Thomas Aquinas: A Very Brief History

By Brian Davies

Part One: The History (What do we know?)
This brief historical introduction to Aquinas assesses his impact on the world as it was at the time and outlines the key ideas and values connected with him. It explores the social, political and religious factors that formed the context of his life and writings, and considers how those factors affected the way he was initially received.

Part Two: The Legacy (Why does it matter?)
This second part surveys the intellectual and cultural ‘afterlife’ of Aquinas, exploring the ways in which his impact has lasted. Why does he continue to be so influential, and what aspects of his legacy are likely to endure beyond today and into the future?

The book has a brief chronology at the front plus a glossary of key terms and a list of further reading at the back.

Contents:

Preface
Chronology

Part One: The History

1. Who Was Aquinas?
2. Some Basic Words and Concepts
3. Why Believe in God?
4. What is God?
5. The Christian God
6. Human Beings

Part Two: The Legacy

7. From the Time of Aquinas to the Twenty-First Century
8. Thinking About Aquinas Today

Glossary of Key Terms
Notes
Further Reading
Index

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: Apr 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780281076123

Brian Davies

Part One: The History (What do we know?) This brief historical introduction to Aquinas assesses his impact on the world as it was at the time and outlines the key ideas and values connected with him. It explores the social, political and religious factors that formed the context of his life and writings, and considers how those factors affected the way he was initially received. Part Two: The Legacy (Why does it matter?) This second part surveys the intellectual and cultural ‘afterlife’ of Aquinas, exploring the ways in which his impact has lasted. Why does he continue to be so influential, and what aspects of his legacy are likely to endure beyond today and into the future? The book has a brief chronology at the front plus a glossary of key terms and a list of further reading at the back. Contents: Preface Chronology Part One: The History 1. Who Was Aquinas? 2. Some Basic Words and Concepts 3. Why Believe in God? 4. What is God? 5. The Christian God 6. Human Beings Part Two: The Legacy 7. From the Time of Aquinas to the Twenty-First Century 8. Thinking About Aquinas Today Glossary of Key Terms Notes Further Reading Index

Book preview

THOMAS

AQUINAS

First published in Great Britain in 2017

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

www.spck.org.uk

Copyright © Brian Davies 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the external website and email addresses included in this book are correct and up to date at the time of going to press. The author and publisher are not responsible for the content, quality or continuing accessibility of the sites.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978–0–281–07611–6

eBook ISBN 978–0–281–07612–3

Typeset by Manila Typesetting Company

First printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press

Subsequently digitally printed in Great Britain

eBook by Manila Typesetting Company

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

For Katherine and John Drummond in gratitude for their friendship

Contents

Preface

Chronology

Part 1

THE HISTORY

1 Who was Aquinas?

2 Some basic words and concepts

3 Why believe in God?

4 What is God?

5 The Christian God

6 Human beings

Part 2

THE LEGACY

7 From the time of Aquinas to the twenty-first century

8 Thinking about Aquinas today

Glossary of key terms

Notes

Further reading

Index

Preface

Volumes in the Very Brief Histories series are meant to provide concise introductions to major figures, movements or ideas. They are intended for readers approaching certain topics for the first time. In what follows I have aimed to abide by these requirements. Specifically, I have tried to introduce Aquinas to readers who have no previous know­ledge of him, of medieval thinking, or of academic philoso­phy and theology.

I begin with an account of Aquinas’s life and cast of mind. Then I explain his major teachings. Finally, I note how Aquinas has been received since his death while also offering some comments on his value and accessibility as an author to whom readers might turn today. Along with many others, I take Aquinas to be a fascinating writer with much of interest to impart when it comes to a range of philosophical and theological questions. I hope that readers of this book might end up broadly agreeing with me.

Aquinas is not easy to summarize. Though this book has to be short, I have however aimed to provide a solid account of his thinking. My hope is that readers will finish it having learned quite a lot about Aquinas and why one might take him seriously. I also hope to have said enough about Aquinas and his legacy to whet the appetite of anyone who might be prepared to go on to study them in some detail.

I am grateful to Philip Law of SPCK for inviting me to write this book and for encouraging me during its prepar-­ation. For advice during its composition, I am ­grateful to Christopher Arroyo, Kelsey Boor, James Claffey, Joseph Incandela, Paul Kucharski and Turner Nevitt. I also thank Joanne Hill for her careful work and helpful suggestions as my copy-editor for this book.

Chronology

Part 1

THE HISTORY

1

Who was Aquinas?

Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. In 1568 the Roman Catholic Church declared him to be a Doctor of the Church. His writings have also been influential among philosophers, few of whom would now deny that Aquinas deserves to be ranked among intellectual philosophical giants such as Plato (c. 427–c. 348 bc), René Descartes (1596–1650), Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951).

Aquinas’s life

Aquinas was an Italian born into an aristocratic family whose home was the castle of Roccasecca, between Rome and Naples. His baptismal name was Thomas. ‘Aquinas’ (de Aquino) was his family name. His birth took place around 1224–6.

When he was around five years of age his parents sent him to study at the Abbey of Monte Cassino, a Benedictine monastery founded by St Benedict himself (480–547). Here Aquinas was taught writing and grammar. He was also instructed in the Bible and the works of theologians such as St Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and St Gregory the Great (c. 540–604). We can assume that when Aquinas was a student at Monte Cassino, he must have impressed his teachers as someone with considerable talent.

In 1239 Aquinas left Monte Cassino to further his studies at what is now called the University of Naples Federico II. During this period Aquinas was introduced to the philoso­phy of Aristotle (384–322 bc), whose ideas came to influence him greatly.

Aquinas’s family seems to have hoped that he would eventually become Abbot of Monte Cassino. During his ­student time at Naples, however, he decided to join a new religious order: the Dominican friars founded by St Dominic Guzman (1170–1221). Aquinas became a Dominican in 1242 or 1243.

Like monks, Dominicans typically live in communities, their houses being usually referred to as priories. Unlike monks, however, Dominicans do not settle in only one place. They move from priory to priory while taking their chief job to be preaching. Since they think that the best preaching is the product of study and contemplation, they also often function in academic contexts, such as schools and universities, which accounts for the fact that Aquinas is now best known as a teacher and writer. At one point he asks what the best possible religious order would be. He replies: ‘Religious institutes dedicated to teaching and preaching have the highest place.’¹

Aquinas’s family objected to his becoming a Dominican. Indeed, they detained him for a year or so under a kind of house arrest. By the end of 1248, however, he had returned to his Dominican brethren and was living in Cologne, where he studied under the direction of St Albert the Great (1206–80), for whom he also acted as a secretary. By 1248 Albert was considered to be one of the Dominicans’ most illustrious academic stars, and we have transcripts in Aquinas’s own hand of some lectures that Albert delivered.

Aquinas’s intellectual abilities were well acknowledged by Albert. In due course, therefore, his religious superiors sent him to teach at the University of Paris. This was then one of the few medieval centres of study with an international reputation. It had a Faculty of Arts in which ­people studied what we now think of as philosophy. Unlike the University of Naples, however, it functioned under the direction of church authorities and was best known as a training ground for theologians. It was work in the Faculty of Theology there that brought Aquinas to Paris, probably in 1251.

To begin with he lectured on biblical texts. He taught classes on Isaiah, and he may also have lectured on Jeremiah. He then offered lecture commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (1100–60) – a work that by the middle of the thirteenth century had become a standard university textbook on Christian doctrine.

In 1256 Aquinas was promoted to the position of Master of Theology, and his inaugural address in that position focused on what he took his new job to require of him. It discusses Psalm 103.13 (Vulgate; Psalm 104 in NRSV): ‘Watering the mountains from above, the earth will be filled with the fruit of your works.’² With this text in mind, Aquinas observes that teachers of theology should explain what God has revealed while recognizing that this surpasses human understanding. He goes on to say that teachers of theology ought to be ­morally good, well informed and able to argue well.³

As a Master of Theology Aquinas had to lecture on the Bible and deliver sermons. He was also obliged to preside over ‘Disputations’ or ‘Disputed Questions’ (Quaes­tiones Disputatae). These were debates concerning theo­logical ­topics in which arguments for and against various conclusions were presented and then commented on by a Master. Many of Aquinas’s writings derive from Disputations that he chaired.

Around 1261 Aquinas left Paris to teach at the Dominican priory at Orvieto in Italy. In 1265, however, he was directed to establish a house of studies for Dominicans at Santa Sabina in Rome. Here he appears to have been given a free hand when it came to what he taught, though following a by then traditional routine, he began by lecturing once again on Lombard’s Sentences.

In 1268 Aquinas returned to Paris as a Master of Theology, and he remained in this position until 1272, when he moved to Naples to found a study house for Dominicans while also teaching at the University of Naples. During this time he continued to teach and write. But his health soon began to decline, and it quickly deteriorated while he was attempting to travel to the Second Council of Lyons (1272–4), to which he had been summoned as a theological adviser. He was obviously sick before leaving Naples, and he quickly became even more ill as he tried to travel to Lyons. He died at the Abbey of Fossanova on 7 March 1274. The cause of his death is unclear, though it is often inferred that Aquinas died from the effects of a stroke or a general physical and mental breakdown due to overworking.

Aquinas’s writings

Aquinas may have begun his literary career as early as his time in Cologne. Some scholars think that his De Principiis Naturae (On the Principles of Nature) dates from this period. We can, however, be sure that his writing output increased dramatically after 1251. Between then and 1274 he was extraordinarily prolific. He ended up writing around one hundred works of various lengths. Some are straight­forwardly theological, while others have a more philosophical focus, or blend theology and philosophy together.

One of the short philosophical works is De Principiis Naturae. With a debt to Aristotle, this discusses concepts such as change, nature and causation. Comparable to De Principiis Naturae is De Ente et Essentia (On Being and Essence), which argues (a) that a distinction can be made between the existence of certain things (the mere fact that they exist) and their essence (what they are by nature), and (b) that this distinction does not apply to God.

For lengthier works