Saint Thomas Aquinas - Italian Christian theologian and philosopher
Saint Thomas Aquinas, San Tommaso d'Aquino, also called Aquinas, was an Italian Dominican theologian, titled Doctor of Catholic Church, disciple of the great scholastic Albert the Great and main thinker of Scholasticism medievalInspired by the ideas of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas was based on Aristotelian realism.
Introduction of Aristotle in Medieval Philosophy
Catholicism grew and there was a need to form new priests, in addition to taking the foundations of Western civilization to all the peoples where Catholicism had arrived. For this, the Church encouraged the construction of the first hospitals, asylums, universities and schools. These institutions contained libraries that preserved Greek and Roman works against vandalism by barbarian and Islamic peoples after the fall of the Roman Empire. Saint Thomas rescued and introduced Aristotle to medieval philosophy. Earlier medieval currents were based on St. Augustine and Plato.
Rationalism claims that everything that exists has an intelligible cause, even if that cause cannot be demonstrated empirically, such as the cause of the origin of the Universe. It privileges reason to the detriment of the experience of the sensible world as a way of accessing knowledge. It also considers deduction as the superior method of philosophical investigation.
For the first time in history, Christian believers and theologians were confronted with the rigorous demands of scientific rationalism. New generations of men and women, including clerics, reacted against the traditional notion of contempt for the world and struggled to dominate the forces of nature through the use of reason. The structure of Aristotle's philosophy emphasized the primacy of intelligence. Technology has become a means of accessing the truth; mechanical arts were powers to humanize the cosmos.
Thus, the question of the relationship between general words like “red” and particular ones like “this red object” – which had dominated scholastic philosophy from the beginning was left behind, and a coherent metaphysics of knowledge and the world was developed.
Aristotelian-Thomist Philosophy or Thomism
The thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas originated in the context of the Quaestio disputata. Debate and argumentation in search of truth have always been encouraged by the Church, but at the time of Scholasticism it focused on understanding the value of faith and reason.
The great achievement of Thomas Aquinas and the basis of his thought is the union between faith and reason. As a student of classical philosophy, he was able to perceive the relationship between Aristotelian logic and Christian faith. Thus, he created a bridge between philosophy and theology.
The philosophy explored so far was that of Plato. On the one hand there were the dialecticians who defended the use of reason to explain everything, on the other there were the deists who wanted to consider only the Holy Scriptures as the only possible source of truth.
Saint Thomas knew that everything in the Holy Scriptures was true, but he also understood that God was merciful. Thus, people who did not know The Word could arrive at the basic concepts of faith by the correct use of reason. Even living years before Christ and in a polytheistic society, Aristotle developed a logical thought that pointed to the existence of a single supreme being, complete and prior to all. Therefore, faith and reason were reconcilable.
From then on, the time of Scholasticism was marked by the Aristotelian-Thomist Philosophy, or simply Thomism, due to the combination of elements of Aristotelian Philosophy and Christian Theology. It is from the Aristotelian concept of the First Immovable Engine that Saint Thomas develops his thought of proving the existence of God.
Differences between essence, substance and existence
The Greeks observed that there is an ideal of things formed by their essence. That's what makes them what they are. In order to exist, they believed that this essence must materialize, that is, assume a form that can be seen and touched, called substance.
However, St. Thomas adds the notion that substance does not define existence, it is only a possible consequence. He argues and develops the thought that the essence exists in itself, even without becoming physical. Otherwise our thoughts should be physical.
Thus, the concept of ontology is rescued, the philosophical part that studies the existence of being in any condition. For Aquinas, God is an example of an essence that does not depend on substance to exist.
In man there is not only a distinction between spirit and nature, but also an intrinsic homogeneity of the two. Aquinas found in Aristotle the necessary categories for the expression of this concept: the soul is the “form” of the body. For Aristotle, form is what makes a thing what it is; form and matter – what a thing is made of – are the two intrinsic causes that constitute each material thing. For Thomas, the body is matter and the soul is the form of man.
The two realities of nature: physis and logos
The logic of Aquinas' position on faith and reason required recognizing the fundamental consistency of the realities of nature. A physis (nature) has necessary laws; the recognition of this fact allows the construction of a science according to a logic (rational structure). Thomas thus avoided the temptation to sacralize the forces of nature through a naive recourse to the miraculous or to the Providence of God.
For him, a whole “supernatural” world that cast its shadow over things and men, in Romanesque art as well as in social customs, confused the imagination of men. Nature, discovered in its profane reality, must assume its own religious value and lead to God in more rational ways, but not simply as a shadow of the supernatural.
There was a fear of many that the authentic values of nature were not properly distinguished from the disordered inclinations of mind and heart. Traditionally inclined theologians staunchly resisted any form of deterministic philosophy which they believed would atrophy liberty, dissolve personal responsibility, destroy faith in Providence, and deny the notion of a gratuitous act of creation. Imbued with the doctrines of St. Augustine, they asserted the necessity and power of grace for a sin-torn nature. The optimism of the new theology about the religious value of nature scandalized them.
Though an Aristotelian, Aquinas was sure he could defend himself against an unorthodox interpretation of the “philosopher,” as Aristotle was known. Thomas maintained that human freedom could be defended as a rational thesis, assuming that the determinations are found in nature.
In his theology of Providence, he taught a continual creation, in which the creator's dependence on creative wisdom guarantees the reality of the order of nature. God sovereignly moves everything he creates; but the supreme government which he exercises over the universe is in accordance with the laws of a creative Providence which wants every being to act in accordance with its own nature.
How to reconcile faith and reason
Averroës, the outstanding representative of Arab philosophy in Spain, known as the great commentator and interpreter of Aristotle, had his works known by the Parisian masters. There seems to be no doubt about the Cordoba philosopher's Islamic faith; however, he claimed that the structure of religious knowledge was entirely heterogeneous to rational knowledge. The existence of two truths—one of faith, the other of reason—can ultimately be contradictory.
This dualism was denied by Muslim orthodoxy and even less acceptable to Christians. However, for Siger of Brabant, professor of philosophy at the University of Paris and one of the main representatives of the radical, or heterodox, school, the quality of exegesis and the totally rational bent of his thought began to attract disciples in the faculty of arts at the University from Paris.
According to St. Thomas, Siger was compromising not only orthodoxy but also the Christian interpretation of Aristotle. Aquinas found himself trapped between the tradition of Augustinian thought, now more emphatic than ever in its critique of Aristotle and the Averroists. Radical Averroism was condemned in 1270 and Thomas, who sanctioned the autonomy of reason over faith, was discredited.
In the course of this dispute, the very method of theology was questioned. According to Thomas Aquinas, reason is capable of operating within faith and even according to its own laws. The mystery of God is expressed and embodied in human language; it can thus become the object of an active, conscious and organized elaboration, in which the rules and structures of rational activity are integrated in the light of faith.
In the Aristotelian sense of the word, though not in the modern sense, theology is a "science"; it is knowledge that is rationally derived from propositions that are accepted as correct because they are revealed by God. The theologian accepts authority and faith as his starting point and then proceeds to conclusions using reason; the philosopher, on the other hand, relies only on the natural light of reason.
Reason, for St. Thomas, is a human capacity created by God. Therefore, when reason is well used, it manages to bring a person closer on the basis of faith. However, when philosophy tries to explain all points of faith or thinks that it alone can explain the whole world, it ends up being incomplete and results in errors.
Five ways to prove the existence of God
The five ways are reasonings that prove the existence of God using only reason. This thought is a causal regression, that is, it starts from a point and evaluates what came before it to cause it.
Drawing on Aristotle, we realize that the world is always in motion and that the purpose of this motion is to improve things. There is nothing in our reality that is absolutely immobile, even the reliefs change over the years. Therefore, only what is perfect can be immovable. From this, we can say that things exist in two forms at the same time:
Act - is what it is in the present, as it exists now.
Power - that's what it will become in the future.
Example:
The seed of a tree is a seed in act and a tree in potential. As much as at present we see only the seed, inside there is the entire component of a tree. If there are no harmful artificial things, naturally the seed will become a tree because that is its function.
Therefore, movement exists to transform potency into act. Then the seed becomes a tree, and the tree becomes the act. Bearing these concepts in mind, Saint Thomas elaborates the five ways:
1- The immobile motor - in the universe, all movement only exists because there is a cause: if the leaf falls, it is because of the wind. If it's windy, it's because the air has moved. If the air moved, it is because there was a pressure difference. If there was a difference in pressure, it is because the atoms in the air rearranged themselves and so on.
By logic, we arrive at the idea that there was a first thing that caused the first motion of the universe. That first motor can only be immobile, because if it were moved by someone, it would no longer be the first.
2- The first efficient cause - if the first cause is immobile and the movement only exists to improve, then the first cause is perfect. In common parlance, we say that something is efficient when it fulfills its function, so to be perfect is to be efficient. If it has fulfilled all the functions, all the potencies have already been realized, then it is also a pure act.
Here it is evident that St. Thomas sees God as the first immovable and efficient mover. This logical reasoning shows that the first being is omnipotent (it can do everything and only depends on itself) and omnipresent (it is present in everything and precedes everything), as Christian theology affirms.
3- To be necessary and to be possible - if we continue the reasoning, we see that the first being is necessary for all the others to exist, because it is an act with the various potencies. Therefore, there is the Necessary Being (it simply is and does not cease to be) and the possible beings (they may or may not exist, depending on the Necessary Being).
4- Degrees of perfection - in this part, we see an argument inspired by Plato and mixed with Aristotle. Saint Thomas ends up developing a reasoning of the hierarchy of things, depending on how much act and potency there is in them. The closer to God, the more act it will be because the less you have to perfect.arises hierarchy of creatures: God, angels, humans, animals, etc.
5- Supreme government - all this reasoning makes it clear that there is an order in the world, and rationality itself is a way of recognizing the order that already exists. This is very noticeable when we see the behavior of animals, the seasons, the causes of things. Each has a degree of order.
If we can create a machine that works neatly, it's because we have intelligence. And if we have intelligence, it is because there was a supreme Intelligence that ordained us that way.
Ethics, One Truth and Rights
In the field of ethics, Saint Thomas Aquinas defended that reason itself leads us to act in a virtuous way, as we observe that change only exists with the aim of improving. In this way, there is a Natural Law within our being that leads us to act this way, if we listen to it.
St. Thomas Aquinas, using the five ways to prove the existence of God, rationally arrives at the idea of the unique and absolute Truth. The first immovable mover is that which is pure act, therefore it contains and is the Truth. Therefore, it cannot be relative.
For Aquinas and Aristotle, man is a social and political animal. Hence the first natural form of human relationship, the family. In a second moment, families came together in order to help each other and form societies. On a third level, society organized itself into a State to facilitate mediation between them.
Therefore, the State was formed naturally, but it must exist subordinate to the family. It must serve and not be served, be controlled and not control, in addition to having the function of protecting natural laws. Thus, if most families have a well-established religion, morals and ethics, it is fair that the State reflects this.
The Summa Theologica and the Summa Against the Gentiles
As a theologian, in his two masterpieces, the Summa theologiae and the Summa contra gentiles, Thomas was responsible for the classical systematization of Latin theology. As a poet, he wrote some of the most beautiful Eucharistic hymns in the Catholic Church's liturgy. Although many modern Roman Catholic theologians do not find Saint Thomas entirely agreeable, he is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as its foremost Western philosopher and theologian.
The Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas' undisputed masterpiece, was written as a textbook for students of theology whose faith was already assumed. In it, Thomas Aquinas
makes a clear exposition of the principles of Catholicism, which were accepted by the Church and are still valid. It was written for the purpose of proving that human reason is not opposed to faith.
The Summa Against Gentiles was written as a systematic exposition and defense of Christian belief for the persuasion of unbelievers, and it ranks among the finest texts in the history of apologetics.
Context of Thomas Aquinas' Methodology
The literary form of Thomas Aquinas' works must be appreciated in the context of his methodology. He organized his teaching in the form of “questions”, in which critical research is presented by arguments for and against, according to the pedagogical system then in use in universities. The forms ranged from simple commentaries on official texts to written accounts of public disputes, which were significant events in medieval university life.
Oppositions to Thomas Aquinas
In 1277, the masters of Paris, the Church's highest theological jurisdiction, condemned a series of 219 propositions; Twelve of these propositions were theses of Thomas Aquinas.
This was the most serious condemnation possible in the Middle Ages; its repercussions were felt in the development of ideas. It produced for several centuries a certain unhealthy spiritualism that resisted the cosmic and anthropological realism of Thomas Aquinas.
Legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas
The biography of Thomas Aquinas is extremely simple; he narrates little, but a few modest trips during a career entirely dedicated to university life: in Paris, in the Roman Curia, again in Paris and in Naples. It would be a mistake, however, to judge that his life was just the quiet life of a professional teacher untouched by the social and political affairs of his day.
The drama that was going on in his mind and in his religious life found its causes and produced its effects in the university. In the young universities all the ingredients of a rapidly developing civilization were gathered, and to these universities the Christian church had deliberately and authoritatively entrusted its doctrine and spirit. In this environment, Tomás found the technical conditions to develop his work - not only the controversial occasions to launch it, but also the enveloping and penetrating spiritual environment necessary for it.
It is within the homogeneous contexts provided by this environment that it is possible today to discover the historical intelligibility of his work, just as they provided the climate for his fecundity at the moment of his birth.
Thomas Aquinas was canonized a saint in 1323, officially named Doctor of the Church in 1567, and proclaimed a protagonist of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis of the late 19th century. This continued praise, however, cannot exclude the historical difficulties he became involved in in the 13th century during a radical theological renewal - a renewal that was contested at the time and yet was brought about by the social, cultural and religious evolution of the West. . Thomas was at the center of the doctrinal crisis facing Christianity when the discovery of Greek science and culture, and the thought seemed about to crush him.
Biography
Saint Thomas Aquinaswas born in 1224/25, in Roccasecca, near Aquinas, Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of Sicily. His parents owned a modest feudal domain on a border constantly disputed by the emperor and pope. His father was of Lombard origin; his mother was of later invading Norman heritage. Its people were distinguished in the service of Emperor Frederick II during the civil war in southern Italy between papal and imperial forces.
Thomas was placed in the monastery of Monte Cassino near his home as oblate (offered as a prospective monk) when he was still a boy. In 1239, after nine years in this sanctuary of spiritual and cultural life, young Thomas was forced to return to his family when the emperor expelled the monks because they were too obedient to the pope.
He was sent to the University of Naples, where he first encountered the scientific and philosophical works that were being translated from Greek and Arabic. In this scenario, Thomas decided to join the Friars Preachers, or Dominicans, a new religious order founded 30 years ago, which departed from the traditional paternalistic form of government of the monks to the more democratic form of the mendicant friars and the monastic life of prayer and work. manual for a more active life of preaching and teaching.
However, it was in the city of Cologne, Germany, that Aquinas wrote his first works, being a disciple of the German bishop, philosopher and theologian Saint Albert the Great, known as Albert the Great.
The encounter between the gospel and the culture of his time formed the nerve center of Thomas' position and directed its development. His work is usually presented as the integration of Christian thought into Aristotelian philosophy , in competition with the integration of Platonic thought affected by the Church Fathers during the first 12 centuries of the Christian Era.
When Thomas Aquinas arrived at the University of Paris, the influx of Arab-Aristotelian science was arousing a strong reaction among believers, and several times ecclesiastical authorities tried to block the naturalism and rationalism that emanated from this philosophy and, according to many ecclesiastics, seducing the younger generations.
After obtaining a bachelor's degree, he received the licentia docendi (license to teach) in early 1256 and shortly thereafter completed the training necessary for the title and privileges of master. Thus, in the year 1256 he began to teach theology at one of the two Dominican schools incorporated into the University of Paris.
At Easter time in 1272, Thomas returned to Italy to establish a Dominican house of studies at the University of Naples. This move was undoubtedly made in response to a request from King Charles of Anjou, who was eager to revive the university.
In January 1274, Thomas Aquinas was personally summoned by Pope Gregory X to the second Council of Lyons, which was an attempt to repair the schism between the Latin and Greek churches. On the way he fell ill and stopped at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, where he died on 7 March.
No comments:
Post a Comment