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Aquinas (1225-1274)

[The following material includes the text of a lecture on Thomas delivered by TA Mike Bone in 1997.]

Contents

Life and Works
Life Stories and Character (Ciccarelli biographical notes)
Thomas's Achievement and Relevance [Bone]
Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology [Bone]
The Summa Theologica [Bone]
Sacramental Basis of Aquinas' Theology [Bone]
God Language [Bone]
Purpose of Humanity [Bone]
Five Ways [Bone]
Ciccarelli Creation: Angela and the Role-Playing Game

Life and Works

To see a statue of Thomas, click here. There are two more pictures of the Great Doctor here and here, and a picture of Naples, near where Thomas was born, here.

Life

c.1225: Born in Roccasecca near Monte Cassino, youngest son of Count Landolfo and Teodora of Aquino. Landolfo was a relative of the Emperor and the King of France.

1231: Sent to school at Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino, and destined by his parents for life as abbot there

1239-1244: Studied liberal arts Naples; encountered the works of Aristotle

1243: Tried to join Dominican Order (recently founded), because of his attraction to its ideal of an intellectual apostolate. His family strongly opposed this move, and held him prisoner for about 15-18 months at Roccasecca, to no avail. He eventually joined in April, 1244.

1245-1248: Studied in Paris with St. Albertus Magnus, who introduced him to Aristotle. Moved with Albertus in 1948 to the new Dominican school at Cologne.

1252: Lecturer at Dominican Convent of St. Jacques, and advanced study in theology at the University of Paris.

1256: Received the magistrate (equivalent of doctorate) in theology.

1257: First professorship at University of Paris begins, over the objections of some faculty members.

1259: Sent to Roman Province, where he taught at Anagni and Orvieto (1259-1265), at Santa Sabina and the Dominican School in Rome (1265-1267), and at Viterbo (1267-1269).

1269: Recalled to second professorship at University of Paris.

1272: Returned to Naples to set up a Dominican School, preached a famous set of vernacular sermons there, and worked hard on his Summa Theologiae.

March 7, 1274: Died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanuova, Italy, near his birth place, on his way to the Council of Lyons. His body is buried in Toulouse.

He was canonized by John XXII in 1323, and declared Doctor of the Church by Pius V in 1567.

Works

Thomas produced an immense number of writings, among the most important of which are:

• Summa Contra Gentiles, 1258-1264 (the autograph survives in the Vatican Museum), was a textbook for missionaries, and includes a defense of natural theology against Islamic philosophers.
• Summa Theologiae, 1265-1273, was left incomplete because a vision of a mystical sort convinced him that it was "a pile of straw"; he never wrote again.
• Expositions on Job, Psalms, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Matthew, John, Paul’s Epistles, Gospels. The work on the Gospels, particularly, display Thomas’s view of spirituality and theology.
• Expositions of Aristotle and other philosophers contain thomas’s philosophy.

Several parts of his writings were condemned by Tempier in 1277, by Dominican Archbishop Kilwardby in 1277, and by Archbishop Peckham in 1284. The Franciscans forbade study of his works for a while. In 1278, the General Chapter of Dominicans insisted that his teaching be used in all Dominican schools. Thomas’s writings were not studied with much fervor for many years leading up to Leo XIII’s bull Aeterni Patris (1879), which commended the Study of Aquinas to all students of theology, and led to a resurgence of interest.

Biographical Sources

K. Foster (see bibliography) comments that there are three sources of information on Thomas:

1) The minutes of his canonization enquiry (1319). Bartholomew of Capua is the most informative witness, a major source for biographical information on Thomas. He studied at Naples while Thomas was there, 1272-4. He is also named as an authority by Tocco.

2) Three Lives written by Dominicans (1318-1330): those of William Tocco (knew Thomas for about one year, around 1272-3 in Naples; Bernard Gui; and Peter Calo.

3) Fifteen chapters from the Dominican Tolomeo of Lucca's Historia Ecclesiastica (c. 1317). (He knew Thomas, but mostly depends upon information from Reginald of Priverno, Thomas' socius, who knew Thomas very well.)

Gui's Life (comparison with Tocco and Calo carefully footnoted), the canonization minutes, and the Tolomeo chapters are included in Foster's book.

Story of his "interment" in family estate

Bartholomew says that Thomas' father hoped he would become abbot of Monte Cassino. Thus, when Thomas chose the Dominicans, the family was not pleased. When it was discovered that this had happened, Thomas was "captured" by his brothers and held at the family estates of Montesangiovanni and Roccasecca against his will, apparently to get him to change his mind. How long he was at each place is not clear. There are several accounts of this. Here is a summary of Gui's account:

When Thomas' mother heard of Thomas' choice of the Dominican Order, she attempted to see him, but was frustrated by Dominicans who apparently doubted her motives. All 3 early biographies agree that her intentions were initially to encourage Thomas, rejoice with him, and only after she was repeatedly prevented from seeing Thomas did his mother become set against the idea of his being a Dominican. The Dominicans meanwhile have sent Thomas off to Rome and then Paris so that his mother will not find him. She, now angry, enlists the aid of her sons, asking them to stop Thomas and bring him to her. They, apparently with the "permission" of Frederick (Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily), "swoop down like bandits on their prey" (Gui) and carry him off to his mother at one of the family estates.

.The family hold Thomas for about l.5 years—there is some discrepancy as to when and how long Thomas was at each place—under a kind of house arrest. His situation is comfortable but he isn't allowed to leave. They repeatedly try to get him to remove his habit, but he resists so strongly "that, for fear of wounding him, they had to let him continue to wear it." His mother also works on him, but he doesn't waver. They even try ripping his habit to rags, to shame him into putting other clothes on, but he takes this "calmly" and "clings to his rags, unconquerable." He eventually gets a new habit from a Dominican who was allowed to visit, and who wore two habits in, leaving one for Thomas before leaving.

Meanwhile, Thomas used his time to study and the Dominicans send an appeal to Innocent the 4th. (Emperor Frederick has been excommunicated since 1239, and was at war with the Pope's allies in Central Italy). The Pope demands an inquiry and punishment. The Emperor's response is "favorable" so the brothers, for fear of scandal, let the matter drop.

The story draws to a close with a final attempt to sway Thomas by seduction. [Perhaps of interest with regard to his attitudes toward women; cf. Thomas' 3 wishes near his death, below.]

When this fails his mother comes around, feeling that she can't resist a prophesy made by a hermit before Thomas' birth to the effect that he would become famous as a member of the Order of Preachers. So his mother orders that Thomas' guard be relaxed, making possible his escape by a rope down the castle walls. The Dominicans, who had been "advised", were waiting for him to help him get away.

Tolomeo notes the abduction as occurring at the hand of Thomas' brother Reginald, a man with some standing at the court of Frederick. This brother was later put to death by Frederick. Gui records that, near his death, Thomas mentions to his socius Reginald that God had granted him 3 wishes: that his mind would never be perverted by the world/flesh; that he would never be lifted from the ranks of his Order to a position of high dignity in the Church; and that he might know what had become of Reginald's soul. Tolomeo does not mention any attempt at seduction or the mother's role in Thomas' escape. He also says that no Dominicans were allowed to visit.

Story about the "dumb ox"

Thomas studied with Albert the Great from 1245-52. He was probably in Paris from 1245-8, and then in Cologne from 1248-52 (the dates for each location are debated).

Gui reports he was an ardent student, and comments that "Thomas so studied to be quiet that his fellow students began to call him 'the dumb ox.' " But Thomas soon showed them what he was made of. Once, after a lecture by Albert on Dionysius' Divine Names , another student offered to explain the session to Thomas, "not aware of his intellect." Thomas accepted this cheerfully & humbly, but when the other student hesitated during his explanation, Thomas "lucidly expounded the lecture with additions of his own." The student, much surprised, reported this to the Student Master, saying that Thomas' explanations were clearer than those of the Master. The Student Master, interested, arranged one day to overhear Thomas without being seen, and, agreeing with the student's assessment, told Albert about it.

About this same time, Thomas inadvertently dropped some notes he had made on one of Albert's disputations. These were shown to Albert, who was much impressed, and who let Thomas know that he is "on" to defend publicly at the next disputation. Thomas prepared carefully and did so well that Albert was moved to say: "Thomas, you seem to be not only discussing the question--which is your task--but deciding it too!"

Gui then writes: "the story goes that" Albert then exclaimed: "we call this lad a dumb ox, but I tell you that the whole world is going to hear his bellowing!" (Gui's Life c.9-10, in Foster).

On Thomas’ habit of prayer, belief in inspiration

Gui and Tocco both report that Thomas' habit of prayer was "extraordinarily developed."

Tocco records a comment made by Reginald (Thomas' socius ) just after Thomas' death, that

always, before he studied or disputed or lectured or wrote or dictated, he would pray from the heart, begging with tears to be shown the truth about the divine things that he had to investigate. . . . And when any difficulty arose he. . . had recourse to prayer, whereupon the matter would become wonderfully clear to him. Thus, in his soul, intellect and desire somehow contained each other, the two faculties freely serving one another in such a way that each in turn took the lead: his desire, through prayer, gained access to divine realities, which then the intellect, deeply apprehending, drew into a light which kindled to greater intensity the flame of love. (Foster, 70, n.44. The citation is from Tocco c.30)

Gui tells the following story:

Once, Thomas was puzzling for days over a passage from Isaiah, praying and fasting and asking God for understanding. Reginald then overhears his master speaking with someone at night. Soon afterward, he is called into Thomas' room to take dictation on the Isaiah passage for one hour, and then sent back to bed. But before he goes, Reginald begs Thomas to tell him with whom he was speaking. Thomas at first refuses, but finally says, "with tears running down his cheeks," that God had sent Peter and Paul, and these had told Thomas what he had desired to know. Reginald was told never to tell anyone this as long as Thomas lived.

Thomas stops writing near the end of his life

Gui and the Canonization Enquiry both comment on Thomas' behavior near the end of his life when he apparently abruptly stopped writing. He was, they note, working on the 3rd part of the Summa Theologiae.

Gui tells the following story. Thomas was praying in the church, observed by the sacristan. A voice from the crucifix said: "You have written well of me, Thomas; what do you desire as a reward for your labors?" Thomas replies: "Lord, only yourself." Gui then says that Thomas wrote little after this. (Gui, c. 23; cf c. 27)

During Thomas’ Canonization Enquiry, one of the witnesses—Lord Bartholomew of Capua, Chancellor to the King of Sicily—stated that something happened at Mass on the Feast of St. Nicholas (Foster: 6 December 1273) "which profoundly affected and altered" Thomas, and that after the Mass, "he refused to write or dictate" and "put away his writing materials." Reginald asked Thomas why, and Thomas replied that he cannot go on. When pressed by Reginald, who had begun to think that Thomas' hard work "might have affected his master's brain," Thomas answered: "Reginald, I cannot--because all that I have written seems to me so much straw." The Enquiry witness comments that soon after St. Nicholas' Day, Thomas went to visit a sister (Countess of San Severino) to whom he was very close, and who was disturbed on seeing her brother in such a "dazed" state. They repeat the occurrence of the "straw" statement here: Reginald, surprised at Thomas' behavior, follows him to the Countess estate, and questions him about why he is not writing, and receives the same answer about "so much straw." (Can. Enq. 79)

Gui also mentions the visit to the sister, and comments further about Thomas' physical condition. He says Thomas not infrequently during this period fell into a "trance," and that the trance at the Countess' home lasted longer than any prior incident, such that Reginald had to question him multiple times and "tug violently at his cloak" before he could get any reply from Thomas. He also notes that Thomas was "insensitive to pain" during this period. He did not, for example, seem to feel a leg cautery, and one night, while dictating comment on Boethius' De Trinitate to Reginald, the candle burned down to Thomas' fingers without him noticing. (Gui, c. 27-28)

Thomas' preaching and intelligence

Gui reports that Thomas' preaching was powerful and moving, and always in the vernacular, without "far-fetched reasoning or in the sort of language that serves rather to tickle the curiousity of a congregation than do it any real good." He also notes that Thomas told his pupils that he had never read a book that he hadn't thoroughly understood. Gui comments further that his memory was such that he never forgot what he had once read. According to Reginald, he used to dictate to three and occasionally four secretaries on different subjects at the same time, speaking fluently, "never seeming to search."

Physical Appearance

Gui says he was tall and stout, with a healthy complexion "in color like ripe wheat," and a large, somewhat balding head "with a full development of the organs that minister to reason."

Sources for this Report

Foster, Kenelm, ed. and trans. The Life of Saint Thomas Aquinas: Biographical Documents.

Thomas's Achievement and Relevance

The Summa Theologica was written as a theology textbook for preachers. Thomas was constantly getting memos from the chapter house to convince his students of the importance of studying theology. He had to convince them that preaching was based on theology.

• Without a systematic understanding of theology, there is no framework for integrating our growing knowledge. This usually results in preachers who are blown about by every wind of doctrine or of pop psychology or of pop theology that comes down the pike. So you have preachers telling their congregation it is important to care what happens to people a thousand miles a way without being able to tell them why.
• Without a systematic understanding of theology, there is no vision. A stable, coherent vision is a grace gift from God, but it does not come apart from hard work. Karl Rahner’s mature theological vision is one of the most beautiful you will ever encounter, but it came through a process of hard work in part on the writings of Thomas Aquinas. So where there is no systematic understanding of theology, there is no vision, and where there is no vision, the people perish.

The Middle Ages saw a resurgence of confidence in reason, of increasing dependence on the philosophical point of view. For example, Anselm used reason to find independent ways to confirm faith. But in the twelfth century, when Aristotle’s physics and metaphysics were reintroduced to the Latin west, thinking people in the west encountered a system of thought that was totally independent of revelation and yet was powerfully effective in describing and explaining the world. Faced with an alternative and equally compelling system of explaining and describing the world, western philosophy attempted a grand synthesis between science and faith. Thomas Aquinas was not the only Medieval engaged in this project, but he is the best example of the courageous quest for harmony that is the task of every theologian.

Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology

Thomas's interest in synthesizing knowledge from both theology and philosophy led to a highly particular conception of the relation between the two.

• Philosophy is the handmaiden of theology and theology is queen of the sciences.
• Sharp distinction between reason and faith: the former is the realm of intellect and the latter is the realm of will.
• Distinction between natural and revealed theology, corresponding to general and special revelation, respectively.

Sources of general revelation are: observation of the way things are (a very common sense approach) and reason (while reason after the fall is deficient, it is not alien). Sources of special revelation are scripture and tradition (patristics), which provides normative interpretation of scripture.

Natural and revealed theology and the distinction between them can be defined as follows.

Natural theology: knowledge of theological matters obtained without recourse to the sources of special revelation.

Revealed theology: knowledge of theological matters obtained through the sources of special revelation.

In natural theology reason reigns supreme. In revealed theology, however, faith reigns supreme, but revelation must always be consistent with reason. In other words, reason working in natural theology cannot turn up anything that is inconsistent with faith.

To see this, consider two examples. First, Aquinas received from tradition the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo in the form given to it by Augustine, a form that necessitates a finite age for the universe. BUT Aristotle argued for a universe of infinite age. How to reconcile the two? Aquinas showed that the eternality of the universe is not an essential part of Aristotle’s view and claimed that reason cannot make the case either way. Thus, we must rely on revelation to clear things up for us.

As a second example, consider the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. We know God as One by reason, but we can only know God as Triune by revelation. Trinity is the paradigm for revealed truth.

The Summa Theologica

• neo-platonic scheme that all things emerge from and return to God.
• Part I begins with God as God is in Godself and moves to a description of God as creating and the creation God effects. Part II is Aquinas’ anthropology in which he describes humanity as on a journey to God. Finally, in Part III we have Christology and the sacraments as the basis of our return to God.
• From the mystery of creation by reason we can deduct the exitus-reditus structure, but reason cannot tell us how the reditus will be effected. Christology is a revealed truth

2. Middle-Scale Structure: Questio

The three parts of the Summa are divided into questions, with each question consisting of several articles. The entire Summa contains 612 questions and a total of 3120 articles (Catholic Encyclopedia article, p. 8).

Questio was a form of doing theology that developed in the movement from monastery (affective reading of Scripture) to University (more objective, exegetical reading of Scripture). The text read in this more objective raised questions. Theology texts then organized these questions as a way to systematize learning the material. The standard theology text prior to Aquinas was Peter Lombard’s Sentences a compendium of questions and answers for students of theology.

3. Small-Scale Structure: Five Steps

Thomas develops each article in five steps, as follows.

1. Central Issue (given as a title in most translations): "Whether…" (Utrum) This is an open question to be discussed frankly.

2. Arguments: Objections to the implied correct position. The answer is not immediately given. Objecta meant "to throw in front of." These objections reflect contemporary positions and Thomas always tries to treat them fairly.

3. "On the other hand" (Sed contra): this is a gesture toward an alternative position, one usually recommended by an authority. It introduces Aquinas’ own position.

4. Body: "I answer that…" (Responsio) This is Aquinas’ answer to the question given in detail.

5. Replies to Objections: (Ad primum, ad secundum, etc.) These replies often further the argument found in the body.

Sacramental Basis of Aquinas' Theology

Creation itself is symbolic, for Thomas. Nature is open to God. Because all of creation is on a return to God, any part of it may become a vehicle for human rationality in its quest for the divine. "Nature is suffused with divine glory. Its sacramental character is why nature gives testimony to God. This sacramental character is the basic assumption of natural theology. All nature itself is always yearning toward God." (Wildman 10/8/96 lecture in TT704)

God Language

Thomas distinguished three ways of talking about God and the world based on three view of how God relates to creation.

Univocity: it is possible to say the same thing in the same way about both God and the world.

Equivocity: there is no relation between the sense in which something is said of God and the same thing is said of the world.

Analogy: what is said of God is analogous to what may be said of the world.

Univocity expresses a pantheistic relation of God to the world. It denies the distinction between general and special revelation and between natural and revealed theology.

Equivocity expresses the view that there is no congenial relation between God and the world. God forces a strange revelation upon nature.

Thomas argues in favor of the analogical interpretation of religious language and the relation between God and the world that it defines. This is a relation in which transcendence and immanence are balanced. It is important to ask, however, What controls analogical utterances about God, so that we are able to tell what we mean? thomas's answer is being. I interpret what I say of God as something like what I say of the world in respect of being.

For example, we might say that the goodness of Prof. Wildman is to the being of Prof. Wildman as the Goodness of God is to the Being of God. We understand our own goodness in relation to our essential nature, then we consider God’s essential nature and understand God’s goodness in relation to it.

Purpose of Humanity

Aristotle would determine a thing’s nature by examining a thing in terms of its four causes, with particular emphasis on the final cause. Aquinas followed Aristotle in this and, thus, defined human nature in terms of its final cause. According to Aristotle our final cause is to be rational, that is, to know things.

For Thomas, then, our purpose is to know, and specifically it is to know the reality that lies behind this realm of contingent things. Thus, the ultimate end of human being is to know God. It is very difficult to know God in the best of circumstances, however, and under the conditions of our existence it is impossible to reach that purpose for which we were made.

That presents a problem, since Aquinas asserted that God does not give beings their nature in order to frustrate them. Our capacity to know and love God must be fulfillable, and yet, we cannot fulfill that capacity in this life. How, then, did Aquinas resolve this problem? By speaking of our ultimate end in terms of the Beatific Vision: In the afterlife we will know God as God knows Godself according to our human capacity.

The Five Ways

Thomas's five ways are collectively referred to as the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. The strategy of this argument turns on the assumption that ultimate reality is discoverable through examining the way nature is. Thus, information about the world is important. In the cosmological argument we apply reason to our observations of the world in order to prove the existence of God. This argument is the quintessential example of Thomas Aquinas’ courageous quest for harmony.

1. Argument from motion (to an unmoved mover):

• everything set in motion is moved by something else
• but an actual infinity of movers and things moved is impossible
• thus, there must be an unmoved first mover (God)

2. Argument from efficient cause (to a first cause):

• nothing can be the cause of itself, but rather every event is caused
• an actual infinity of causes is impossible
• thus, there must be an uncaused first cause (God)

3. Argument from contingency (to a necessary being):

• some beings (contingent ones) come into existence and perish; they can be and not be
• there must have been a time when there were no such contingent beings
• but if there were a time with no such beings, then nothing would exist now, unless:
• there is a necessary being (God) that cannot not exist

4. Argument from degrees of perfection (to a perfect being):

• things vary in respect of qualities such as beauty or goodness, and we can compare them
• if comparative judgments are true, then there must be standard of comparison
• thus, there is a highest good or greatest beauty (God) that causes all goodness and beauty

5. Argument from design (to an intelligent, comprehensive final cause):

• the world is result of the purposeful behavior of a mass of individual things
• but they all work together in a harmonious whole that expresses intelligent design
• thus, there is an intelligent being (God) that designs and guides all things to their proper purposes (the ultimate final cause in Aristotle’s teleology)

Ciccarelli Creation: Angela and the Role-Playing Game (RPG)

Angela stared intently at the computer screen. She was playing Into the Real, a new RPG just out on the market, and was stuck on her first level. A strange screen had come up which displayed a field of grass crowded with flowers. Above it flashed a question: "Is the meadow smiling?" She had three choices: "Yes," "No," and "Sort of." Well, at least that was easy. Angela was good at taking a moderate position. She clicked on the "Sort of" icon and immediately a golden path opened up through the middle of the meadow and her character skipped down it. So far so good, she must have chosen correctly.

"Congratulations," the screen said. "You have just graduated to the next level. You are now a Junior Philosopher."

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