December 1273 Thomas was celebrating the Mass of St. Nicholas when, according to some, he heard Christ speak to him. Christ asked him what he desired, being pleased with his meritorious life. Thomas replied "Only you Lord. Only you."[35] After this exchange something happened, but Thomas never spoke of it or wrote it down. Because of what he saw, he abandoned his routine and refused to dictate to his socius Reginald of Piperno. When Reginald begged him to get back to work, Thomas replied: "Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me."[36] (mihi videtur ut palea).[37] What exactly triggered Thomas's change in behavior is believed by Catholics to have been some kind of supernatural experience of God.[38] After taking to his bed, he did recover some strength.[39]
Looking to find a way to reunite the Eastern Orthodox churches with the Catholic Church (the Eastern Orthodox were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, and vice versa, in A.D. 1054 over doctrinal disputes) Pope Gregory X convened the Second Council of Lyon to be held on 1 May 1274 and summoned Thomas to attend.[40] At the meeting, Thomas's work for Pope Urban IV concerning the Greeks, Contra errores graecorum, was to be presented.[41] On his way to the Council, riding on a donkey along the Appian Way,[40] he struck his head on the branch of a fallen tree and became seriously ill again. He was then quickly escorted to Monte Cassino to convalesce.[39] After resting for a while, he set out again, but stopped at the Cistercian Fossanova Abbey after again falling ill.[42] The monks nursed him for several days, and as he received his last rites he prayed: "I receive Thee, ransom of my soul. For love of Thee have I studied and kept vigil, toiled, preached and taught..."[43] He died on 7 March 1274[42] while giving commentary on the Song of Songs.[44]
Condemnation of 1277
See also: Condemnations of 1210–1277
In 1277, the same bishop of France, Etienne Tempier, who had issued the condemnation of 1270 issued another, more extensive condemnation. One aim of this condemnation was to clarify that God's absolute power transcended any principles of logic that Aristotle or Averroes might place on it.[45] More specifically, it contained a list of 219 propositions that the bishop had determined to violate the omnipotence of God, and included in this list were twenty Thomistic propositions. Their inclusion badly damaged Thomas's reputation for many years.[46]
In The Divine Comedy, Dante sees the glorified spirit of Thomas in the Heaven of the Sun with the other great exemplars of religious wisdom.[47] Dante asserts that Thomas died by poisoning, on the order of Charles of Anjou;[48] Villani (ix. 218) cites this belief, and the Anonimo Fiorentino describes the crime and its motive. But the historian Ludovico Antonio Muratori reproduces the account made by one of Thomas's friends, and this version of the story gives no hint of foul play.[49]
Thomas's theology had begun its rise to prestige. Two centuries later, in 1567, Pope Pius V proclaimed St. Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church and ranked his feast with those of the four great Latin fathers: Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Gregory. However, in the same period the Council of Trent would still turn to Duns Scotus before Thomas as a source of arguments in defence of the Church. Even though Duns Scotus was more consulted at the Council of Trent, Thomas had the honor of having his Summa Theologica placed on the altar alongside the Bible and the Decretals.[46][50]
In his encyclical of 4 August 1879, Pope Leo XIII stated that Thomas's theology was a definitive exposition of Catholic doctrine. Thus, he directed the clergy to take the teachings of Thomas as the basis of their theological positions. Leo XIII also decreed that all Catholic seminaries and universities must teach Thomas's doctrines, and where Thomas did not speak on a topic, the teachers were "urged to teach conclusions that were reconcilable with his thinking." In 1880, Saint Thomas Aquinas was declared patron of all Catholic educational establishments.
Canonization
When the devil's advocate at his canonization process objected that there were no miracles, one of the cardinals answered, "Tot miraculis, quot articulis"—"there are as many miracles (in his life) as articles (in his Summa)," viz., thousands.[50] Fifty years after the death of Thomas, on 18 July 1323, Pope John XXII, seated in Avignon, pronounced Thomas a saint.[51]
In a monastery at Naples, near the cathedral of St. Januarius, a cell in which he supposedly lived is still shown to visitors. His remains were placed in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse in 1369. Between 1789 and 1974, they were held in Basilique de Saint-Sernin, Toulouse. In 1974, they were returned to the Church of the Jacobins, where they have remained ever since.
In the General Roman Calendar of 1962, in the Roman Catholic Church, Thomas was commemorated on 7 March, the day of death. However, in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, Thomas's memorial was transferred to 28 January, the date of the translation of his relics to Toulouse.[52]
Saint Thomas Aquinas is honored with a feast day on the liturgical of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on 28 January.
Philosophy
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negative theology divine simplicity Quinquae viae Beatific vision Actus purus Sacraments correspondence theory of truth hylomorphism substance theory (Ousia) accident substantial form quiddity (essence / nature) peripatetic axiom principle of double effect cardinal virtues theological virtues intellectual virtues natural law Just War just price concupiscence |
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Aristotle ("The Philosopher")
St. Paul ("The Apostle") Pseudo-Dionysius St. Augustine ("The Theologian") St. Boethius Avicenna Peter Lombard ("The Master") Averroes ("The Commentator") Maimonides ("Rabbi Moses") St. Albertus Magnus Reginald of Piperno |
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Main article: Thomism
Thomas was a theologian and a Scholastic philosopher.[53] However, he never considered himself a philosopher, and criticized philosophers, whom he saw as pagans, for always "falling short of the true and proper wisdom to be found in Christian revelation."[54] With this in mind, Thomas did have respect for Aristotle, so much so that in the Summa, he often cites Aristotle simply as "the Philosopher." Much of his work bears upon philosophical topics, and in this sense may be characterized as philosophical. Thomas's philosophical thought has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church, extending to Western philosophy in general. Thomas stands as a vehicle and modifier of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism.
Commentaries on Aristotle
Thomas wrote several important commentaries on Aristotle, including On the Soul, Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics. His work is associated with William of Moerbeke's translations of Aristotle from Greek into Latin.
Epistemology
Thomas believed "that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act."[55] However, he believed that human beings have the natural capacity to know many things without special divine revelation, even though such revelation occurs from time to time, "especially in regard to such (truths) as pertain to faith."[56] But this is the light that is given to man by God according to man's nature: "Now every form bestowed on created things by God has power for a determined act, which it can bring about in proportion to its own proper endowment; and beyond which it is powerless, except by a superadded form, as water can only heat when heated by the fire. And thus the human understanding has a form, viz. intelligible light, which of itself is sufficient for knowing certain intelligible things, viz. those we can come to know through the senses. "[57]
Ethics
See also: Christian ethics
Thomas's ethics are based on the concept of "first principles of action."[58] In his Summa Theologica, he wrote:
Virtue denotes a certain perfection of a power. Now a thing's perfection is considered chiefly in regard to its end. But the end of power is act. Wherefore power is said to be perfect, according as it is determinate to its act.[59]
Thomas defined the four cardinal virtues as prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. The cardinal virtues are natural and revealed in nature, and they are binding on everyone. There are, however, three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. These are somewhat supernatural and are distinct from other virtues in their object, namely, God:
Now the object of the theological virtues is God Himself, Who is the last end of all, as surpassing the knowledge of our reason. On the other hand, the object of the intellectual and moral virtues is something comprehensible to human reason. Wherefore the theological virtues are specifically distinct from the moral and intellectual virtues.[60]
Furthermore, Thomas distinguished four kinds of law: eternal, natural, human, and divine. Eternal law is the decree of God that governs all creation. Natural law is the human "participation" in the eternal law and is discovered by reason.[61] Natural law, of course, is based on "first principles":
. . . this is the first precept of the law, that good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided. All other precepts of the natural law are based on this . . .[62]
The desires to live and to procreate are counted by Thomas among those basic (natural) human values on which all human values are based. According to Thomas, all human tendencies are geared towards real human goods. In this case, the human nature in question is marriage, the total gift of oneself to another that ensures a family for children and a future for mankind.[63]
Human law is positive law: the natural law applied by governments to societies. Divine law is the specially revealed law in the scriptures.
Thomas also greatly influenced Catholic understandings of mortal and venial sins.
Thomas denied that human beings have any duty of charity to animals because they are not persons. Otherwise, it would be unlawful to use them for food. But this does not give us license to be cruel to them, for "cruel habits might carry over into our treatment of human beings."[64]
Thomas contributed to economic thought as an aspect of ethics and justice. He dealt with the concept of a just price, normally its market price or a regulated price sufficient to cover seller costs of production. He argued it was immoral for sellers to raise their prices simply because buyers were in pressing need for a product.[65][66]
Intentionality
The pioneer of neurodynamics, cognitive neuroscientist Walter Freeman, considers the work of Thomas important in remodeling intentionality, the directedness of the mind toward what it is aware of.
Psychology
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Aquinas maintains that a human is a single material substance. He understands the soul as the form of the body, which makes a human being the composite of the two. Thus, only living, form-matter composites can truly be called human; dead bodies are “human” only analogously. One actually existing substance comes from body and soul. A human is a single material substance, but still should be understood as having an immaterial soul, which continues after bodily death.
Ultimately, humans are animals; the animal genus is body; body is material substance. When embodied, a human person is an “individual substance in the category rational animal.”[67] The body belongs to the essence of a human being. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas clearly states his position on the nature of the soul; defining it as “the first principle of life.”[68] The soul is not corporeal, or a body; it is the act of a body. Because the intellect is incorporeal, it does not use the bodily organs, as “the operation of anything follows the mode of its being.”[69]
The human soul is perfected in the body, but does not depend on the body, because part of its nature is spiritual. In this way, the soul differs from other forms, which are only found in matter, and thus depend on matter. The soul, as form of the body, does not depend on matter in this way.
The soul is not matter, not even incorporeal or spiritual matter. If it were, it would not be able to understand universals, which are immaterial. A receiver receives things according to the receiver’s own nature, so in order for soul (receiver) to understand (receive) universals, it must have the same nature as universals. Yet, any substance that understands universals may not be a matter-form composite. So, humans have rational souls which are abstract forms independent of the body. But a human being is one existing, single material substance which comes from body and soul: that is what Thomas means when he writes that “something one in nature can be formed from an intellectual substance and a body,” and “a thing one in nature does not result from two permanent entities unless one has the character of substantial form and the other of matter.”[70]
The soul is a "substantial form"; it is a part of a substance, but it is not a substance by itself. Nevertheless, the soul exists separately from the body, and continues, after death, in many of the capacities we think of as human. Substantial form is what makes a thing a member of the species to which it belongs, and substantial form is also the structure or configuration that provides the object with the abilities that make the object what it is. For humans, those abilities are those of the rational animal.
These distinctions can be better understood in the light of Aquinas’ understanding of matter and form, a hylomorphic ("matter/form") theory derived from Aristotle. In any given substance, matter and form are necessarily united, and each is a necessary aspect of that substance. However, they are conceptually separable. Matter represents what is changeable about the substance – what is potentially something else. For example, bronze matter is potentially a statue, or also potentially a cymbal. Matter must be understood as the matter of something. In contrast, form is what determines some particular chunk of matter to be a specific substance and no other. When Aquinas says that the human body is only partly composed of matter, he means the material body is only potentially a human being. The soul is what actualizes that potential into an existing human being. Consequently, the fact that a human body is live human tissue entails that a human soul is wholly present in each part of the human.
Theology
See also: Works by Thomas Aquinas
Thomas viewed theology, or the sacred doctrine, as a science,[38] the raw material data of which 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, while 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. 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.
Revelation
Thomas believed that truth is known through reason (natural revelation) and faith (supernatural revelation). Supernatural revelation has its origin in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is made available through the teaching of the prophets, summed up in Holy Scripture, and transmitted by the Magisterium, the sum of which is called "Tradition". Natural revelation is the truth available to all people through their human nature; certain truths all men can attain from correct human reasoning. For example, he felt this applied to rational ways to know the existence of God.
Though one may deduce the existence of God and his Attributes (One, Truth, Good, Power, Knowledge) through reason, certain specifics may be known only through special revelation (such as the Trinity). In Thomas's view, special revelation is equivalent to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The major theological components of Christianity, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are revealed in the teachings of the Church and the Scriptures and may not otherwise be deduced.
Supernatural revelation (faith) and natural revelation (reason) are complementary rather than contradictory in nature, for they pertain to the same unity: truth.
Creation
As a Catholic, Thomas believed that God is the "maker of heaven and earth, of all that is visible and invisible." Like Aristotle, Thomas posited that life could form from non-living material or plant life, a theory of ongoing abiogenesis known as spontaneous generation:
Since the generation of one thing is the corruption of another, it was not incompatible with the first formation of things, that from the corruption of the less perfect the more perfect should be generated. Hence animals generated from the corruption of inanimate things, or of plants, may have been generated then.[71]
Additionally, Thomas considered Empedocles' theory that various mutated species emerged at the dawn of Creation. Thomas reasoned that these species were generated through mutations in animal sperm, and argued that they were not unintended by nature; rather, such species were simply not intended for perpetual existence. This discussion is found in his commentary on Aristotle's Physics:
The same thing is true of those substances which Empedocles said were produced at the beginning of the world, such as the ‘ox-progeny’, i.e., half ox and half man. For if such things were not able to arrive at some end and final state of nature so that they would be preserved in existence, this was not because nature did not intend this [a final state], but because they were not capable of being preserved. For they were not generated according to nature, but by the corruption of some natural principle, as it now also happens that some monstrous offspring are generated because of the corruption of seed.[72]
Just war
See also: Just War
Augustine of Hippo agreed strongly with the conventional wisdom of the time, that Christians should be pacifists in their personal lives. But he routinely argued that this did not apply to the defence of innocents. In essence, the pursuit of peace must include the option of fighting to preserve it in the long-term.[73] Such a war could not be preemptive, but defensive, to restore peace.[74]
Thomas Aquinas, centuries later, used the authority of Augustine's arguments in an attempt to define the conditions under which a war could be just:[75]
- First, war must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for self-gain or as an exercise of power.
- Second, just war must be waged by a properly instituted authority such as the state.
- Third, peace must be a central motive even in the midst of violence.[76]
Nature of God
Thomas believed that the existence of God is self evident in itself, but not to us. "Therefore I say that this proposition, "God exists," of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject.... Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their nature — namely, by effects."[77]
Thomas believed that the existence of God can be proven. In the Summa Theologica, he considered in great detail five reasons for the existence of God. These are widely known as the quinque viae, or the "Five Ways."
The Five Ways Philosophers Have Proven God's Existence
- Change: Some things are undoubtedly undergoing change, though cannot cause their own change. Since Thomas believed there can be no infinite chain of causes of change, this leads to the conclusion there must be a first cause of changing that is not itself changed by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
- Causation: Like change, nothing can cause itself, and like change there must be a First Cause, called God
- Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause why other things exist.
- Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative which is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God -->note Thomas does not ascribe actual qualities to God Himself!
- Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God --> Note that even when we guide objects, in Thomas' view the source of all our knowledge comes from God as well.[78]
Concerning the nature of God, Thomas felt the best approach, commonly called the via negativa, is to consider what God is not. This led him to propose five statements about the divine qualities:
- God is simple, without composition of parts, such as body and soul, or matter and form.[79]
- God is perfect, lacking nothing. That is, God is distinguished from other beings on account of God's complete actuality.[80] Thomas defined God as the ‘Ipse Actus Essendi subsistens,’ subsisting act of being.[81]
- God is infinite. That is, God is not finite in the ways that created beings are physically, intellectually, and emotionally limited. This infinity is to be distinguished from infinity of size and infinity of number.[82]
- God is immutable, incapable of change on the levels of God's essence and character.[83]
- God is one, without diversification within God's self. The unity of God is such that God's essence is the same as God's existence. In Thomas's words, "in itself the proposition 'God exists' is necessarily true, for in it subject and predicate are the same."[84]
In this approach, he is following, among others, the Jewish philosopher Maimonides.[85]
Following St. Augustine of Hippo, Thomas defines sin as "a word, deed, or desire, contrary to the eternal law."[86] It is important to note the analogous nature of law in Thomas's legal philosophy. Natural law is an instance or instantiation of eternal law. Because natural law is that which human beings determine according to their own nature (as rational beings), disobeying reason is disobeying natural law and eternal law. Thus eternal law is logically prior to reception of either "natural law" (that determined by reason) or "divine law" (that found in the Old and New Testaments). In other words, God's will extends to both reason and revelation. Sin is abrogating either one's own reason, on the one hand, or revelation on the other, and is synonymous with "evil" (privation of good, or privatio boni[87]). Thomas, like all Scholastics, generally argued that the findings of reason and data of revelation cannot conflict, so both are a guide to God's will for human beings.
Nature of the Trinity
Thomas argued that God, while perfectly united, also is perfectly described by Three Interrelated Persons. These three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are constituted by their relations within the essence of God. Thomas wrote that the term "Trinity" "does not mean the relations themselves of the Persons, but rather the number of persons related to each other; and hence it is that the word in itself does not express regard to another."[88] The Father generates the Son (or the Word) by the relation of self-awareness. This eternal generation then produces an eternal Spirit "who enjoys the divine nature as the Love of God, the Love of the Father for the Word."
This Trinity exists independently from the world. It transcends the created world, but the Trinity also decided to give grace to human beings. This takes place through the Incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus Christ and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within those who have experienced salvation by God; according to Aidan Nichols. [89]
Prima causa – first cause
Thomas's five proofs for the existence of God take some of Aristotle's assertions concerning principles of being. For Thomas, God as prima causa (first cause) comes from Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover and asserts that God is the ultimate cause of all things.[90]
Nature of Jesus Christ
In the Summa Theologica, Thomas begins his discussion of Jesus Christ by recounting the biblical story of Adam and Eve and by describing the negative effects of original sin. The purpose of Christ's Incarnation was to restore human nature by removing "the contamination of sin", which humans cannot do by themselves. "Divine Wisdom judged it fitting that God should become man, so that thus one and the same person would be able both to restore man and to offer satisfaction."[91] Thomas argued in favor of the satisfaction view of atonement; that is, that Jesus Christ died "to satisfy for the whole human race, which was sentenced to die on account of sin."[92]
Thomas argued against several specific contemporary and historical theologians who held differing views about Christ. In response to Photinus, Thomas stated that Jesus was truly divine and not simply a human being. Against Nestorius, who suggested that Son of God was merely conjoined to the man Christ, Thomas argued that the fullness of God was an integral part of Christ's existence. However, countering Apollinaris' views, Thomas held that Christ had a truly human (rational) soul, as well. This produced a duality of natures in Christ. Thomas argued against Eutyches that this duality persisted after the Incarnation. Thomas stated that these two natures existed simultaneously yet distinguishably in one real human body, unlike the teachings of Manichaeus and Valentinus.[93]
In short, "Christ had a real body of the same nature of ours, a true rational soul, and, together with these, perfect Deity." Thus, there is both unity (in his one hypostasis) and composition (in his two natures, human and Divine) in Christ.[94]
I answer that, The Person or hypostasis of Christ may be viewed in two ways. First as it is in itself, and thus it is altogether simple, even as the Nature of the Word. Secondly, in the aspect of person or hypostasis to which it belongs to subsist in a nature; and thus the Person of Christ subsists in two natures. Hence though there is one subsisting being in Him, yet there are different aspects of subsistence, and hence He is said to be a composite person, insomuch as one being subsists in two.[95]
Echoing Athanasius of Alexandria, he said that "The only begotten Son of God...assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."[96]
Goal of human life
In Thomas's thought, the goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God. Specifically, this goal is achieved through the beatific vision, an event in which a person experiences perfect, unending happiness by seeing the very essence of God. This vision, which occurs after death, is a gift from God given to those who have experienced salvation and redemption through Christ while living on earth.
This ultimate goal carries implications for one's present life on earth. Thomas stated that an individual's will must be ordered toward right things, such as charity, peace, and holiness. He sees this as the way to happiness. Thomas orders his treatment of the moral life around the idea of happiness. The relationship between will and goal is antecedent in nature "because rectitude of the will consists in being duly ordered to the last end [that is, the beatific vision]." Those who truly seek to understand and see God will necessarily love what God loves. Such love requires morality and bears fruit in everyday human choices.[97]
Treatment of heretics
Thomas Aquinas belonged to the Dominican Order (formally Ordo Praedicatorum, the Order of Preachers) who began as an order dedicated to the conversion of the Albigensians and other heterodox factions, at first by peaceful means, but later the Albigensians were dealt with by means of the Albigensian Crusade. In the Summa Theologica, he wrote:
With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death. On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but "after the first and second admonition," as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death.(Summa, II–II, Q.11, art.3.)
Heresy was a capital offense against the secular law of most European countries of the 13th century, which had a limited prison capacity. Simple theft, forgery, fraud, and other such crimes were also capital offenses; Thomas's point seems to be that the gravity of this offense, which touches not only the material goods but also the spiritual goods of others, is at least the same as forgery. Thomas's suggestion specifically demands that heretics be handed to a "secular tribunal" rather than magisterial authority. That Thomas specifically says that heretics "deserve... death" is related to his theology, according to which all sinners have no intrinsic right to life ("For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"[98]). Nevertheless, his point is clear: heretics should be executed by the state. He elaborates on his opinion regarding heresy in the next article, when he says:
In God's tribunal, those who return are always received, because God is a searcher of hearts, and knows those who return in sincerity. But the Church cannot imitate God in this, for she presumes that those who relapse after being once received, are not sincere in their return; hence she does not debar them from the way of salvation, but neither does she protect them from the sentence of death. (Summa, op. cit., art.4.)
The afterlife and resurrection
A grasp of Aquinas's psychology is essential for understanding his beliefs around the afterlife and resurrection. Thomas, following Church doctrine, accepts that the soul continues to exist after the death of the body. Because he accepts that the soul is the form of the body, then he also must believe that the human being, like all material things, is form-matter composite. Substantial form (the human soul) configures prime matter (the physical body) and is the form by which a material composite belongs to that species it does; in the case of human beings, that species is rational animal.[99] So, a human being is a matter-form composite that is organized to be a rational animal. Matter cannot exist without being configured by form, but form can exist without matter—which allows for the separation of soul from body. Aquinas says that the soul shares in the material and spiritual worlds, and so has some features of matter and other, immaterial, features (such as access to universals). The human soul is different from other material and spiritual things; it is created by God, but also only comes into existence in the material body.
Human beings are material, but the human person can survive the death of the body through continued existence of the soul, which persists. The human soul straddles the spiritual and material worlds, and is both a configured subsistent form as well as a configurer of matter into that of a living, bodily human.[100] Because it is spiritual, the human soul does not depend on matter and may exist separately. Because the human being is a soul-matter composite, the body has a part in what it is to be human. Perfected human nature consists in the human dual nature, embodied and intellecting.
Resurrection appears to require dualism, which Thomas rejects. Yet, Aquinas believes the soul persists after the death and corruption of the body, and is capable of existence, separated from the body between the time of death and the resurrection. Aquinas believes in a different sort of dualism, one guided by Christian scripture. Aquinas knows that human beings are essentially physical, but that that physicality has a spirit capable of returning to God after life.[101] For Aquinas, the rewards and punishment of the afterlife are not only spiritual. Because of this, resurrection is an important part of his philosophy on the soul. The human is fulfilled and complete in the body, so the hereafter must take place with souls enmattered in resurrected bodies. In addition to spiritual reward, humans can expect to enjoy material and physical blessings. Because Aquinas’s soul requires a body for its actions, during the afterlife, the soul will also be punished or rewarded in corporeal existence.
Aquinas states clearly his stance on resurrection, and uses it to back up his philosophy of justice; that is, the promise of resurrection compensates Christians who suffered in this world through a heavenly union with the divine. He says, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, it follows that there is no good for human beings other than in this life.”[102] Resurrection provides the impetus for people on earth to give up pleasures in this life. Thomas believes the human who has prepared for the afterlife both morally and intellectually will be rewarded more greatly; however, all reward is through the grace of God. Aquinas insists beatitude will be conferred according to merit, and will render the person better able to conceive the divine. Aquinas accordingly believes punishment is directly related to earthly, living preparation and activity as well. Aquinas’s account of the soul focuses on epistemology and metaphysics, and because of this he believes it gives a clear account of the immaterial nature of the soul. Aquinas conservatively guards Christian doctrine, and thus maintains physical and spiritual reward and punishment after death. By accepting the essentiality of both body and soul, he allows for a heaven and hell described in scripture and church dogma.
Modern influence
Many modern ethicists both within and outside the Catholic Church (notably Philippa Foot and Alasdair MacIntyre) have recently commented on the possible use of Thomas's virtue ethics as a way of avoiding utilitarianism or Kantian "sense of duty" (called deontology). Through the work of twentieth century philosophers such as Elizabeth Anscombe (especially in her book Intention), Thomas's principle of double effect specifically and his theory of intentional activity generally have been influential.
In recent years, the cognitive neuroscientist Walter Freeman proposes that Thomism is the philosophical system explaining cognition that is most compatible with neurodynamics, in a 2008 article in the journal Mind and Matter entitled "Nonlinear Brain Dynamics and Intention According to Aquinas."
Thomas's aesthetic theories, especially the concept of claritas, deeply influenced the literary practice of modernist writer James Joyce, who used to extol Thomas as being second only to Aristotle among Western philosophers. The influence of Thomas's aesthetics also can be found in the works of the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco, who wrote an essay on aesthetic ideas in Thomas (published in 1956 and republished in 1988 in a revised edition).
Claims of levitation
See also: Saints and levitation
For centuries, there have been recurring claims that Thomas had the ability to levitate. For example, G. K. Chesterton wrote that, "His experiences included well-attested cases of levitation in ecstasy; and the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, comforting him with the welcome news that he would never be a Bishop."[103]
See also
- Aquinas Institute
- Aquinas School in San Juan City, Philippines
- Aquinas University in Legazpi City, Philippines
- Bartholomew of Lucca, Thomas's friend and confessor
- Christian mysticism
- High Middle Ages
- International Council of Universities of Saint Thomas Aquinas
- List of institutions named after Thomas Aquinas
- Medieval university
- Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas
- Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum)
- School of Salamanca, 16th century Spanish Thomists
- Thomas Aquinas and the Sacraments
- Thought of Thomas Aquinas
- University of Santo Tomas
- University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
- St. Thomas Aquinas College
- Thomists
Sources
Footnotes
- ^ See Pius XI, Studiorum Ducem 11 (29 June 1923), AAS, XV ("non modo Angelicum, sed etiam Communem seu Universalem Ecclesiae Doctorem"). The title Doctor Communis dates to the fourteenth century; the title Doctor Angelicus dates to the fifteenth century, see Walz, Xenia Thomistica, III, p. 164 n. 4. Tolomeo da Lucca writes in Historia Ecclesiastica (1317): “This man is supreme among modern teachers of philosophy and theology, and indeed in every subject. And such is the common view and opinion, so that nowadays in the University of Paris they call him the Doctor Communis because of the outstanding clarity of his teaching.” Historia Eccles. xxiii, c. 9.
- ^ Code of Canon Law, Can. 252, §3 [1]
- ^ Benedict XV Encyclical Fausto appetente die 29 June 1921, AAS 13 (1921), 332; Pius XI Encyclical Studiorum Ducem §11, 29 June 1923, AAS 15 (1923), cf. AAS 17 (1925) 574; Paul VI, 7 March 1964 AAS 56 (1964), 302 (Bouscaren, vol. VI, pp. 786–88).
- ^ a b c Schaff, p. p. 422.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 14.
- ^ a b c d Stump, Aquinas, p. 3.
- ^ Davies, Aquinas: An Introduction, pp. 1–2
- ^ a b c Davies, Aquinas: An Introduction, p. 2
- ^ Hampden, The Life, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Grabmann, Martin. Virgil Michel, trans. Thomas Aquinas: His Personality and Thought. (Kessinger Publishing, 2006), pp. 2.
- ^ Collison, Diane, and Kathryn Plant. Fifty Major Philosophers. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.
- ^ a b Hampden, The Life, p. 23.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 24.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 25.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, pp. 27–28.
- ^ a b Healy, Theologian, p. 2.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 33.
- ^ Stump, Aquinas, p. xvi.
- ^ Davies, The Thought, p. 5.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas; Richard J. Regan, Brian Davies (2003). On Evil. Oxford University Press US. p. 5. ISBN 0-19-509183-3.
- ^ a b Stump, Aquinas, p. 4.
- ^ Davies, Aquinas: An Introduction, pp. 3–4.
- ^ a b Stump, Aquinas, p. xvii.
- ^ a b Davies, Aquinas: An Introduction, p. 4.
- ^ http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-aquinas/
- ^ a b Healy, Theologian, p. 4.
- ^ Fr. Thome de Aquino iniungimus in remissionem peccatorum quod teneat studium Rome, et volumus quod fratribus qui stant secum ad studendum provideatur in necessariis vestimentis a conventibus de quorum predicatione traxerunt originem. Si autem illi studentes inventi fuerint negligentes in studio, damus potestatem fr. Thome quod ad conventus suos possit eos remittere (Acta Capitulorum Provincialium, Provinciae Romanae Ordinis Praedicatorum, 1265, n. 12)
- ^ http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/a65.html
- ^ a b c d Davies, Aquinas: An Introduction, p. 5.
- ^ Stump, Aquinas, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b Stump, Aquinas, p. 11.
- ^ Aquinas, Reader, pp. 9–11.
- ^ McInerney, Against the Averroists, p. 10.
- ^ Aquinas, Reader, p. 11.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Davies, The Thought, p. 9.
- ^ McBride, William Leon (1997). The Development and Meaning of Twentieth-century Existentialism. Taylor and Francis. p. 131. ISBN 0-8153-2491-X.
- ^ a b McInerny, Ralph and John O'Callaghan, "Saint Thomas Aquinas", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
- ^ a b Healy, Theologian, p. 7.
- ^ a b Nichols, Discovering Aquinas, p. 18.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 46.
- ^ a b Healy, Theologian, p. 8.
- ^ Aquinas, Reader, p. 12.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 47.
- ^ Grant, Edward (1996). The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts. Cambridge University Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-521-56762-9.
- ^ a b Kung, Christian Thinkers [2], pp. 112–114.
- ^ "Parad. x. 99". Divinecomedy.org. http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.php3?display?Enface?Paradiso?10???148?1???0??1?1. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ "Purg. xx. 69". Divinecomedy.org. http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.php3?display?Enface?Purgatorio?20???151?1???0??1?1. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ "Aquinas, Thomas", Encyclopædia Britannica (1911), pg. 250.
- ^ a b Brian Mullady, O.P. (2006). "The Angelic Doctor – Thomas Aquinas". http://web.archive.org/web/20081007031948/http:/www.holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/guests/brianmullady/thomasaquinas.asp. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
- ^ Hampden, The Life, p. 54.
- ^ Liturgy of the Hours Volume III, Proper of Saints, 28 January.
- ^ Some would not describe Thomas as a philosopher. See, e.g., Mark D. Jordan, "Philosophy in a Summa of Theology", in Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after his Readers (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006) pp. 154–170. [3]
- ^ Davies, Brian (2004). Aquinas. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 14.
- ^ "Blog Archive " Saint Thomas Aquinas". Saints.SQPN.com. 22 October 1974. http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-aquinas/. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ "Summa, Q109a1". Ccel.org. http://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q109_A1.html#FS_Q109_A1-p9. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
- ^ "Summa, Q109a1". Ccel.org. http://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q109_A1.html#FS_Q109_A1-p9. Retrieved 4-26-2012.
- ^ Geisler, p. 727.
- ^ "Summa, Q55a1". Ccel.org. http://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q55_A1.html#FS_Q55_A1-p8. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
- ^ "Summa, Q62a2". Ccel.org. http://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q62_A2.html#FS_Q62_A2-p6. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
- ^ Pojman, Louis (1995). Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. ISBN 0-534-56138-1.
- ^ "Summa, Q94a2". Ccel.org. http://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q94_A2.html#FS_Q94_A2-p7. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas. "IV In Sententiae. d. 27 q. 1 a.1". Summa. http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/snp4027.html. Retrieved 2011-09-21.
- ^ Honderich, Ted, ed. (1995). "Animals: Peter Singer". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford. pp. 35–36. http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1995----04.htm
- ^ Summa Theologica, Questions 77 and 78
- ^ Barry Gordon (1987). "Aquinas, St Thomas (1225–1274)," v. 1, p. 100
- ^ Stump, Eleanore (2006). "Resurrection, Reassembly, and Reconstitution: Aquinas on the Soul". In Bruno Niederberger and Edmund Runggaldier. Die menschliche Seele: Brauchen wir den Dualismus? The Human Soul: Do We Need Dualism?. Frankfurt-London: Ontos Verlag.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1920). "Question 75, Article 1". In Literally Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1920). "Question 75, Article 3". In Literally Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1975). "5 volumes.". In Translated by Anton C. Pegis et al. Summa Contra Gentiles. Notre Dame, Ind.: U. of Notre Dame Press.
- ^ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, On the Work of the Sixth Day, Reply to Objection 5, Fathers of the English Dominican Province
- ^ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Physica, Book 2, Lecture 14, Fathers of the English Dominican Province
- ^ St. Augustine of Hippo, Crusades-Encyclopedia
- ^ Saint Augustine and the Theory of Just War
- ^ The Just War
- ^ Justo L. Gonzalez (1984). The Story of Christianity. HarperSanFrancisco.
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm#article1
- ^ Summa of Theology I, q.2, The Five Ways Philosophers Have Proven God's Existence
- ^ Kreeft, pp. 74–77.
- ^ Kreeft, pp. 86–87.
- ^ See Actus Essendi.
- ^ Kreeft, pp. 97–99.
- ^ Kreeft, p. 105.
- ^ Kreeft, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Aquinas, Thomas
- ^ "Summa, II–I, Q.71, art.6". Newadvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2071.htm#article6. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ Summa, II–I, Q.75, art.1. "For evil is the absence of the good, which is natural and due to a thing."
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1031.htm#article3
- ^ Nichols, Aidan (2002). Discovering Aquinas. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 173–174.
- ^ Nichols, Aidan (2002). Discovering Aquinas. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 80–82.
- ^ Aquinas, pp. 228–229.
- ^ "Summa, III, Q.50, art.1". Newadvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4050.htm#article1. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ Aquinas, pp. 231–239.
- ^ Aquinas, pp. 241, 245–249. Emphasis is the author's.
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4002.htm#article4
- ^ Weigel, George (2001). The Truth of Catholicism. New York City: Harper Collins. pp. 9. ISBN 0-06-621330-4.
- ^ Kreeft, p. 383.
- ^ "Romans 6:23, ASV". Biblegateway.com. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206:23&version=ASV. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ Stump, Eleanore (2003). Aquinas, (in the series The Arguments of the Philosophers). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 194.
- ^ Stump, Eleanore (2003). Aquinas, (in the series The Arguments of the Philosophers). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 200.
- ^ Stump, Eleanore (2003). Aquinas, (in the series The Arguments of the Philosophers). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 192.
- ^ Stump, Eleanore (2003). Aquinas, (in the series The Arguments of the Philosophers). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 461, 473.
- ^ G. K. Chesterton wrote an Essay on St. Thomas Aquinas which appeared in The Spectator 27 Feb. 1932.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Seeburg, Reinhold (1914). "Thomas Aquinas". In Jackson, Samuel Macauley. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. XI (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 422–427. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc11.t.vii.html.- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thomas Aquinas". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/APO_ARN/AQUINAS_THOMAS_Thomas_of_AQUIN_.html.
- Aquinas, Thomas; Mary T. Clark (2000). An Aquinas Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Aquinas. Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2029-X.
- Aquinas, Thomas (2002). Aquinas's Shorter Summa. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press. ISBN 1-928832-43-1.
- Davies, Brian (2004). Aquinas: An Introduction. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-7095-5.
- Davies, Brian (1993). The Thought of Thomas Aquinas. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-826753-3.
- Geisler, Norman, ed. (1999). Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic
- Gordon, Barry (1987 [2009]). "Aquinas, St Thomas," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 1.
- Hampden, Renn Dickson (1848). "The Life of Thomas Aquinas: A Dissertation of the Scholastic Philosophy of the Middle Ages". Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. London: John J. Griffin & Co.
- Healy, Nicholas M. (2003). Thomas Aquinas: Theologian of the Christian Life. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 0-7546-1472-7.
- Kreeft, Peter (1990). Summa of the Summa. Ignatius Press. ISBN 0-89870-300-X.
- Kung, Hans (1994). Great Christian Thinkers. New York: Continuum Books. ISBN 0-8264-0848-6.
- McInerny, Ralph M. (1993). Aquinas Against the Averroists: On There Being Only One Intellect. Purdue University Press. ISBN 1-55753-029-7.
- Nichols, Aidan (2003). Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Influence. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-0514-0.
- Schaff, Philip (1953). "Thomas Aquinas". The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 126. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. pp. 422–423. Bibcode 1930Natur.126..951G. doi:10.1038/126951c0.
- Stump, Eleonore (2003). Aquinas. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02960-0.
Further reading
- Copleston, Frederick (1991). Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-013674-6.
- Faitanin, Paulo (2008). A Sabedoria do Amor: iniciação à filosofia de Santo Tomás de Aquino. Instituto Aquinate. ISSN 1982-8845.
- Faitanin, Paulo (2008). O Ofício do Sábio: o modo de estudar e ensinar segundo Santo Tomás de Aquino. Instituto Aquinate. ISSN 1982-8845.
- Paterson, Craig & Matthew S. Pugh (eds.), Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue. Ashgate, 2006. Introduction to Thomism
- Schmitz, Kenneth (2007). St. Thomas Aquinas (audiobook). Narrated by Charlton Heston. Ashland, OR; Boulder, CO: Knowledge Products; Blackstone Audiobooks; NetLibrary. ISBN 0-7861-6932-X. OCLC 78235338. http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/audiobook.cfm?id=3813.
- Torrell, Jean-Pierre (2005). Saint Thomas Aquinas. (Rev. ed. ed.). Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 978-0-8132-1423-8. OCLC 456104266.
- Wallace, William A. (1970). "Thomas Aquinas, Saint". In Gillispie, Charles. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Scribner & American Council of Learned Societies. pp. 196–200. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Saint_Thomas_Aquinas.aspx#1.
- Weisheipl, James (1974). Friar Thomas D'Aquino: his life, thought, and work ([1st ed.] ed.). Garden City N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-01299-7.
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Biographies
- St. Thomas Aquinas (pdf) biography from Fr. Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints
"St. Thomas Aquinas". Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913.- St. Thomas Aquinas article by Daniel Kennedy in Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), at NewAdvent.org
- St. Thomas Aquinas biography by Jacques Maritain
- St. Thomas Aquinas biography by G. K. Chesterton protected by copyright outside Australia
- Vita D. Thomae Aquinatis a pictorial life of Aquinas from a manuscript by Otto van Veen (1610)
On his thought
- Actus Essendi Electronic Journal
- Brown, Paterson. "Infinite Causal Regression", Philosophical Review, 1966.
- Brown, Paterson. "St. Thomas' Doctrine of Necessary Being", Philosophical Review, 1964.
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aquinas, Thomas. |
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- Thomistic Philosophy Inspired by the enduring thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas
- Article on Thomism by the Jacques Maritain Center of Notre Dame University
- Thomistica.net news and newsletter devoted to the academic study of Aquinas
- Aquinas the Scholar from The Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries, ch. XVII. by James Joseph Walsh
- A discussion of Aquinas on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time series 2009
By Thomas
- Works by or about Thomas Aquinas in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Complete works of St. Thomas Aquinas in (Latin) and (English) side by side
- Corpus Thomisticum – his complete works in (Latin)
- Documenta Catholica Omnia – his complete works in PDF files, in (Latin), (Italian), (English), (German), (Spanish), (French), (Portuguese)
- Summa contra Gentiles
- Summa Theologica
- The Principles of Nature
- On Being and Essence (De Ente et Essentia)
- Catena Aurea (partial)
- Works by Thomas Aquinas at Project Gutenberg
- Bibliotheca Thomistica IntraText: texts, concordances and frequency lists
- An Aquinas Bibliography
- St Thomas' Multilanguage Opera Omnia
- Thomas Aquinas in English
- De Magistro (On the teacher q. 11, a.1 of de Veritate)
- Writings of Thomas Aquinas in Article Form at PhilosophersAnswer.com
- Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by Thomas Aquinas in .jpg and .tiff format.
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Mentioned in
- Thomism
- Thomas Aquinas, Saint
- thomist
- Albertus Magnus, Saint (German religious philosopher)
- Étienne Gilson
- scotist
- La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus‐Christ
- Daquin (family name)
- D'Aquino (family name)
- Lauda Sion
- Who were the great thinkers of Scholasticism? (history)
- Alexander of Hales (English philosopher)
- Innocent V (French pope)
- Corpus Christi (in Christianity)
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