St. Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Reason in Harmony
St. Thomas Aquinas: Harmonizing Faith and Reason
This fragment belongs to the first track, The Path of Movement, reflected in the work Summa Theologica. In this book, Thomas Aquinas explains the existence of God based on the need for a first mover. For a better understanding of the text, it is necessary to know some biographical data of the philosopher.
Early Life and Education
St. Thomas was born in Rocaseca Castle, near Naples, Italy, in 1225. He performed his early studies in the convent of Benedictine monks. He continued his studies at the University of Naples.
He met the Dominican fathers and wanted to enter the religious order, but his family objected. He was sent to Cologne, where he studied with the wisest Dominican: Albertus Magnus.
Academic Career and Major Works
He taught at the University of Paris and drew up his works there, such as Summa contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica, and the Commentaries, which covers Aristotelian topics.
Death and Legacy
He died at the monastery of Cistercian monks on his way to Lyon to attend the Council, in 1274, and was canonized 50 years after his death. His works are apologetic: they defend Christianity against the pagans (Averroists Latinos), such as Siger of Brabant. This work represents the harmony between philosophy and theology, between faith and reason.
Philosophical Context: From Neoplatonism to Scholasticism
Between the 6th and 13th centuries, Europe was dominated by Neoplatonic currents (Philo, Plotinus), whose greatest exponent was St. Augustine. Ideas later reopened Augustinian influence of Avicenna, containing concepts such as creation, metaphysical contingency, etc., and maintaining the subordination of philosophy to theology. According to Augustine, true philosophy is true religion: a knowledge of God.
In the 11th century, the problem of the relationship between reason and faith began to emerge, as the study of philosophy was sacrificing theological studies in place of the humanities. It is in the second half of this century when there is the historical development of theology. St. Augustine and St. Anselm made the phrase Credo ut intelligam, that one must believe to understand, and not understand to believe. Once you know God, you know the world. To know God, faith is necessary; God shines on you for knowledge and reason. Philosophy is used for theology; reason is subordinate to faith. St. Augustine’s ideas are those of the Fathers, the Fathers of the Church, which also include authors such as St. John Damascene.
The Influence of Islam and Aristotle
The expansion of Islam from the 7th century was a key factor in the areas of medieval culture and thought. Both Syrian and Greek works were translated into Arabic from Aristotle’s original commentaries, emerging a kind of Arabic Aristotelian philosophy, albeit with some Platonic remains. The head of this stream was Avicenna.
Averroism also gathered force in Latin, which defended the autonomy of reason against faith. Averroes wrote the first commentaries on Aristotle’s works without traces of Platonic ideas. Thus arose medieval Scholasticism, which is divided into three stages:
- Early Scholasticism (11th and 12th centuries): Peter Abelard and St. Anselm.
- High Scholasticism (13th century): St. Thomas Aquinas.
- Late Scholasticism (14th to 17th centuries): Suarez and Banez, among others.
Aquinas’s Synthesis of Faith and Reason
Given the distribution of the texts of Aristotle, there was an intellectual who received only the Aristotelian ideas that were similar or explaining their own thinking. Such was the case of Albert the Great and his disciple St. Thomas. The latter took some ideas of Aristotle and adapted them to Christian doctrine, though in some ways he distanced himself from the Scholastic thesis.
Thomas tried to build a system that would harmonize Christianity and Aristotelianism, achieving a balance between faith and reason. The merit of Thomism is precisely to maintain this harmony: faith and reason are distinguished without separation, are united without confusion. Neither faith is subordinate to reason, nor reason to faith, yet they live for one another in full agreement and harmony, enriching each other with the help provided. This thought is completely opposite to that of the Fathers and St. Augustine, who, as discussed above, believed that reason is subordinate to faith.