Thomas Aquinas on Faith, Reason, and Natural Law
Thomas Aquinas on the Harmony of Faith and Reason
This text, belonging to Thomas Aquinas’s *Summa Contra Gentiles*, reflects Aquinas’s strong conviction that God is real and that everything in the world exists through God’s creation. Because God is the author of the world, reason and faith are intertwined. The text deals with this concept, arguing that truths inspired by natural reason are not contrary to the truths of faith. Thus, the whole of innate reason is evidently true, just as what we receive from faith, confirmed by God, is true. What is obtained from divine revelation through faith cannot be contrary to natural knowledge. Aquinas emphasizes that God is the author of knowledge acquired by both natural means and divine wisdom, so these truths, created by God in their entirety, cannot be opposed.
Scholasticism and the Harmony of Faith and Reason
Theological schools were the birthplace of Scholasticism, a philosophical-theological movement that sought to harmonize faith and reason. This movement aimed to make divine revelation understandable. In this fragment, we see Aquinas explaining how he intends to harmonize faith and reason, striving to put them in harmony so that they do not disagree or conflict, because they are not contrary.
Scholasticism can be divided into three important moments:
- Patristic: Founded by St. Augustine, this is the beginning of the movement seeking to demonstrate God’s existence.
- Apogee: The moment when universities were created.
- Crisis of Scholasticism: The beginning of the separation between reason and faith.
In *Summa Contra Gentiles*, we can observe the moment of climax. Aquinas makes a reference to teachers with the fragment, “That’s right, which is infused by the soul of the student teacher has knowledge of the master, unless it teaches so fictitious, which is not permitted to speak of God.” This means that students or disciples have all or part of the knowledge of the teacher or teachers.
The student organizes all the knowledge that the teacher provides. However, this knowledge would not be transmitted if the teachers were teaching fictional facts, which would be unfair to say of God.
Aquinas’s Ethics: Natural Law, Eternal Law, and Positive Law
Natural Law
In Thomas Aquinas’s ethics, we see the concept of natural law. Among other things, it mentions that man is the only rational being and deduces the existence of a natural law. For man, these laws are norms of conduct according to his nature. Because man is a substance (*ousia*), he tends to maintain his own existence; being an animal, he tends to breed and care for his children; and being rational, he tends to know the truth and live in society. This natural law is clear, as it must be easily cognoscible; universal, because it is common to all men and all times; and unchangeable, because it remains constant without any change.
Positive Law and Eternal Law
Other laws discussed in Aquinas’s ethics are positive law and eternal (or divine) law. Positive law is a requirement of natural law, which, while not arbitrary, proceeds from nature itself. Positive law is an extension of natural law, as it implements standards for natural human relations. An important aspect of this law is that natural law must be respected by positive law, which sets the moral limits for organizing our lives.
Another of the great laws is the eternal or divine law, which states that the entire cosmos is orderly and dependent on God’s creative act. God’s creation is the eternal law, and it is the reason of divine wisdom as the guiding principle of all reality. This law governs everything from natural physical laws to the moral laws of man, who has free will (*albedrÃo*).
Summary of the Laws
In short:
- Eternal Law: The order established by God in the world through His creation.
- Natural Law: The realization of the eternal law or moral order in beings endowed with freedom.
- Positive Law: The fulfillment of natural moral law in the laws of the state.