Saint Thomas Aquinas: Life and the Five Ways
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was born in Naples in 1225. He was destined to become abbot of Montecassino. He completed his initial studies at the University of Naples and then went to Paris where he met Saint Albert the Great and became his disciple. He went to Cologne where he completed his training and returned to Paris. He became the master of the papal curia, having to follow the Pope in his various travels. He returned to the University of Paris and died in 1274 on the way to the Council of Lyon. He is noted as a commentator on the works of Aristotle, a preacher, and an organizer of the religious order of Saint Thomas. His production includes commentaries, disputed issues, and Summas. The Summas were considered the great works of medieval theology and were presented as a large and orderly synthesis on a topic. The *Summa Contra Gentiles* is a mature work of apologetics which aims to defend the Christian religion, and the *Summa Theologica* was his main work, with the intention of providing beginner students a treaty to pick up all the great themes of knowledge.
The Five Ways
1st Way: Motion
It is true and evident from the senses that in this world some things are moved. But everything that is moved is moved by another. Therefore, if that which is moved is itself moved, it must be moved by another, and this by another. But this cannot proceed to infinity… Therefore, there is a need for a first mover that is not moved by anything, and everyone understands that this is God.
2nd Way: Efficient Cause
We see that in this sensitive world there is an order of efficient causes, but we do not see, nor can anything be, an efficient cause of itself, because otherwise it would be prior to itself, which is impossible. Now, it is not possible that the order of efficient causes can proceed *ad infinitum*… Then it is necessary to assume a first efficient cause, which all call God.
3rd Way: Contingency
We find things that are likely to exist and cease to exist, as some are generated and decay. But what has no chance of existing, at some point did not exist. Hence, if all things had that possibility of not existing, there would have never existed anything at all, and therefore not now, since what does not exist only begins to exist by virtue of something that already exists. But since there now is something, it is that not all things are possible to exist and not exist, that something should be necessary, and this, ultimately, is God.
4th Way: Degrees of Perfection
We found things in this world that are more or less good, more or less true, more or less noble, and other qualities as well. But the more and the less are said of different things according to their different proximity to what is highest in that order. So there must be something that is optimal, noble, true and therefore maximally being. And what is highest in a genus is the cause of everything that is contained under that genus, there must be a supreme cause of goodness, truth, nobility and other qualities of the sort, and this is God.
5th Way: Governance of the World (Teleological Argument)
We see that some things that lack knowledge, that is, natural bodies, act with intent to an end… However, things that are not aware do not tend to an end if they are not directed by someone knowing and intelligent. Then there is some intelligent being who directs all natural things to an end, which is what we call God.