Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica) (1265–1274 (unfinished))
Vast systematic theology in question-and-article form, including the Five Ways and his account of law and virtue
Philosophy
Thomas Aquinas
1225–1274 · Italian (Kingdom of Sicily)
Scholasticism; Thomism
Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar, theologian and philosopher, the greatest figure of medieval scholasticism. He synthesised Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology, arguing that faith and reason cannot truly conflict. His Summa Theologiae, with its Five Ways of proving God's existence and its theory of natural law, remains the foundation of Thomism and official Catholic philosophy.
How to spot them
- ▸Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica) and Summa contra Gentiles
- ▸The Five Ways (quinque viae); natural law; essence and existence
- ▸The 'Angelic Doctor'; nicknamed the 'Dumb Ox'; pupil of Albertus Magnus
- ▸Called Aristotle 'the Philosopher' and Averroes 'the Commentator'
Key works
Summa contra Gentiles (c. 1259–1265)
Defence of Christian truth largely by natural reason, aimed at those who do not accept Scripture
On Being and Essence (De ente et essentia) (c. 1252–1256)
Early metaphysical treatise distinguishing a thing's essence from its existence
Disputed Questions on Truth (De veritate) (1256–1259)
Disputations from his Paris teaching, beginning with truth as the conformity of intellect and thing
Key ideas
- Faith and reason are complementary: reason can prove some truths (e.g. God's existence), while others (e.g. the Trinity) are known only through revelation
- The Five Ways argue for God from motion, efficient causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, and the goal-directed order of nature
- Natural law: humans participate in God's eternal law through reason, whose first precept is that good is to be done and evil avoided; he distinguished eternal, natural, human and divine law
- In creatures essence and existence are distinct; only in God are they identical
- Just war requires legitimate authority, a just cause and right intention; his discussion of killing in self-defence is the source of the doctrine of double effect
Quick-fire facts
- •Born at Roccasecca, near Aquino, in 1225; educated as a boy at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino
- •Joined the Dominicans against his family's wishes; his family held him captive for about a year to dissuade him
- •Studied under Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great) in Paris and Cologne; classmates nicknamed him the 'Dumb Ox'
- •In December 1273 he stopped writing, reportedly saying that all he had written seemed like straw compared with what he had seen
- •Died in 1274 at Fossanova Abbey while travelling to the Second Council of Lyon
- •Canonised in 1323 by Pope John XXII and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567; known as the 'Angelic Doctor' (Doctor Angelicus)
- •Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Aeterni Patris (1879) promoted Thomism as the basis of Catholic philosophy
- •He wrote hymns for the feast of Corpus Christi, including 'Pange lingua' (whose final verses form the 'Tantum ergo')
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Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Thomas Aquinas
- Anthony Kenny — A New History of Western Philosophy