Natural Reason in the Summa Contra Gentiles
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Bishop Robert Barron Recommended Books
BISHOP ROBERT BARRON’S Recommended Books 5 FAVORITE BOOKS of ALL TIME SUMMA THEOLOGIAE Thomas Aquinas THE DIVINE COMEDY Dante Alighieri THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN Thomas Merton MOBY DICK Herman Melville MACBETH William Shakespeare FAVORITE Systematic Theology BOOKS CLASSICAL: • Summa Theologiae St. Thomas • On the Trinity (De trinitate) St. Augustine • On First Principles (De principiis) Origen • Against the Heresies (Adversus haereses) Irenaeus • On the Development of Christian Doctrine John Henry Newman MODERN/CONTEMPORARY: • The Spirit of Catholicism Karl Adam • Catholicism Henri de Lubac • Glory of the Lord, Theodrama, Theologic Hans Urs von Balthasar • Hearers of the Word Karl Rahner • Insight Bernard Lonergan • Introduction to Christianity Joseph Ratzinger • God Matters Herbert McCabe FAVORITE Moral Theology BOOKS CLASSICAL: • Secunda pars of the Summa theologiae Thomas Aquinas • City of God St. Augustine • Rule of St. Benedict • Philokalia Maximus the Confessor et alia MODERN/CONTEMPORARY: • The Sources of Christian Ethics Servais Pinckaers • Ethics Dietrich von Hilldebrand • The Four Cardinal Virtues and Faith, Hope, and Love Josef Pieper • The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer • Sanctify Them in the Truth: Holiness Exemplified Stanley Hauerwas FAVORITE Biblical Theology BOOKS CLASSICAL: • Sermons Origen • Sermons and Commentary on Genesis and Ennarationes on the Psalms Augustine • Commentary on John, Catena Aurea, Commentary on Job, Commentary on Romans Thomas Aquinas • Commentary on the Song of Songs Bernard of Clairvaux • Parochial and Plain Sermons John Henry Newman MODERN/CONTEMPORARY: • Jesus and the Victory of God and The Resurrection of the Son of God N.T. Wright • The Joy of Being Wrong James Alison • The Theology of the Old Testament Walter Brueggemann • The Theology of Paul the Apostle James D.G. -
Alexander of Hales'stheology in His Authentic Texts (Commentary On
chapter 13 Alexander of Hales’s Theology in His Authentic Texts (Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Various Disputed Questions) Hubert Philipp Weber As the first teacher at the University of Paris to become a Franciscan friar, Alexander of Hales has an honoured place in the history of the order. The greater part of his theological work was already completed while he was a secular master. It is therefore more correct to call him an important theolo- gian who influenced Franciscan theology. However, it is not easy to distinguish what makes him a ‘Franciscan theologian’. I will begin by offering some his- torical remarks on his life and his authentic writings, most of which were discovered in the twentieth century. Then I will continue by giving an impres- sion of his thought with a few examples from his writings. The final sec- tion contains a very short outline of the Summa Universae Theologiae (also known as the Summa fratris Alexandri or Summa Halensis) connected with his name. 1 Historical Remarks: Alexander’s Life and Work We do not know very much about Alexander’s early life.1 His surname indicates his origin, Hales in Shropshire, England, where he was born around 1185. He stayed in contact with England all his life. In the first years of the thirteenth century he arrived at the University of Paris, where he studied and taught artes liberales. From about 1220 he lectured at the theological faculty. During the conflict between the university and the bishop of Paris in 1229/31 he went into exile. -
HNRS 2030 — Humanities Colloquium: Aristotle and Aquinas on Nature and Justice
“It has been well said of Aristotle, ‘Solet Aristoteles quaerere pugnam’; ‘Aristotle has a habit of seeking a fight.’ He is seeking a fight not because he loves fight and enmity but because he loves peace and friendship; but true peace and friendship can only be found in the truth.” Leo Strauss1 “It will not be possible to conceal much longer from anybody the fact that St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the great liberators of the human intellect…. Thomas was a very great man who reconciled religion with reason, who expanded it towards experimental science, who insisted that the senses were the windows of the soul and that the reason had a divine right to feed upon facts, and that it was the business of the Faith to digest the strong meat of the toughest and most practical of pagan philosophies” G.K. Chesterton2 HONORS 2030: Humanities Colloquium Aristotle and Aquinas: On Nature and Justice Spring 2019 Through study of the writings of Aristotle and Aquinas, we will seek to understand what nature is and how it can be known, and then to consider the implications for understanding human nature and the question of how to live a good life, individually and in community with others. Attending to the influence of modern science as well as to the rise of modern society, we will ask what is living and true in the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas, respectively, and what has been superseded by modern discoveries. Instructor: James Stoner Stubbs 214 (tel: 578-2538); e-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: M, 2:00-3:00, W, 1:30–3:30, and by appointment Books available for purchase: • Anthony Rizzi, The Science Before Science (Institute for Advanced Physics/AuthorHouse) [ISbN 9781418465049] • Richard McKeon, ed., Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library) [ISbN 9780375757990] • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (tr, Robert Bartlett & Susan Collins) (Chicago) [ISbN 9780226026756] • Thomas Aquinas, Summa of the Summa [ed. -
Theories and Images of Creation in Northern Europe in the Twelfth Century
Art History ISSN 0141-6790 Vol. 22 No. 1 March 1999 pp. 3-55 In the Beginning: Theories and images of creation in Northern Europe in the twelfth century Conrad Rudolph 'Logic has made me hated by the world!' So Peter Abelard thought and wrote to his former lover, the brilliant Heloise, in probably his last letter to her before his death in 1142, after having been virtually driven from Paris by Bernard of Clairvaux, the austere Cistercian mystic and perhaps the most powerful ecclesiastical politician of Western Europe.1 Characteristically for Abelard in matters of self-conception, he was exaggerating. Logic had made him hated not by the world but by only a portion of it. While this was certainly an influential portion and one that had almost succeeded in destroying him, it could never do so entirely. In fact, logic had made Abelard 'the Socrates of the Gauls, the great Plato of the West, our Aristotle ... the prince of scholars'2- and this, this great fame and the almost unprecedented influence that accompanied it, was as much the problem as logic was. In a word, Abelard had been caught up in the politics of theology. The time was one of great theological inquiry, challenging, as it did, the very authority of divine revelation on the most fundamental level, and at a moment when both interest in secular learning and the number of students were dramatically increasing - all factors that can hardly be over-emphasized. But for certain elements within the Church, more still was at stake. And this was nothing less than a perceived assault on one of the basic underpinnings of the complex relationship between religion, theology, society and political power. -
CTR EDITORIAL (1000 Words)
CTR n.s.16/2 (Spring 2019) 49–66 Sola Scriptura, the Fathers, and the Church: Arguments from the Lutheran Reformers Carl L. Beckwith Beeson Divinity School Samford University, Birmingham, AL I. INTRODUCTION I learned to show this reverence and respect only to those books of the scriptures that are now called canonical so that I most firmly believe that none of their authors erred in writing anything. And if I come upon something in those writings that seems contrary to the truth, I have no doubt that either the manuscript is defective or the translator did not follow what was said or that I did not understand it. I, however, read other authors in such a way that, no matter how much they excel in holiness and learning, I do not suppose that something is true by reason of the fact that they thought so, but because they were able to convince me either through those canonical authors or by plausible reason that it does not depart from the truth.1 Augustine to Jerome, Letter 82 Martin Luther and his reforming colleagues maintained that Scripture alone determines the articles of faith. All that the church believes, teaches, and confesses rests upon the authority of the canonical scriptures, upon the unique revelation of God himself through his prophets and apostles. Luther declares, “It will not do to make articles of faith out of 1Augustine, Letter 82.3 in Letters 1–99, trans. Roland Teske (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2001), 316. 50 Criswell Theological Review the holy Fathers’ words or works. -
“It Has Been Well Said of Aristotle, 'Solet Aristoteles Quaerere Pugnam
“It has been well said of Aristotle, ‘Solet Aristoteles quaerere pugnam’; ‘Aristotle has a habit of seeking a fight.’ He is seeking a fight not because he loves fight and enmity but because he loves peace and friendship; but true peace and friendship can only be found in the truth.” Leo Strauss1 “It will not be possible to conceal much longer from anybody the fact that St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the great liberators of the human intellect…. Thomas was a very great man who reconciled religion with reason, who expanded it towards experimental science, who insisted that the senses were the windows of the soul and that the reason had a divine right to feed upon facts, and that it was the business of the Faith to digest the strong meat of the toughest and most practical of pagan philosophies” G.K. Chesterton2 HONORS 3030: Humanities Colloquium Aristotle and Aquinas Spring 2013 Instructor: James Stoner Stubbs 240 (tel: 578-2538; e-mail: [email protected]) Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30-3:00 p.m., Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:00-10:00 a.m., and by appointment (call 578-2142) Course requirements: • Attendance at every class and participation in class discussion [15%] • Four 400-word essays on the reading, two on Aristotle, two on Aquinas [20%] • Two take-home exams, one each on Aristotle & Aquinas (Mar. 8 & Apr. 19) [30%] • Topic for final paper (due March 27) • Class presentation on final paper (during April) [5%] • Ten-page paper on modern-day Aristotelianism and/or Thomism, due Wednesday, May 8, 9:30 a.m. -
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel John F
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel John F. X. Knasas Suffering and Hope Conference University of St. Thomas November 10-13, 2005 I examine Jacques Maritain’s critique of a Thomistic explanation of suffering from his 1942 Marquette Aquinas Lecture, St. Thomas and the Problem of Evil.1 In sum, at Summa Theologiae I, 48, 2c, Aquinas argues that God permits evils for the perfection of the universe. Evils are the concomitant of corruptible things. And corruptible things belong to the perfection of the created order which requires every grade of goodness. Using the Biblical personage of Rachel, who has lost her children to the soldiers of King Herod, Maritain poignantly observes that Aquinas’ reason would never satisfy a mother suffering the loss of her child. What can be the value of the perfection of the universe in comparison to the loss of a young and innocent human being? And so, according to Maritain, one must balance 48, 2, with Summa Contra Gentiles III, 112, in which Aquinas describes the rational creature as a person.2 This description means that the rational creature is more like a whole than a part thereof. Hence, in the perspective of the human as person, Martian concludes that human suffering is “an utter anomaly”3 that is better understood as the unfortunate result of the rational creature’s free refusal of divine love, i.e., as a result of original sin. In my opinion, neither of Maritain’s two reasons hold. First, SCG III, 112, never ascribes to humans the exalted sense of person used by Maritain. -
Durham Research Online
Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 05 September 2017 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Van Nieuwenhove, Rik (2017) 'Contemplation, intellectus, and simplex intuitus in Aquinas : recovering a Neoplatonic theme.', American Catholic philosophical quarterly., 91 (2). pp. 199-225. Further information on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq2017227108 Publisher's copyright statement: Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk Contemplation, intellectus and simplex intuitus in Aquinas: Recovering a Neoplatonic Theme.1 Rik Van Nieuwenhove Abstract. This contribution examines two related points in relation to Aquinas’s understanding of contemplation (a sorely neglected topic in scholarship). First, (a) after having outlined that the final act of contemplation culminates in an intellective (or non- discursive), simple apprehension of the truth (especially divine truth) I will examine how this act relates to the three operations of the intellect (grasping of quiddity; judgement; reasoning) Aquinas identifies in a number of places. -
SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES by Thomas Aquinas (Selections)
Summa Contra Gentiles - Aquinas SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES derstanding cannot go so far of its natural power as to grasp by Thomas Aquinas His substance, since under the conditions of the present life the knowledge of our understanding commences with (selections) sense; and therefore objects beyond sense cannot be grasped by human understanding except so far as knowledge is gathered of them through the senses. But things of sense I, 3 That the Truths which we confess concerning God fall cannot lead our understanding to read in them the essence under two Modes or Categories of the Divine Substance, inasmuch as they are effects inade- BECAUSE not every truth admits of the same mode of mani- quate to the power that caused them. Nevertheless our un- festation, and "a well-educated man will expect exactness in derstanding is thereby led to some knowledge of God, every class of subject, according as the nature of the thing namely, of His existence and of other attributes that must admits," as is very well remarked by the Philosopher (Eth. necessarily be attributed to the First Cause. There are, there- Nicom. I, 1094b), we must first show what mode of proof is fore, some points of intelligibility in God, accessible to hu- possible for the truth that we have now before us. The truths man reason, and other points that altogether transcend the that we confess concerning God fall under two modes. Some power of human reason. things true of God are beyond all the competence of human The same thing may be understood from consideration of reason, as that God is Three and One. -
St.-Thomas-Aquinas-The-Summa-Contra-Gentiles.Pdf
The Catholic Primer’s Reference Series: OF GOD AND HIS CREATURES An Annotated Translation (With some Abridgement) of the SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES Of ST. THOMAS AQUINAS By JOSEPH RICKABY, S.J., Caution regarding printing: This document is over 721 pages in length, depending upon individual printer settings. The Catholic Primer Copyright Notice The contents of Of God and His Creatures: An Annotated Translation of The Summa Contra Gentiles of St Thomas Aquinas is in the public domain. However, this electronic version is copyrighted. © The Catholic Primer, 2005. All Rights Reserved. This electronic version may be distributed free of charge provided that the contents are not altered and this copyright notice is included with the distributed copy, provided that the following conditions are adhered to. This electronic document may not be offered in connection with any other document, product, promotion or other item that is sold, exchange for compensation of any type or manner, or used as a gift for contributions, including charitable contributions without the express consent of The Catholic Primer. Notwithstanding the preceding, if this product is transferred on CD-ROM, DVD, or other similar storage media, the transferor may charge for the cost of the media, reasonable shipping expenses, and may request, but not demand, an additional donation not to exceed US$25. Questions concerning this limited license should be directed to [email protected] . This document may not be distributed in print form without the prior consent of The Catholic Primer. Adobe®, Acrobat®, and Acrobat® Reader® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. -
1 the Summa Theologiae and the Reformed Traditions Christoph Schwöbel 1. Luther and Thomas Aquinas
The Summa Theologiae and the Reformed Traditions Christoph Schwöbel 1. Luther and Thomas Aquinas: A Conflict over Authority? On 10 December 1520 at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg, Martin Luther burned his copy of the papal bull Exsurge domine, issued by pope Leo X on 15 June of that year, demanding of Luther to retract 41 errors from his writings. The time for Luther to react obediently within 60 days had expired on that date. The book burning was a response to the burning of Luther’s works which his adversary Johannes Eck had staged in a number of cities. Johann Agricola, Luther’s student and president of the Paedagogium of the University, who had organized the event at the Elster Gate, also got hold of a copy of the books of canon law which was similarly committed to the flames. Following contemporary testimonies it is probable that Agricola had also tried to collect copies of works of scholastic theology for the burning, most notably the Summa Theologiae. However, the search proved unsuccessful and the Summa was not burned alongside the papal bull since the Wittenberg theologians – Martin Luther arguably among them – did not want to relinquish their copies.1 The event seems paradigmatic of the attitude of the early Protestant Reformers to the Summa and its author. In Luther’s writings we find relatively frequent references to Thomas Aquinas, although not exact quotations.2 With regard to the person of Thomas Luther could gleefully report on the girth of Thomas Aquinas, including the much-repeated story that he could eat a whole goose in one go and that a hole had to be cut into his table to allow him to sit at the table at all.3 At the same time Luther could also relate several times and in different contexts in his table talks how Thomas at the time of his death experienced such grave spiritual temptations that he could not hold out against the devil until he confounded him by embracing his Bible, saying: “I believe what is written in this book.”4 At least on some occasions Luther 1 Cf. -
The Alexandrian and the Cappadocian Fathers of the Church in the Writings of Thomas Aquinas
The Alexandrian and the Cappadocian Fathers of the Church in the writings of Thomas Aquinas Los Padres alejandrinos y capadocios en los escritos de Tomás de Aquino Leo J. Elders s.v.d. Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas Resumen: Santo Tomás considera que los escritos de los Padres están directamente relacionados con las Escrituras ya que fueron escritos bajo la influencia rectora del mismo Espíritu Santo. Existe, pues, una continuidad de pensamiento entre los Padres como re- presentantes de la autoridad de los Apóstoles y la Biblia. Por este motivo, sería bueno re- conocer cuán profundamente santo Tomás se inspira en el pensamiento de los Padres. En esta contribución presentaremos los temas principales dentro de los escritos de los Padres Alejandrinos y Capadocios que han influido en el propio pensamiento de santo Tomás. Palabras clave: Atanasio de Alejandría, Cirilo de Alejandría, Basilio Magno, Gre- gorio Nacianceno, Gregorio de Nisa, Tomás de Aquino. Abstract: St. Thomas considers the writings of the Fathers as directly related to Scrip- ture since these were composed under the guiding influence of the same Holy Spirit. There exists therefore a continuity of thought between the Fathers as representatives of the au- thority of the Apostles and the Bible.1 For this reason, one would do well to recognize how deeply St. Thomas draw upon the thought of the Fathers. In this contribution we will present the main themes within the writings of the Alexandrian and Cappadocian Fathers that have influenced St. Thomas’s own thought.2 Key words: Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Thomas Aquinas.