1. Scholasticism St. Thomas Aquinas

2. Scholasticism System used by medieval intellectuals to apply reason or logical analysis to the Church's basic theological doctrines. Was the philosophical and theological system of medieval schools Humanists of the Renaissance and later, Protestant educators looked down on it.

3. Scholasticism Primary goal was to reconcile faith and reason to demonstrate that what was accepted on faith was in harmony with what could be learned by reason Up until the Renaissance, it became the instructional mode of the universities

4. How Scholasticism Emerged Influx of Aristotle's works into the west in the High Middle Ages confronted theologians with a new challenge: How to harmonize Christian revelation with the work of Aristotle Aristotle had arrived at his conclusions by rational thought, not revelation and some of his doctrines such as the mortality of the soul, directly contradicted the teachings of the Church

5. How the Scholastic method worked Method consisted of posing a question, presenting contradictory authorities on that question, and then arriving at conclusions.

6. St. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1275 Was the most famous in reconciling Aristotle with the doctrines of Christianity Summa Theologica: This masterpiece was organized according to the scholastic method Aquinas first posed a question, stated objections to it, and then replied to the objections In this fashion, Aquinas raised and discussed some 600 articles or issues.

7. St. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1275 In Thomas' time, any reasoning about the faith was a form of weakness and some believed that Aristotle was a dangerous influence and must be silenced. Thomas' doctrine that faith could not be endangered by reason gave freedom to thinkers to go on thinking

8. St. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1275 Natural truths: truths that anyone could know, for example that God exists Revealed truths: truths that can be known only through faith in God's revelation, for example, the Trinity Thomas maintained that natural and revealed truths simply could not contradict one another because God was ultimately the source of both.