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THOMAS [Thomas of AQUIN or AQUINO] AQ...
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In 1268 he was lecturing now in Rome and now in See also:Bologna, all the while engaged in the public business of the See also: No theologian See also:save Augustine has had an equal influence on the theological thought and See also:language of the Western Church, a fact which was strongly emphasized by See also:Leo XIII . (q.v.) in his Encyclical of See also:August 4, 1879, which directed the See also:clergy to take the teachings of Aquinas as the basis of their theological position . In 188o he was declared See also:patron of all See also:Roman See also:Catholic educational establishments . In a monastery at Naples, near the See also:cathedral of St See also:Januarius, is still shown a See also:cell in which he is said to have lived . The writings of Thomas are of great importance for philosophy as well as for theology, for by nature and education he is the spirit of See also:scholasticism incarnate . The principles on which his See also:system rested were these . He held that there were two See also:sources of knowledge—the mysteries of See also:Christian faith and the truths of human See also:reason . The distinction between these two was made emphatic by Aquinas, who is at pains, especially in his See also:treatise Contra Gentiles, to make it See also:plain that each is a distinct See also:fountain of knowledge, but that See also:revelation is the more important of the two . Revelation is a source of knowledge, rather than the manifestation in the See also:world of a divine life, and its chief characteristic is that it presents men with mysteries, which are to be believed even when they cannot be understood . Revelation is not Scripture alone, for Scripture taken by itself does not correspond exactly with his description; nor is it church tradition alone, for church tradition must so far See also:rest on Scripture . Revelation is a divine source of knowledge, of which Scripture and church tradition arc the channels; and he who would rightly understand theology must familiarize himself with Scripture, the teachings of the fathers, and the decisions of See also:councils, in such a way as to be able to make See also:part of himself, as it were, those channels along which this divine knowledge flowed . Aquinas's conception of reason is in some way parallel with his conception of revelation . Reason is in his See also:idea not the individual reason, but the fountain of natural truth, whose chief channels are the various systems of See also:heathen philosophy, and more especially the thoughts of See also:Plato and the methods of See also:Aristotle . Reason and revelation are See also:separate sources of knowledge; and See also:man can put himself in See also:possession of each, because he can bring himself into relation to the church on the one See also:hand, and the system of philosophy, or more strictly Aristotle, on the other . The conception will be made clearer when it is remembered that Aquinas, taught by the mysterious author of the writings of the pseudo-See also:Dionysius, who so marvellously influenced See also:medieval writers, sometimes spoke of a natural revelation, or of reason as a source of truths in themselves mysterious, and was always accustomed to say that reason as well as revelation contained two kinds of know-ledge . The first See also:kind See also:lay quite beyond the See also:power of man to receive it, the second was within man's reach . In reason, as in revelation, man can only attain to the See also:lower kind of knowledge; there is a higher kind which we may not See also:hope to reach . But while reason and revelation are two distinct sources of truths, the truths are not contradictory; for in the last resort they rest on one See also:absolute truth—they come from the one source of knowledge, See also:God, the Absolute One . Hence arises the compatibility of philosophy and theology which was the fundamental See also:axiom of scholasticism, and the possibility of a Summa Theologiae, which is a Summa Philosophiae as well . All the many writings of Thomas are preparatory to his great work the Summa Theologiae, and show us the progress of his mind training for this his life work . In the Summa Catholicae Fidei contra Gentiles he shows how a Christian theology is the sum and See also:crown of all See also:science . This work is in its See also:design apologetic, and is meant to bring within the range of Christian thought all that is of value in See also:Mahommedan science . He carefully establishes the See also:necessity of revelation as a source of knowledge, not merely because it See also:aids us in comprehending in a somewhat better way the truths already furnished by reason, as some of the Arabian philosophers and See also:Maimonides had acknowledged, but because it is the absolute source of our knowledge of the mysteries of the Christian faith; and then he See also:lays down the relations to be observed between reason and revelation, between philosophy and theology . This work, Contra Gentiles, may be taken as an elaborate exposition of the method of Aquinas . That method, however, implied a careful study and comprehension of the results which accrued to man from reason and revelation, and a thorough grasp of all that had been done by man in relation to those two sources of human knowledge; and so, in his preliminary writings, Thomas proceeds to See also:master the two provinces . The results of revelation he found in the See also:Holy Scriptures and in the writings of the fathers and the great theologians of the church; and his method was to proceed backwards . He began with See also:Peter of See also:Lombardy (who had reduced to theological order, in his famous See also:book on the Sentences, the various authoritative statements of the church upon See also:doctrine) in his In Quatuor Sententiarum P . Lombardi libros . Then came his deliverances upon undecided points in theology, in his XII . Quodlibeta Disputata, and his Quaestiones Disputatae . His See also:Galena Aurea next appeared, which, under the See also:form of a commentary on the Gospels, was really an exhaustive See also:summary of the theological teaching of the greatest of the church fathers . This See also:side of his preparation was finished by a See also:close study of Scripture, the results of which are contained in his commentaries, In omnes Epistolas Divi Apostoli Expositio, his Super Isaiam et Jeremiam, and his In Psalmos . Turning now to the other side, we have See also:evidence, not only from tradition but from his writings, that he was acquainted with Plato and the mystical Platonists; but he had the sagacity to perceive that Aristotle was the great representative of philosophy, and that his writings contained the best results and method which the natural reason had as yetattained to . Accordingly Aquinas prepared himself on this side by commentaries on Aristotle's De Inter pretatione, on his Posterior Analytics, on the See also:Metaphysics, the Physics, the De Anima, and on Aristotle's other psychological and See also:physical writings, each commentary having for its aim to lay hold of the material and grasp the method contained and employed in each treatise . Fortified by this exhaustive preparation, Aquinas began his Summa Theologiae, which he intended to be the sum of all known learning, arranged according to the best method, and subordinate to the dictates of the church . Practically it came to be the theological dicta of the church, explained according to the philosophy of Aristotle and his Arabian commentators . 
The Summa is divided into three great parts, which shortly may be said to treat of God, Man and the God-Man . The first and the second parts are wholly the work of Aquinas, but of the third part only the first ninety quaestiones are his; the rest of it was finished in accordance with his designs . The first book, after a See also:short introduction upon the nature of theology as understood by Aquinas, proceeds in 119 questions to discuss the nature; attributes and relations of God; and this is not done as in a See also:modern work on theology, but the questions raised in the physics of Aristotle find a See also:place alongside of the statements of Scripture, while all subjects in any way related to the central theme are brought into the discourse . The second part is divided into two, which are quoted as Prima Secundae and Secunda Secundae . This second part has often been described as ethic, but this is scarcely true . The subject is man, treated as Aristotle does, according to his T Xos, and so Aquinas discusses all the ethical, psychological and theological questions which arise; but any theological discussion upon man must be mainly ethical, and so a great proportion of the first part, and almost the whole of the second, has to do with ethical questions . In his ethical discussions (a full account of which is given under See also:ETHICS) Aquinas distinguishes theological from natural virtues and vices; the theological virtues are faith, hope and charity; the natural, See also:justice, prudence and the like . The theological virtues are founded on faith, in opposition to the natural, which are founded on reason; and as faith with Aquinas is always belief in a See also:pro-position, not See also:trust in a See also:personal Saviour, conformably with his idea that revelation is a new knowledge rather than a new life, the relation of unbelief to virtue is very strictly and narrowly laid down and enforced . The third part of the Summa is also divided into two parts, but by See also:accident rather than by design . Aquinas died ere he had finished his great work, and what has been added to See also:complete the See also:scheme is appended as a Supplementum Tertiae Partis . In this third part Aquinas discusses the See also:person, See also:office and work of See also:Christ, and had begun to discuss the sacraments, when See also:death put an end to his labours . The purely philosophical theories of Aquinas are explained in the See also:article SCHOLASTICISM . In connexion with the problem of universals, he held that the diversity of individuals depends on the quantitative See also:division of See also:matter (materia signata), and in this way he attracted the See also:criticism of the Scotists, who pointed out that this very matter is individual and determinate, and, therefore, itself requires explanation . In See also:general, Aquinas maintained in different senses the real existence of universals ante rem, in re and See also:post rem . The best modern edition of the See also:works of Aquinas is that prepared at the expense of Leo XIII . (Rome, 1882-1903) . The See also:Abbe See also:Migne published a very useful edition of the Summa Theologiae, in four 8vo vols., as an appendix to his Patrologiae Cursus Completus; See also:English See also:editions, J . Rickaby (London, 1872), J . M . See also:Ashley (London, 1888) . See Acta Sanct., vii . Martii; A . Touron, La See also:Vie de St Thomas d'Aquin, avec un expose de sa doctrine et de ses ouvrages (Paris, 1737); Karl See also:Werner, Der Heilige Thomas von Aquino (1858) ; and R . B . See also:Vaughan, St Thomas of Aquin, his Life and Labours (London, 1872) : other lives by P . Cavanagh (London, 189o) ; E . Desmousseaux de Giure (Paris, 1888); M . See also:Didot (See also:Louvain, 1894) . For the philosophy of Aquinas, see See also:Albert Stockl, Geschichte der Philosophie See also:des Mittelalters, ii.; B . See also:Haureau, De la philosophie scolastique, vol. ii.; J . See also:Frohschammer, See also:Die Philos. d . Th. von A . (See also:Leipzig, 1889) ; K . Prantl, Geschichte d . Logik, vol. iii.; C . M . See also:Schneider, Natur, Vernunft, Gott (See also:Regensburg, 1883), Das Wissen Gottes nach d . Lehre des Th. v . A . (4 vols . Regensburg, 1884-1886), Die socialistische Staatsidee beleuchtet durch Th. v . A . (See also:Paderborn, 1894) ; A . See also:Harnack, Hist. of See also:Dogma (trans . Wm . Gilchrist, London, 1899) ; See also:Ueberweg's See also:History of Philosophy, vol. i . See also H . C . O'See also:Neill, New Things and Old in St Thomas Aquinas (19o9), with See also:biography . (T . M . L.; J . M . |
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