Do the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas play any role in happens in the church to day? It seems that he was quite an influence in the Council of Trent.

-- Steven Schneider (Steven@schneider.net), October 03, 2003

Answers

You could read several books on this and I could write them... Short answer: Thomas Aquinas lived and wrote his books and commentaries on the Gospels in the 1200's. He died around 1273 (if memory serves). Later, the bishop of Paris issued a condemnation of several heretical positions being floated by the philosophers of the University of Paris and included among the condemned tracts some which seemed similar to Thomas' writings.

So for about a generation most people thought that Aquinas' work was heretical and so didn't spend much time or effort trying to study them much less teach and spread them. In the meanwhile philosophical and theological inquiry was diverted away from the Thomistic approach (which attempted a synthesis between Aristotelian philosophy and classical Christian theology), and into two other philosophical camps: rationalism and fideism - led by Duns Scotus and William of Ockham (both of whom were good guys, but who believed in the face of the Bishop's condemnation that whatever it was Thomas taught, it must be wrong...)

So the high middle ages led to modern times. The Black Plague hit Europe in the 13th century (along with the Mongol hordes which wiped out Christian civilizations in Russia, Poland, Germany, and Hungary). The plague wiped out one third of the populations in Europe, but around 80% of all clergy, bishops, priests, nuns, monks, etc - the "primary care givers".

Society never recovered from the loss of its "top" A-list people - the political and religious "systems" remained the same, but the people in them were of significantly lower quality. For example, Thomas took 12 years to become a doctor in the University system in the 1200s. By the 1500's, after war, plague, civil strife, etc. it took Martin Luther just 2 years to be declared a "doctor of theology"!

By the 1500's the Dominican order (of which Thomas was a member) had successfully proven that his writings were in no way heretical and indeed where the result of a genius of the highest degree...so much so that most "opponents" don't so much disprove his teachings as simply refuse to acknowledge it or dismiss it out of hand without even confronting his arguments.

Thomas it should be noted didn't start his arguments with scripture - he started them with logic and reason, and then at the end invoked scripture as the weakest argument. It was the modern philosophers like Renee Descartes and Locke who PRESUMED their first premises to be unassailable - without giving any reasons for us to accept them.

But he wasn't just a philosopher. Thomas was a theologian who wrote many impressive commentaries on the scripture and delivered many moving homilies on faith and reason. He also wrote many hymns which we still sing such as the "Panis Angelicus".

Thomas' work also ranged towards apologetics - with the Muslims! (Suma contra gentiles) which we would do well to re-read in our days when confronted with people who reject the New Testament and claim that Trinity and the Incarnation and divinity of Christ are impossible not from a theological point of view, but from their limited understanding of metaphysics and what is truly possible.

Since Trent and later confirmed at Vatican II and by the present pope, the works of Thomas were to be given pride of place among Catholic philosophy and theological students. Not that the Church accepts any one philosophical school over another... no it doesn't. But at the very least every priest should have been exposed to his style and method of thought as well as WHAT he thought!

You can see many references to Thomas in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, and there are many excellent translations of his works available on-line.

It is a pity that relatively few modern non-Catholic philosophers and theologians (to say nothing of the so-called "intellectuals") have been exposed to Aquinas' thought and writings. Catholics have never been as clever as the children of darkness in publishing and promoting our belief and the reasons for our faith.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), October 03, 2003.

I have a feeling that if the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas did play a greater role in the Church (to say nothing of the world) today, the Church and the world would be a better place. Have you read any Aquinas, Steven? I studied "A Tour of the Summa," by whom I forget, but it is a popular book for Aquinas devotees . . . I have a special devotion to St. Thomas . . .

-- Psyche +AMDG+ (psychicquill@yahoo.com), October 04, 2003.

Actually I have done some reading. Last spring I picked up a copy of the “Summa Theologiae A Concise Translation” by timothy McDermott. I am not all impressed with the Translation but it is still pretty good. I am now reading the Light of Faith. I would like to get some more books by or about Thomas.

-- Steven S (Steven@schneider.net), October 04, 2003.

Jmj

Steven, You can read the whole "Summa Theologica" here.

You can read most of the "Summa Contra Gentiles" here.

You can read the commentary on the Psalms (and other shorter works) here.

Finally, if you want to see an Internet page that has a phenomenal bibliography of the works of Aquinas translated into English, including more links to minor works than what I have provided above, click here.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), October 04, 2003.

That last link should have been to the top of the page.

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), October 04, 2003.

Thanks John. Great links!

-- Pat Delaney (pat@patdelaney.net), October 05, 2003.

First the apologists, then the racists.

The cult of bad breeders doesn't have an organizing principle.

-- Rita Hill of Earth (leouna@yahoo.com), October 05, 2003.

I have a simplified version of the summa because it's too complex for many to understand in its actual form, including me. St Thomas is a saint as well as, I don't know the exact word given, but something like a more important scholar, just like St Antony of Padua. His writings about angels and the classification is too, fascinating.

-- Abraham T (lijothengil@yahoo.com), October 06, 2003.

Rita I do not understand your post.

-- Steven Schneider (steven@schneider.net), October 06, 2003.

Abraham,

What simplified version of the Summa do you have.

SS

-- Steven Schneider (steven@schneider.net), October 06, 2003.

Dear Steven

I got the book from India. The book is named "A tour of the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas". It is written by Paul J Glenn. It is originally published by

Tan books and publishers inc P.O box 424 Rockford, Illinoois 61105 USA

The imprimatur is

Rev Fr Joseph E Ritter S.T.D Archbishop of St. Louis Sept 26, 1960

The Indian edition was published by

Theological publication in India St Peter's Seminary Malleswaram West Bangalore - 560 055 India

The book has very well provided a simplified version of the Summa. It is very good.

-- Abraham T (lijothengil@yahoo.com), October 06, 2003.

When one reads Thomas you immediately get the sense of being in the precence of someone who is SURE of himself, who has thought it all through, and who can therefore teach not as if for the first time, but as if for the one thousandth.

It also becomes clear that his thought is dense and complex: not a sound byte, eye candy sort of thought. It's a meat and potato type argument aranged in complex paragraphs. It forces you to read and re- read and keep many objects in mind at once....

It's also very different from the glib and superficial responses and arguments of the atheists and gentiles! They sound sure of themselves too - but with less reason because their argument is less dense and less cogent: it hangs in tatters, based half of emotion and imagination, half on sophistic reasoning which may work in one case but can't be evoked in another - no principle uniting their work as one whole.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), October 07, 2003.