Saint Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican theologian and the foremost medieval Scholastic, known for his contributions to the classical systematization of Latin theology and his work on the metaphysics of personality, creation, and Providence. Born in a feudal domain, he was educated at the University of Naples and later joined the Friars Preachers (Franciscan friars) in Paris. His decision to join the Dominicans marked a liberating step beyond the monastic world and monastic spirituality.

Thomas's work was influenced by the evangelism of St. Francis of Assisi and the devotion to scholarship of St. Dominic. Dominic. When he arrived at the University of Paris, the influx of Arabian-Aristotelian science aroused a sharp reaction among believers, leading to church authorities trying to block naturalism and rationalism emanating from this philosophy. However, Thomas did not fear these new ideas and, like his master Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, studied the works of Aristotle and eventually lectured publicly on them.

Thomas's work is often seen as the integration of Aristotelian philosophy into Christian thought, in competition with the integration of Platonic thought effected by the Fathers of the Church during the first 12 centuries of the Christian Era. However, it should also be argued that Thomas's work accomplished an evangelical awakening to the need for cultural and spiritual renewal not only in the lives of individual men but also throughout the church.

In 1248, Christian believers and theologians faced the rigorous demands of scientific rationalism for the first time in history. Technological progress required men to transition from an agrarian society to an urban society with a market economy and a profound sense of community. New generations of people, including clerics, were striving for mastery over nature through reason. Aristotle's philosophy emphasized the primacy of intelligence, and technology became a means of access to truth. This led to a coherent metaphysics of knowledge and the world being developed.

In 1256, Thomas Aquinas left Paris with Albertus to assume direction of the new faculty established by the Dominicans at the convent in Cologne. He returned to Paris to prepare for the degree of master of theology and began teaching theology in one of the two Dominican schools incorporated in the University of Paris. In 1259, Thomas was appointed theological adviser and lecturer to the papal Curia, then the center of Western humanism.

Averroës, an outstanding representative of Arabic philosophy in Spain, was known as the great commentator and interpreter of Aristotle. He asserted that the structure of religious knowledge was heterogeneous to rational knowledge, which was denied by Muslim orthodoxy and less acceptable to Christians. However, with the appearance of Siger de Brabant, the quality of Averroës's exegesis and rational bent attracted disciples in the faculty of arts at the University of Paris.

In this dispute, the method of theology was called into question. According to Aquinas, reason can operate within faith and yet according to its own laws. Theology is a "science" that is rationally derived from propositions revealed by God. Thomas was the first to view theology expressly or systematically, raising opposition in various quarters.

Thomas Aquinas, a prominent theologian in the 13th century, organized his teachings through "questions," which presented critical research through pro and con arguments. His works were divided into three categories: commentaries on official texts, disputed questions, and summae or personal syntheses. Aquinas believed that nature should assume its proper religious value and lead to God by more rational ways, not just as a shadow of the supernatural.

Naturalism, as opposed to a sacral vision of the world, was penetrating all realms, including spirituality, social customs, and political conduct. French poet Jean de Meun and Roman poet Ovid's Ars amatoria and De Deo amoris were influential in shaping this movement. Courtly love became a more prevalent element in the 13th century culture.

At the University of Bologna, Roman law was undergoing a revival, leading to a rigorous analysis of natural law and the replacement of traditional presentations of princes with treatises that described experimental and rational attempts at government. This led to a fear that the authentic values of nature would not be properly distinguished from disorderly inclinations of mind and heart. Traditional theologians resisted any form of determinist philosophy, believing it would atrophy liberty, dissolve personal responsibility, destroy faith in Providence, and deny the notion of a gratuitous act of creation.

Despite being an Aristotelian, Thomas Aquinas believed that human liberty could be defended as a rational thesis while admitting that determinations are found in nature. In his theology of Providence, he taught a continuous creation, where the dependence of the created on creative wisdom guarantees the reality of the order of nature. Man's freedom, far from being destroyed by his relationship to God, finds its foundation in this relationship.

In conclusion, Thomas Aquinas's teachings highlight the importance of understanding the fundamental consistency of nature and the role of rational reasoning in constructing a rational world.

In 1272, Thomas Aquinas returned to Italy to establish a Dominican house of studies at the University of Naples. This move was in response to King Charles of Anjou's request to revive the university. St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan friar and friend of Thomas, renewed his criticism of the Aristotelian current of thought, including Thomas' teachings. He criticized the thesis that philosophy is distinct from theology and the notion of a physical nature that has determined laws.

The disagreement was profound, as all Christian philosophers taught the distinction between matter and spirit. However, this distinction could only be intelligently held if the internal relationship between matter and spirit in individual human beings was sought. This led to intellectual and emotional differences between idealist and realist philosophers. Some viewed the material world as a physical and biological reality, while others saw the history of nature as a stage on which the history of spiritual persons is acted out, their culture developed, and their salvation or damnation determined.

Thomas, on the other hand, noted the inclusion of the history of nature in the history of the spirit and the importance of the history of spirit for the history of nature. He believed that man is situated ontologically at the juncture of two universes, and there is an intrinsic homogeneity of the two. Aristotle provided Aquinas with the categories necessary for the expression of this concept: the soul is the "form" of the body.

In 1274, Pope Gregory X summoned Thomas to the second Council of Lyons to repair the schism between the Latin and Greek churches. On his way, he was stricken by illness and died at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova. In 1277, the masters of Paris condemned a series of 219 propositions, 12 of which were theses of Thomas. This was the most serious condemnation possible in the Middle Ages, resulting in a certain unhealthy spiritualism that resisted the cosmic and anthropological realism of Aquinas.

Thomas Aquinas was canonized a saint in 1323, officially named doctor of the church in 1567, and proclaimed the protagonist of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis at the end of the 19th century.