Better to Illuminate than to ShineThe Life and Thought of the Dumb Ox, Angelic Doctor

and Common Teacher of the Catholic Faith – Thomas Aquinas

“Just as it is better to illuminatethan only to shine, so is it betterto pass on contemplated truthsto others than only to contemplate them.”

– Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 188, a. 6

The Thirteenth and Greatest of Centuries

VS

Cartoon in Los Angeles Times

“The astronomer and the physicist prove the same conclusion, namely,that the earth is round, but the astronomer does so through mathematics... but the physicistthrough a material consideration.”

- Summa Theologiae I, q. 1, a. 1

Roccasecca Castle

RomeMonteCassino

Naples

Pope

Emperor

LandolfoTheodora

Roccasecca Castle

Naples

Rome

Paris

Rome

Cologne

Albert the Great

Bonaventure

1248-1252

1245-12481252-12591268-1272

Orvieto 1261-1265

1265-1268

Naples 1272-1273

Thomas

The Dumb Ox

"when he was passing, the peasants in the fields left their labors and came near to look at him, full of admiration for a man of such corpulence and beauty."

Thomas’s famous… infamous handwriting

“The way to make him return to himself is always the same—someone pulls strongly on his cape.”

Death, Condemnation and Canonization

•“All that I have written seems to me as straw compared with what I have seen.”•Died on March 7, 1274, traveling to the Council of Lyon•Condemnations of 1277 (not papal)•Canonized in 1323

The Existence of God

What is the first thing we need to know?

Meaning of the God

• First Cause of Everything Else• Intelligent

The Necessary

Must there be something thatsimply is? Something that can neither come into nor go out of existence?

The Non-Necessary

Everything that is not necessaryrequires a cause in order to exist

The Non-Necessary

The non-necessary cannot be thecause of the non-necessary unless itItself has been caused to exist.

The Non-Necessary

The non-necessary must be ultimately caused by the necessary

One or Many?

The necessary causes the non-necessary. But is the necessaryone or many?

Plurality Needs a Cause

When two or more things arerelated to each other, there mustbe a cause above them that accountsfor their relation.

One First CauseThere is therefore one first cause.But is it material or immaterial,Intelligent or unintelligent?

ImmaterialMaterial things always involve amultiplicity of parts, but such Multiplicity requires cause.

IntelligentAn effect cannot be greater than its cause

Intelligence in the world, therefore in the first cause

Big Bang?

Too Easy

Aristotelian and Neo-platonic• Eternity of the world and immortality of the soul• Strong on logic and theory of knowledge• Evil is a privation• God is first agent, final end, and exemplar

Faith and Reason• Revelation is twofold• Natural to wish to understand one’s faith• Anti-fideism• Faith should not be defended with bad arguments• Theology employs philosophy for our benefit

Human Knowledge• Arises from sense experience of the world• Ideas are drawn out from by sense experience• No innate ideas• Sense different from reason

Nature and Creation• Distinguished from grace and redemption• A means by which we can know God• Inherently good• Attributing something to nature does not detract

from God’s glory

Thomism: From Then To Now

March of the Common Doctor

Thomism: From Then To Now

Council of Trent: 1545-1563

Thomism: From Then To Now

Doctor of the Church: 1567Augustine Jerome Ambrose Gregory the Great

Thomism: From Then To Now

Aeterni Patris Thomism to be - charter for taught to priests Thomist revival in seminary and

laity at university

Pope Leo XIII

Thomism: From Then To Now

Pope Pius X: Doctor Angelici

The capital theses in the philosophy of St. Thomas are not to be placed in the category of opinions capable of being debated one way or another, but are to be considered as the foundations upon which the whole science of natural and divine things is based; if such principles are once removed or in any way impaired, it must necessarily follow that students of the sacred sciences will ultimately fail to perceive so much as the meaning of the words in which the dogmas of divine revelation are proposed by the magistracy of the Church

Thomism: From Then To Now

Varieties of 20th Century Thomism

Existential Thomism

River Forest / Laval Thomism

Analytical Thomism

Scholastic Thomism

Are humans animals?How are humans different from angels?Do animals have souls?What do we share in common with inanimate matter?What do we share in common with plants?What do we share in common with animals?What is special about humans?Do animals have emotions?Are you your soul?