January 28, Catholics celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas, or, as we used to call it, Thomas Aquinas. His works, which combined Christian doctrines with the philosophy of Aristotle, were recognized by the church as one of the most justified and proven. Their author was considered the most religious of the philosophers of that period. He was the patron of Roman Catholic colleges and schools, universities and academies, and of course, theologians and apologists themselves. Such a custom has been preserved that schoolchildren and students pray before the passing of exams to the holy patron Saint Thomas Aquinas. By the way, the scientist was nicknamed “Angelic Doctor” because of his “power of thoughts”.
Biography: birth and study
Saint Thomas Aquinas was born in late January 1225 in the Italian city of Aquinas in a family of aristocrats. From early childhood, the boy liked talking with Franciscan monks, so his parents sent him to a monastery school to get elementary education, but then they really regretted it, since the young man liked the monastery life very much and did not like the lifestyle of Italian aristocrats. Then he went to study at the University of Naples, and from there he was going to Cologne to enter the theology department of the local university.
Difficulties in becoming
The Thomas brothers also did not like that their brother would become a monk, and they began to hold him hostage in their father’s palace so that he could not go to the servants of the Lord. After two years of retreat, he managed to escape to Cologne, then his dream was to study at the famous Sorbonne at the theological faculty. When he was 19 years old, he took the vow of the Order of the Dominicans and became one of them. After that, he went to Paris to fulfill his long-standing dream. In the student community of the French capital, the young Italian felt very constrained and was always silent, for which classmates nicknamed him the "Italian bull." Nevertheless, he shared his views with some of them, and already at that time it was obvious that Thomas Aquinas was speaking as a representative of the scholasticism.
Further success
After studying at the Sorbonne, having obtained academic degrees, he was assigned to the Dominican monastery of Saint-Jacques, where he was to conduct classes with novices. However, Thomas received a letter from Louis the Ninth himself, the French king, who urged him to return to the court and take the post of his personal secretary. Without a moment's delay he went to the courtyard. It was during this period that he began to study, which was later called the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas.
After some time, the General Council was convened in the city of Lyon with the aim of uniting the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. By order of Louis, Thomas Aquinas was to represent France on it. After receiving instructions from the king, the philosopher-monk went to Lyon, but he still could not get to him, because on the way he fell ill and was sent for treatment to the Cistercian Abbey near Rome.
It was within the walls of this abbey that the great scholar of his time, the luminary of the medieval scholasticism Thomas Aquinas, died. He was later counted as a saint. The works of Thomas Aquinas became the property of the Catholic Church, as well as the religious order of the Dominicans. His relics were transferred to a monastery in the French city of Toulouse and stored there.
Legends of Thomas Aquinas
In the history, various stories related to this saint have been preserved. According to one of them, once in the monastery at the hour of the meal, Thomas heard a voice from above, which told him that where he is now, that is, in the monastery, everyone is full, but in Italy the followers of Jesus are starving. It was familiar to him that he should go to Rome. He did so.
Thomas Aquinas Belt
According to other evidence, the family of Thomas Aquinas did not want their son and brother to become a Dominican. And then his brothers decided to deprive him of chastity, and for this purpose they wanted to commit meanness, they called a prostitute for his seduction. However, they did not succeed in seducing him: he grabbed a coal from the stove and, threatening them, drove the harlot out of the house. It is said that before this Thomas had a dream in which an angel girdled him with a belt of eternal chastity, granted by God. By the way, this belt is still stored today in the monastery complex of Chieri in the city of Piedmont. There is also a legend according to which the Lord asks Thomas what to reward him for his faithfulness, and he answers him: “Only You, Lord!”
Philosophical Views of Thomas Aquinas
The basic principle of his teaching is the harmony of reason and faith. Over the years, the philosopher scientist has been looking for evidence that God exists. He also prepared answers to objections to religious truths. His teaching was recognized by Catholicism "the only true and true." Thomas Aquinas was a representative of the theory of scholasticism. However, before moving on to an analysis of his teachings, let's look at what scholasticism is. What is it when it arose and who are its followers?
What is scholasticism
This is a religious philosophy that arose in the Middle Ages and combines theological and logical postulates. The term itself, translated from Greek, means "school", "scientist." Dogma scholasticism formed the basis for teaching in schools and universities of that time. The purpose of this teaching was to explain religious beliefs through theoretical conclusions. Sometimes these attempts resembled a kind of explosion of baseless efforts of logic in favor of fruitless reasoning. As a result, the authoritative dogmas of the scholastics were nothing more than persistent truths from the Holy Scriptures, namely the postulates of revelation.
Judging by its basis, scholasticism was a formal teaching, which consisted of the imposition of high-sounding reasoning, which were incompatible with practice and life. And so the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas was considered the pinnacle of scholasticism. Why? Yes, because his teaching was the most mature of all such.
Five proofs of God Thomas Aquinas
According to the theory of this great philosopher, one of the proofs of the existence of God is movement. Everything that moves today, someone or something was once powered. Thomas believed that the root cause of the whole movement is God, and this is the first proof of his existence.
He considered the second proof that not one of the existing living organisms can produce itself, which means that everything was originally produced by someone, that is, God.
The third proof is necessity. According to Thomas Aquinas, every thing has the possibility of both its real and potential being. If we assume that all things without exception are in potency, this will mean that nothing has arisen, because in order to switch from potential to actual, it is necessary that something or someone contribute to this, and this is God.
The fourth proof is the existence of degrees of being. Speaking of various degrees of perfection, people compare God with the most perfect. After all, only God is the most beautiful, the most noble, the most perfect. Among people there are none and cannot be, everyone has some kind of flaw.
Well, the last, fifth proof of the existence of God in the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas is the goal. Both rational and unreasonable creatures live in the world, however, regardless of this, the activities of both the first and second are expedient, which means that a rational creature rules everything.
Scholasticism - Thomas Aquinas philosophy
The Italian scientist and monk at the very beginning of his scientific work “Summa of Theology” writes that his teaching has three main directions.
- The first is God - the subject of philosophy that makes up general metaphysics.
- The second is the movement of all rational consciousnesses towards God. He calls this trend ethical philosophy.
- And the third is Jesus Christ, who appears as the path leading to God. According to Thomas Aquinas, this direction can be called the doctrine of salvation.
The meaning of philosophy
According to the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas, philosophy is a servant of theology. He attributes the same role to science as a whole. They (philosophy and science) exist in order to help people comprehend the truths of the Christian religion, because theology, although it is a self-sufficient science, but for the assimilation of some of its truths, it becomes necessary to use natural science and philosophical knowledge. That is why it should use philosophy and science for a lucid, visual and more convincing explanation of Christian doctrines to people.
The problem of universals
The scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas also includes the problem of universals. Here, his views coincided with the ideas of Ibn Sina. There are three types of universals in nature - in things themselves (in rebus), in the human mind and after things (post res). The first make up the essence of a thing.
In the case of the latter, the mind, through abstraction and through the active mind, extracts universals from certain things. Still others testify that universals exist after things. According to the formulation of Thomas, they are "mental universals."
However, there is a fourth type - universals that are in the divine mind and they exist before things (ante res). They are ideas. Hence, Thomas concludes that only God can be the root cause of everything that exists.
Artworks
The main scientific works of Thomas Aquinas are "The Sum of Theology" and "The Sum Against the Gentiles", which is also called the "Sum of Philosophy". He also penned such a scientific and philosophical work as "On the reign of sovereigns." The main feature of the philosophy of St. Thomas is Aristotelianism, because it bears traits such as life-affirming optimism in connection with the possibilities and significance of theoretical knowledge of the world.
Everything that exists in the world is presented as unity in diversity, and the individual and individual as the main values. Thomas did not consider his philosophical ideas to be original and claimed that his main goal was to accurately reproduce the main ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher - his teacher. Nevertheless, he clothed Aristotle’s thoughts in a modern medieval form, and so skillfully that he was able to raise his philosophy to the rank of independent teaching.
