Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas: Shaping Western Thought
Saint Augustine: Shaping Western Thought
Saint Augustine, a father of the Church, was highly influential. He gave Western thought its way of seeing the human world through a synthesis of two cultures. Born in North Africa, he was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy. He found in Manichaeism an explanation for the problem of evil (darkness and light). After a skeptical stage, he realized that only through the grace of Christ could humans overcome their passions and evil. Therefore, philosophy could only be considered in light of the Christian faith. This marked the moment of his conversion.
Augustine’s Philosophy of Truth
Truth exists and is the center of his thought. Truth is fundamental. No rational argument on language can prove its existence, nor can it disprove it. He identified two truths:
- Logical: Concerns sensible facts and unstable experiences.
- Intelligible: These have ideas about demonstrations with evidence.
Anthological: Eternity, perfection, and infinity are not redone. They are not sensitive because they are anthological, anything intelligible. As in theology, this matches the conception that ideas come from the mind, and from the external world. Knowledge is subject to these ideas. The soul gets divine illumination through external stimuli. God is truth.
Augustine’s Philosophy of History
Starting with this argument, there was no event that could be of importance to the true meaning of history. A determined number of God’s chosen ones progress towards a place where they will find the city of God and eternal reward. But the condemned, who have put their love in the world and themselves, as well as the values of the earthly city, will receive the prize of their virtues: eternal death.
Saint Anselm: Reason in Service of Faith
In the 11th century, advancements occurred in architecture and teaching. Saint Anselm represents this moment with his ontological argument. He sought to understand the reason for putting it at the service of faith. There are matters of faith that can be clarified and understood rationally. This is what happens with the existence of God, which can be thought of. To those who say there is no God, Saint Anselm argues in contradiction that there is something above our thought, unable to think of anything greater. In other words, there is a maximum in thinkable things. This clarifies that the greatest ideas that humans have been able to think of (eternity, infinity, perfection) exist, however, it does not accept that these ideas are also outside of the mind. Perfection has to already exist, otherwise, it would be essential and would not be perfect. Therefore, the maximum ideas have to really exist. In conclusion, what exists in the understanding exists in reality, and it is more important than an object that can be thought of.
Saint Thomas Aquinas: Reconciling Faith and Reason
Saint Thomas Aquinas utilized Aristotelianism (which is like the Platonism of Saint Augustine), which allowed him to reject the ideas of the Averroists from the same playing field. Saint Thomas starts from the Aristotelian notion that being (as a whole, everything that exists) manifests itself in several ways, depending on the “essence” of things. Accordingly, we must distinguish between a human and unlimited, simple existence, which would be the whole of what we say exists, and finite being, consisting of a part of our being. Things are finite beings that exist (part of being), but in them, being is the limit for the essence of each one.
The Nature of Being and God
The problem is that unlimited Being (which Saint Thomas considered infinite) can be confused with God, who is infinite. For this reason, Saint Thomas speaks of an unlimited being, created by God from nothing. God made life. Not every concrete thing, but being in general, produces the limits on actions. At the same time, these beings have God-like qualities, which let us know something about Him through analogous knowledge.
The Five Ways
The inductive process, based on immediate experience and retrospective, following the empiricist trend of Aristotle, was to characterize Platonic rationalism. From observation of the sensible world, one can prove the existence of God. This is how it develops in the famous Five Ways:
- Motion
- Causation
- Contingency
- Perfection
- Purpose
Let’s take the second way to learn how common it is to all: in nature, there are always effects that have their rationale in a previous cause, while it is also an effect of another cause. This string cannot be infinite; there must be a first cause, God.
The Convergence of Reason and Faith
Reason and faith come together from all sides: the relationship of unlimited being to God, analogous knowledge. Saint Thomas wanted to justify that reason and faith are two paths that converge into one truth. Saint Thomas said there is a double truth in theology and philosophy, and rational truth and revealed truth belong to different areas. Philosophy is based on reason; theology, in contrast, is based on revelation and should be accepted and understood.