Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was the greatest of the scholastics who lived from 1225-1274. Saint Thomas was born of a noble family near Monte Cassino. In Aquinas we come to the high point in the achievement of scholasticism. St. Thomas provided Christianity with a firm intellectual foundation. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas started with the authority of revealed faith, with whose truths we possess directly from God. All our thinking, if rightly done, merely confirms the truths of faith. There can be no opposition between faith and reason rightly understood. The western rediscovery of Aristotle. He used the works of Aristotle for system of Christian doctrine, a first revival of Greek learning. Joined Aristotle's system of nature with Christian theology, the function of Thomas was to make the transition from Plato to Aristotle as a philosophical instrument for Christian apologetics. Differed with Plato between natural and revealed theology. Reason should go as far as it can and revelation should then take over. Faith comes first, reason second; faith rules reason, but reason can perform the useful service of illuminating faith. Omnipotent God who is both loving and rational. Accepted Aristotle's argument for the existence of God on the ground that causation calls for a first cause and motion requires a prime mover and these are God.

Thomas delighted in the game of inventing arguments against accepted beliefs. Early bios state that he was visited by two angels, who girded him around the waist with a cord so tight that it waked him. He revealed this on his deathbed and said he was no longer tempted by the flesh after this. No theologian since Augustine has had so much influence on the Western church. Taking middle ground that faith and knowledge are mutually exclusive, reason can make faith plausible. Revelation illumines reason and reason elucidates revelation, they support each other. The active life is better than the contemplative, for in it one pours out the love he has received in contemplation.

Thomas taught that in principal Christianity is compatible with any form of government. As he was showing Thomas as the glories of the Vatican, the Pope remarked: "We cannot say with Peter of old, silver and gold have I none" Thomas replies: "Nor can we say, "Such as I give to thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."

According to St. Thomas it is proper to venerate Mary as the mother of Christ. He recognized slavery as morally justifiable and an economic necessity, quoting Aristotle in support. Thomas came out favorably for tolerance toward pagans and Jews but heresy is deserving not only excommunication but also death. Baptism without faith is of no value.

The completion of his Summa Theologica was the major turning point in 13th century thought. Thomas held that there was a sphere of natural reason and, above this, a region known by faith through revelation. A man hears from the Father when the good inspiration comes, he fails to learn when he rejects the inspiration. The highest perfection of a thing is that it should be subject to that which perfects it. Heretics - shut off from this world by death. he is likened to the sun, for he warmed the whole earth with the fire of his holiness. Wanting heresiarchs who openly said that, if the doctrine of St. Thomas could only be gotten rid of they could easily give battle to other catholic doctors, and overcome them, and so scatter the church.
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