Thomas Aquinas inherently affirmed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Born in Italy in 1225 to a noble family, Thomas was one of at least nine children. He was a highly educated man, beginning his education at the Abbey of Monte Cassino, moving on to the University of Naples. Thomas had a strong belief in God and aspired to prove God’s actuality. During his life, Aquinas produced numerous works on the subject the most notable being the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologica . He leaves us a legacy as a great theologian and philosopher, often compared to Aristotle. “Much of Thomas’s personal studies went into ‘exposition’, as he usually called it, of works of Aristotle. Having embarked on what would become the Summa Theological, he clearly found Aristotle’s De Anima very helpful in his own theological accounts of the soul.” (Kerr 27)
His life spanned forty-nine years and produced over an astonishing sixty works within that time. “Aquinas wrote tirelessly during most of his life, producing works that the faithful call inspired: De Principiis Naturae (On the Principle of Nature), De Ente et Essentia (On Being and Essence), and his commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics, Metaphysics, De Anima, and Nicomachean Ethics. His Summa contra Gentiles is a work of apologetics, and his greatest work, Summa Theologica, presents reasoned argument in favor of faith; within Roman Catholicism it is considered a near sacred text.” (Porter 62)
The Summa Contra Gentiles states “Accordingly we must first show that every agent, by its action, intends an end. “ (Pegis 429) Aquinas reaffirms what Aristotle had stated about the beginning of Metaphysic. Aquinas claims, truth is the end or purpose of the universe because the end of ...
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...th, being raised in the Catholic church I do believe in St. Thomas’ teaching, I have been taught them all my life.
Works Cited:
Kennedy, Daniel. "St. Thomas Aquinas." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 24 Jul. 2011 12 .
Kerr, Fergus. Thomas Aquinas: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009. 19, 27, 29 102. Print
Pegis, Anton C. Introduction to St. Thomas. New York, NY: Random House, 1948. 26-27, 429. Print.
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Aquinas, St. Thomas. COMMENTARY on SAINT PAUL'S EPISTLE to the GALATIANS. Trans. F. R. Larcher. Albany: Magi Books, 1996.
In the above essay, I analyzed Aquinas’s efficient cause argument and presented Russell’s objections to some of the claims that Aquinas made. I then showed how Russell’s objection failed based mainly on the fact that the first cause is something that is unchanging. This, in turn, supported Aquinas’s argument for the existence of God.
Aquinas’ argument has a couple of flaws in it. One is pointed out by Samuel Clarke, who says a whole series of dependant...
existence to those who could not accept or believe God on faith alone. Aquinas’ first way
Thomas Aquinas is a Saint and is a theologian who is proving the existence of God with his five different ways. Aquinas borrowed some of these arguments from Aristotle. The five ways are the proof from motion, the proof from causality, proof from possibility and necessity, proof from gradations, and the fifth way is the proof from governance.
Blessed Raymond of Capua. The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena . Trans. George Lamb. New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1960.
Being a devout Christian, Thomas Aquinas naturally believed in God, but he wanted to prove God's existence to those who could not accept things on faith alone. As a result he made five proofs, which he claims, prove the existence of God. With each proof there is always a beginning, a starting point, Aquinas claims it must be God that is the beginning of each. The first proof does not do complete justice to Aquinas’s claim that God exist, while the fifth proof could be used alone to prove Gods existence.
Emery, G. (2007). The Trinitarian Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas. New York, New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae, stated that, “Man should not seek to know what is above reason.” His argument was, in very simple terms, that men need reason to understand all of God’s truths. Yet there are certain truths that are beyond reason which men can only understand through Divine Revelation, or faith. And sometimes there might be certain aspects of faith that one day reason might have been able to prove but only a few men would know and understand this, so it is necessary that all men know this through Divine Revelation and faith.
Aquinas was born around 1225 in Roccasecca, which is located in Italy today. He was born right after the death of Francis of Assisi. Thomas was from an even richer family than Francis. Thomas had eight siblings, and was the youngest child. His family was low nobility. Before thomas’s birth his mother was told by a holy hermit that her son would achieve unequal sanctity. Following his fate...at the age of five he was sent to a monastery to preach the word of god. Thomas stayed at this monastery until age ten. Until political climate forced his return to Naples. Thomas spent his next five years finishing his education at Naples. Thomas started college at ten years old! Aquinas became drawn to religious learning. He also st...
Spoto, D. (2002). The Reluctant Saint: The life of Francis of Assisi. New York: Penguin Group.
Robson, Micheal. Saint Francis of Assisi: The Legend and the Life. London: Geoffrey Chappan, 1997.
Wippel, John. The Metaphyiscal Thought of Thomas Aquinas. (Washington, District of Columbia: The Catholic University of America Press, 2000). Print.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2001) Retrieved February 2, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm
Bainvel, Jean. The New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York City: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15006b.htm (accessed September 23, 2011).