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Life’s Ultimate Questions “Aquinas”

Christopher Ullman, InstructorChristian Life College

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Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)• 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

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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

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Aquinas’ works and methods

• 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)

• “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

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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

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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 Intuitionismreason applied to nature, human nature

and supernatural truth

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The Major Scholastic Thinkers St. Anselm (1033-1109)

first to incorporate Aristotelian rationalism into Christian theology; rational proofs for existence of God in Monologium and Proslogium

Peter Abelard (1079-1142) 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.1100 - c.1160) Sentences, compilation of early theological

opinions, becomes central text of scholastic theological instruction

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The Major Scholastic Thinkers St. Albertus Magnus (1193/1206 - 1280)

from Averroes, introduces Aristotle’s treatises and method; his Summa theologiae disputes Averroes and reconciles Aristotle and Christianity

Roger Bacon (1212-1294) Franciscan, first great Scholastic empiricist

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) Franciscan, reconciles Aristotle with Augustine;

reason subservient to faith John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

Franciscan, greatest opponent of Thomism William of Occam (1285-1349)

Franciscan, scientific empiricist; disputed self-evident principles in Thomism, denying competence of reason re faith

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St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

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 ( ? - 1277), 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

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St. Thomas Aquinas Thomist Philosophy

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

1254-56) seven quaestiones disputatae (public debates

1256-72) commentaries on several of Aristotle’s works Summa contra Gentiles (1258-60) Summa theologica (1267-73)

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Scholastic Process

“Through doubting we come to inquiry, and through inquiry we perceive the truth.”

- Peter Abelard

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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

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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

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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

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Aquinas the Empiricist• Denial of innate ideas means that sensed

experience is the trigger or catalyst of all knowledge

A particular

thing

Sensed

Experience

Only then can my passive intellect

become aware of it

Only then can my active intellect analyze and categorize it as one of

many of a universal kind

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Knowing God

God is not perceived through the senses, but1. 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?

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Knowing GodGod is not perceived through the senses, but2. 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)

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Knowing God1. 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

2. Aquinas’ empiricism makes no place for innate ideas, so neither way is effective

3. Augustine’s emphasis on imago Dei makes the two ways usable

4. The starting point must be the divine nature, not human nature

FROM GOD

TO US

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What Happens After Death?

1. Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that the soul exists in union with the body, giving the body its “form”

2. He affirmed that the soul survived the death of the body, because God willed that it should

3. This stance requires a setting aside of • Aquinas’ empiricism • Aristotle’s soul-body union

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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

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Virtues: Guidance from the InsideCardinal 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

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Law: Guidance from the OutsideFour 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)

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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

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Some Tenets of Natural Law

1. Every created thing has a God-given nature2. The nature of humans is to love and obey God3. A thing’s nature should always be allowed to be

expressed4. Good is that which corresponds to a thing’s nature5. Good is to be done. Evil is to be avoided.6. 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

Why Aquinas Made a Difference

• He applied logic to a study of the world God created

• He had the faith and the courage to confront the culture in which he lived on its own terms

• He employed his mind to understand the teachings of the wise, and used those he believed corresponded to truth

• He realized the need for a comprehensive worldview, and built one with God at the center