Lifes Ultimate Questions Aquinas Christopher Ullman Instructor Christian

Life’s Ultimate Questions “Aquinas” Christopher Ullman, Instructor Christian Life College 1

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 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

Scholasticism l l l the method and manner of dialectical philosophizing (question and answers) taught in the schools the period from 9 th century CE, when new schools arose in Europe to spread Patristic faith disciplined by dialectic methods of thinking Christian Rationalism, as distinct from Augustinian Intuitionism l reason applied to nature, human nature and supernatural truth 6

The Major Scholastic Thinkers l St. Anselm (1033 -1109) l l Peter Abelard (1079 -1142) l l first to incorporate Aristotelian rationalism into Christian theology; rational proofs for existence of God in Monologium and Proslogium 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) l Sentences, compilation of early theological opinions, becomes central text of scholastic theological instruction 7

The Major Scholastic Thinkers l St. Albertus Magnus (1193/1206 - 1280) l l Roger Bacon (1212 -1294) l l Franciscan, reconciles Aristotle with Augustine; reason subservient to faith John Duns Scotus (1266 -1308) l l Franciscan, first great Scholastic empiricist St. Bonaventure (1221 -1274) l l from Averroes, introduces Aristotle’s treatises and method; his Summa theologiae disputes Averroes and reconciles Aristotle and Christianity Franciscan, greatest opponent of Thomism William of Occam (1285 -1349) l Franciscan, scientific empiricist; disputed selfevident principles in Thomism, denying competence of reason re faith 8

St. Thomas Aquinas l St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 -1274) l l l Century of Dispute l l Italian, born near Naples Dominican, student of Albertus Magnus, professor of theology at Paris, papal advisor The 13 th 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 l l l reason and faith constitute two harmonious realms faith complements reason has autonomy of its own 9

St. Thomas Aquinas l Thomist Philosophy l l l systematic application of Aristotelian methods and distinctions repeated Avicenna’s position on Universals which becomes standard Scholastic view Aquinas’ Works l l l 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) 10

Scholastic Process “Through doubting we come to inquiry, and through inquiry we perceive the truth. ” - Peter Abelard 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

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 15

Knowing God is not perceived through the senses, but 1. 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 16 is?

Knowing God is not perceived through the senses, but 2. 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) 17

Knowing God 1. 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 18

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 19

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 20

Virtues: Guidance from the Inside Cardinal 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 21

Law: Guidance from the Outside Four 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) 22

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 23

Some Tenets of Natural Law 1. 2. 3. Every created thing has a God-given nature The nature of humans is to love and obey God A thing’s nature should always be allowed to be expressed Good is that which corresponds to a thing’s nature Good is to be done. Evil is to be avoided. The Principle of Double Effect: Every action has a good effect, and a bad effect 4. 5. 6. • • Weigh the good and the bad Assess the motive of the action 24

Why Aquinas Made a Difference • He realized the need for a comprehensive worldview, and built one with God at the center • He had the faith and the courage to confront the culture in which he lived on its own terms • He applied logic to a • He employed his mind to study of understand the teachings of the world wise, and used those he God believed corresponded to truth created