1. Life’s Ultimate Questions “Aquinas”
Christopher Ullman, Instructor
Christian Life College

2. Thomas Aquinas ( )
Known as the greatest Christian medieval theologian-philosopher, he single-handedly stemmed the tide of Islamic Aristotelianism into Europe
His friends playfully called him “the dumb ox”
He produced over ninety works in a little over two decades
Summa Theologica
Summa Contra Gentiles
The Ways of God: For Meditation and Prayer
He stands at the top of the group of thinkers known as Scholastics
At age 48 he suddenly stopped writing
Maybe he suffered a brain hemorrhage
Maybe he had a vision that academic learning was not the most important thing
“All that I have written seems like straw to me,” he told a friend
A year later, he died on the road to a church council

3. Followers and Critics of Aquinas
Philosophers who follow Aquinas’ teachings are known as Thomists
Pope John Paul II (Fides et Ratio)
Etienne Gilson (The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy and The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas)
Norman Geisler (Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, and over 50 other books)
Catholic hospitals follow Aquinas’ ethics
Frances Schaeffer joins Ronald Nash in being a critic of some aspects of Aquinas’ philosophy
“In Aquinas’ view the will of man was fallen, but the intellect was not Out of this, as time passed, man’s intellect was seen as autonomous.” – Escape from Reason, p. 211

4. Aquinas’ works and methods
“The study of philosophy is not done in order to know what men have thought, but rather to know how truth herself stands.”
He was objective to a fault, and obsessively thorough in his analyses
Received truth wherever he found it
Believed that faith and reason can never conflict
His greatest works:
Summa Contra Gentiles (an apologetic refuting the influence of Islamic teachings in Europe)
Summa Theologica (a statement of Christian doctrine, in the light of Scripture, church tradition, and philosophy)

5. Aristotle, Averroes, and Aquinas
The Islamic philosopher Averroes (Ib’n Rushd) had tailored Aristotle’s teachings so that the beliefs in creation, the immortality of the soul, and the unity of truth were discarded
Averroes influenced many in Christian academia
Aquinas took on the task of studying Aristotle for himself, and building a Christian worldview to counter that of the Averroists

6. Scholasticism
the method and manner of dialectical philosophizing (question and answers) taught in the schools
the period from 9th century CE, when new schools arose in Europe to spread Patristic faith disciplined by dialectic methods of thinking
Christian Rationalism, as distinct from Augustinian Intuitionism
reason applied to nature, human nature and supernatural truth

7. The Major Scholastic Thinkers
St. Anselm ( )
first to incorporate Aristotelian rationalism into Christian theology; rational proofs for existence of God in Monologium and Proslogium
Peter Abelard ( )
Sic et non, collection of contradictory sayings from Scripture and Church Fathers, introduces method of resolving contradictions, lays foundation for scholastic method
Peter Lombard (c c.1160)
Sentences, compilation of early theological opinions, becomes central text of scholastic theological instruction

8. The Major Scholastic Thinkers
St. Albertus Magnus (1193/ )
from Averroes, introduces Aristotle’s treatises and method; his Summa theologiae disputes Averroes and reconciles Aristotle and Christianity
Roger Bacon ( )
Franciscan, first great Scholastic empiricist
St. Bonaventure ( )
Franciscan, reconciles Aristotle with Augustine; reason subservient to faith
John Duns Scotus ( )
Franciscan, greatest opponent of Thomism
William of Occam ( )
Franciscan, scientific empiricist; disputed self-evident principles in Thomism, denying competence of reason re faith

9. St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Century of Dispute
Italian, born near Naples
Dominican, student of Albertus Magnus, professor of theology at Paris, papal advisor
Century of Dispute
The 13th Century is torn between Augustinians who make truth a matter of faith and Averroists, led by Siger de Brabant ( ? ), who separate truth from faith
St. Thomas advances a middle ground
reason and faith constitute two harmonious realms
faith complements reason
reason has autonomy of its own

10. St. Thomas Aquinas Thomist Philosophy Aquinas’ Works
systematic application of Aristotelian methods and distinctions
repeated Avicenna’s position on Universals which becomes standard Scholastic view
Aquinas’ Works
Commentary of the Sentences (public lectures )
seven quaestiones disputatae (public debates )
commentaries on several of Aristotle’s works
Summa contra Gentiles ( )
Summa theologica ( )

11. Scholastic Process
“Through doubting we come to inquiry, and through inquiry we perceive the truth.”
- Peter Abelard

12. Knowing or Believing (the separation of reason and faith)
Knowing applies to the domain of reason
Any truth humans gain apart from divine revelation is acquired by the unaided light of the intellect
Philosophy, natural science, mathematics, psychology are examples
Believing applies to the domain of revelation
Truths of the faith are acquired by believing the authoritative word of God
Theology is the example
Knowledge of God is the one exception

13. The Five Ways (how philosophy can support the belief that God exists)
1. The Argument from Change to a Prime Mover
2. The Argument from Cause and Effect to a First Cause
3. The Argument from Contingent Beings to a Necessary Being
4. The Argument from Degrees of Perfection to a Perfect Being
5. The Argument from Design in the Cosmos to a Designer of the Cosmos

14. The Five Ways Summed Up
Logic is employed in each to show that the cosmos as we know it depends in different ways upon the existence of God
God is the sufficient answer to the “why” questions
God is the one necessary being upon which all the existences of all other beings depends logically
Only the existence of God can make sense of the facts of existence

15. Aquinas the Empiricist
Denial of innate ideas means that sensed experience is the trigger or catalyst of all knowledge
Only then can my passive intellect become aware of it
A particular thing
Sensed
Experience
Only then can my active intellect analyze and categorize it as one of many of a universal kind

16. Knowing God God is not perceived through the senses, but
We can know what God is not (the way of negation)
Focuses on God’s absence of limitations
The Jewish philosopher Maimonides also taught the way of negation
Arguments based on universal negatives (“No X is Y”) are always deductive (their conclusions are believed to be necessarily true)
Does the certainty of negative knowledge depend on some positive knowledge?
How can I say, “God is not ____,” if I have no idea of what God is?

17. Knowing God God is not perceived through the senses, but
We can know what God is like (the way of analogy)
Focuses on the similarities between particular things and God
Knowledge that X is similar to Y assumes that they share some attribute in common, and that each possesses some attribute the other does not
Arguments from analogy are always inductive (their conclusions are only probably true)
Since Aquinas believes we have no innate ideas, the way of analogy cannot escape the charges that
It depends on anthropomorphism (human nature is the point of reference: “God is like us”) or
It commits equivocation (a fallacy in which one term is used in two different ways)

18. Knowing God
The way of negation and the way of analogy are useful means of ascertaining who God is if and only if
We have innate ideas
One of those innate ideas is the idea that God exists
Aquinas’ empiricism makes no place for innate ideas, so neither way is effective
Augustine’s emphasis on imago Dei makes the two ways usable
The starting point must be the divine nature, not human nature
FROM GOD
TO US

19. What Happens After Death?
Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that the soul exists in union with the body, giving the body its “form”
He affirmed that the soul survived the death of the body, because God willed that it should
This stance requires a setting aside of
Aquinas’ empiricism
Aristotle’s soul-body union

20. What is the right thing to do? What is the right way to live?
Right is that which corresponds to a thing’s nature
It is our nature to seek happiness (fulfillment)
This is attainable only in heaven
Moving toward this good goal is the standard for judgment
We are capable of right acting and right living because of virtues and laws

21. Virtues: Guidance from the Inside
Cardinal virtues are part of the created nature of all humans and are knowable through reason
Aquinas affirms
Plato’s doctrine of four virtues (prudence, courage, temperance and justice) and
Aristotle’s doctrine of the golden mean (virtue is somewhere between the deficiency and the excess)
Theological virtues are attainable only by grace through faith
Faith: leads our minds to see truth and our wills to assent to truth
Hope: makes us willing to seek God’s help in attaining happiness
Love: is the divine gift that inclines us to seek God’s friendship

22. Law: Guidance from the Outside
Four different kinds of law
Eternal law: both moral and physical principles governing all of God’s creation
Natural law: the part of eternal law that applies to humans, knowable through reason
Human (positive) law: humans trying to make practical laws based on natural law
Divine law: God’s law knowable through the Bible
(Refer to Figure 7.2 on p. 185)

23. Natural Law
Aquinas takes insights present in Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics (such as Epictetus and Cicero)
He then sifts them through a Christian filter
The result is a powerful tool for coaxing non-Christians to an awareness of objective moral standards
Natural law shows up in our Declaration of Independence, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ethical positions of the Catholic Church

24. Some Tenets of Natural Law
Every created thing has a God-given nature
The nature of humans is to love and obey God
A thing’s nature should always be allowed to be expressed
Good is that which corresponds to a thing’s nature
Good is to be done. Evil is to be avoided.
The Principle of Double Effect: Every action has a good effect, and a bad effect
Weigh the good and the bad
Assess the motive of the action

25. Why Aquinas Made a Difference
He realized the need for a comprehensive worldview, and built one with God at the center
He had the faith and the courage to confront the culture in which he lived on its own terms
He applied logic to a study of the world God created
He employed his mind to understand the teachings of the wise, and used those he believed corresponded to truth