Questions tagged [thomas-aquinas]
Saint Thomas Aquinas was a well known theologian from the Middle Ages, author of the Summa Theologica.
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Did reformation leaders throw out the Summa Theologica?
St. Thomas Aquinas's seminal work the Summa Theologica was an attempt to catalog all the theological arguments ever conceived.
Much of the reasoning is rooted in the Natural Law and it's what ...
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Did Aquinas believe that church bells ward off bad weather?
An 1880 issue of Popular Science reports that, in the opinion of Thomas Aquinas,
church-bells, provided that they have been duly consecrated and
baptized ... repel the demons and avert storm and ...
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Did Thomas Aquinas rate masturbation as a greater sin than rape?
It is sometimes said that St. Thomas Aquinas taught that rape is a lesser sin than masturbation. Is this actually the case?
Here are two examples:
[In Aquinas's view], Because sins against nature ...
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Are Catholics required to accept every article of Aquinas's «Summa Theologica»?
Are all the articles of St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica to be accepted as the truth by every Catholic? Are there any criticisms of the Summa Theologica within the Catholic Church?
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What's wrong with the Summa Theologica?
I've heard that there were two points of Catholic doctrine in Aquinas' Summa Theologica that were later successfully defended to the contrary. One, I think is the Immaculate Conception of Mary (...
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From a Trinitarian perspective, does the term 'only begotten Son' make sense outside of the concept of the incarnation?
From a Trinitarian perspective, does the term 'only begotten Son' make sense outside of the concept of the incarnation? If so, how? If not, why not?
The Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed states (in ...
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Did Jesus need to die, or would mere shedding of blood have been sufficient?
Originally: St. Thomas Aquinas on salvation by a drop of Christ's Blood
I heard on Relevant Radio a year or so ago something perplexing, I think it was a priest saying it, but it may have been a ...
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What did Aquinas do for recreation?
Question: What did St. Thomas Aquinas do for fun? We know that he was a brilliant mind who wrote many good works. However, even he himself says that games and having fun are good for one's soul (I am ...
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What is the basis for saying that Aquinas accepted the Immaculate Conception?
It's commonly said that Thomas Aquinas did not accept the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. For example, Wikipedia says:
Saint Thomas Aquinas refused to concede the Immaculate ...
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On what basis does Thomas Aquinas say that the Church existed since the time of Abel?
In Aquinas' Expositio in Symbolum Apostolorum (Explanation of the Apostles' Creed), his explanation in Article 9 of the Church being "catholic" includes this statement:
Nam aliqui dixerunt, ...
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Is Aquinas' idea of 'Beatific Vision' widely accepted today?
Thomas Aquinas defined the beatific vision as the human being's "final end" in which one attains to a perfect happiness. Aquinas reasons that one is perfectly happy only when all one's ...
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What's the new rite in Tantum Ergo?
St. Thomas Aquinas' hymn Tantum Ergo, which is usually sung at Benediction, always seems better in Latin:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Mainly because in both the transliterated and ...
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Why did Aquinas place so much credence in Aristotle?
Many of Aquinas' proofs are based on Aristotle's writings. But, why did Aquinas rely so heavily on Aristotle? Science proves that Aristotle sometimes erred in his own writings. For example, Aristotle ...
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What is the evidence that Thomas Aquinas was assassinated?
Reading the Wikipedia article on Thomas Aquinas, I stumbled on something rather peculiar. Apparently he fell ill and died at the age of 49 on his way to the Second Council of Lyon, where he had been ...
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What was St. Thomas Aquinas's view on the difference between punishment accorded to original sin and punishment accorded to individual sin?
Many different thinkers in Catholicism have proposed different theories regarding what original sin is compared to individual sin. From this, different theologians have thought that original sin ...
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Thomistic Predestination and Free Will
What is the role of free will in Thomistic predestination?
My understanding of Thomist teachings:
people have free will to do what they want
everyone gets sufficient amount of grace (Sufficient for ...
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What is the connection between Charity and Virtues according to Aquinas?
According Paul Wadell's book The Primacy of Love: An Introduction to the Ethics of Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas defends that Charity is the mother of all virtues, and also how they can be perfected into '...
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How do Aquinas and Hooker differ in their doctrine on communion?
In The Screwtape Letters (1942), C. S. Lewis records the words of the devil Screwtape on church shopping and factionalism (letter 16):
The real fun is working up hatred between those who say "mass" ...
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Did John Calvin ever read Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica?
I've read in a few places online (here, for example), that John Calvin did not have access to Thomas Aquinas's great treatise, Summa Theologica.
This is mind-blowing. Consider: The last edition of ...
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How did Thomas Aquinas view grace as opposed to the church fathers?
I talked to a teacher at a theological seminary here in Sweden today, and we discussed the nature of grace: Fulfillment of natural potential or completely otherworldly? His idea was that with Thomas ...
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What is Thomas Aquinas's "Dec. præc."?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (par. 1955), cites "St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. præc. I." What is the English (or even the Latin) name of this work "Dec. præc."?
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According to Catholicism, does intelligence or rationality belong to other animals by participation?
In the Summa Theologica, Question 108(5), St Thomas Aquinas writes:
Therefore, if anything is to be called by a name designating its
property, it ought not to be named from what it participates ...
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Divine Relations of the Trinity
I have been studying the Trinity recently, and most of my studies have been from St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, and he would agree that the persons are the divine Essence. One thing ...
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How to reconcile Aquinas' analogical view of God with God's self-revelation?
We use language to describe God. However, Aquinas argues in Summa Theologiae that we can only make analogical statements about God, in which our language is incapable of truly grasping or describing ...
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How did Aquinas and Reformation-era Protestants disagree on God's will?
Thomas Aquinas distinguished between God's antecedent and consequent wills. Meanwhile, the Reformed confessions (eg Westminster Confession) distinguished between God's decretive and revealed wills. ...
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On the Catholic Perspective on the incarnation of Jesus, according to St.Thomas Aquinas: Two natures, one Person
To understand St.Thomas theology, we must understand the metaphysics that goes hand in hand with his theology.
For the notion of Person, the previous notion of Suppositum or Hypostasis seems to be ...
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Did St. Thomas Aquinas write anything about historiography?
I was curious as to whether or not St. Thomas Aquinas every formally laid out any principles to be adhered to when writing/studying/interpreting history or ever elucidated a theory of the "nature" of ...
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How should one read the Summa Theologiae?
Consider, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas on the topic of Mercy:
Question 30. Mercy
The topic is then broken down into a series of articles (questions) - which are further divided into Objections, &...
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What's the Evangelical take on the Natural Moral Law?
Since it's not in the Bible, are Evangelicals taught to ignore or disapprove of the teachings of such folks as Aristotle and Plato? Would they belive a redacted version of the Summa Theologica or ...
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What is Thomas Aquinas' perspective on salvation for baptized heretics who believe in the Trinity?
St. Thomas Aquinas is praised globally for his intellect, and such has gained him the merit of being a 'Doctor of the Church'. I am curious about several things though:
What are Aquinas's views on ...
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What was Saint Thomas Aquinas's girding by the two angels?
Diego Velázquez's Temptation of St. Thomas shows him being girded by angels with a belt of purity:
What is the event behind this painting?
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Absolute Divine Simplicity (ADS) and the Trinity
Though apparent, the framework of the Triune Godhead appears logically incoherent in juxtaposition to the Absolute Divine Simplicity model. Looking through the works of Thomas Aquinas, who is the most ...
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Cardinal Cajetan and Martin Luther
Recently, I read (in this pamphlet) that Martin Luther had some disputes with prominent thomist and Cardinal Thomas Cajetan. why did these two intellignet man not come to an agreement and dispute ...
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In Aquinas's first proof of God's existence, what is the difference between accidentally and essentially ordered causal series?
I'm reading «Teología Natural» by Ángel Luis González. In the book, it is stated that St. Thomas Aquinas' viae would allow an indefinite series of causes.
He distiguishes between two causes. The ...
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What work of Augustine is Aquinas Citing Here?
In Summa Theologica I q. 1 a. 10 ("Whether in Holy Scripture a word may have several senses?") ad 1, Aquinas writes:
Thus in Holy Writ no confusion results, for all the senses are founded
on one -...
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What is "state of perfection"?
What does Aquinas mean when he speaks of "state of perfection", or more broadly, what does Catholic Church mean by "state of perfection"? He often uses this phrase in works like Summa Theologiae, On ...
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Why did St. Augustine and St. Thomas endorse ensoulment at 40 or 80 days?
I know the story that they lacked our current biological knowledge. I know the story that they still considered abortion to be a grave evil. These two excuses seem inadequate to me. Regardless, they ...
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Does Aquinas's version of the beatific vision contradict the resurrection of the body and the new creation?
If I have understood the Supplement to the Third Part of Aquinas's monumental Summa Theologica correctly, Aquinas argues that, following the Last Judgement, the redeemed bask in the light of God's ...
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Which Bible translations did Aquinas use when writing his commentaries and citing them in his theological works?
We know that early in his career (as baccalaureus biblicus, before he wrote his Summa) Aquinas lectured on the Bible and wrote his own commentaries in addition to using the Catena aurea as well as ...
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About the spiritual soul: can animals apprehend universals?
I'm struggling with this question for a while:
It seems like dogs do know what dogs are. Is it possible for a dog to only recognize individuals and not grasp the universal concept of dog?
I thought ...
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On interpreting St. Thomas' thoughts in the Summa Theologiae?
This post is related to How should one read the Summa Theologiae?
In Peter Turner's answer to the question posed in the above link, he states:
The arguments against are listed first, so everything St....
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Tackling Catholic philosophy and theology
I'd like to read and understand Catholic theology, philosophy and Tradition as best as I can.
I'm a biologist and not a philosopher/theologian -- and as such, I cannot (and thus far have not) ...
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What lost bible commentary did St. Thomas Aquinas want more than an entire kingdom?
I've heard it claimed that St. Thomas Aquinas desired to obtain a manuscript of a biblical commentary (by St. John Chrysostom?) more than he desired to posses an entire kingdom. What is the source of ...
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How is selling the use of a house not usury but selling the use of wine, separately from the wine, is?
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II q. 78 a. 1 co., says that usury is to sell the use of a consumable good separately from the consumable good itself:
To take usury for money lent is unjust ...
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History of the doctrine of religious vocation in Catholic Church
I am reading Aquinas and I am puzzled by his view on religious vocation and common view in the Church today (I will for sake of simplicity call it a modern view) about religious vocation.
In On the ...
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Best scholarship on Aquinas's birth date
This year (2024) we are right in the middle of 3 significant anniversaries related to St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope Francis launches three years of celebrations in his honor: 700 years since ...
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What is the exact nature of Aquinas's private revelation of Jesus to him?
St. Thomas Aquinas is known to make excellent conceptual distinctions in philosophy and theology, most critically in his philosophy and psychology of the human soul, the nature of truth & love in ...
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Why can't our immortal souls make our body also naturally immortal?
I have been reading what St. Thomas has to say on resurrection and how the human body will be changed afterwards. St. Thomas talks about how all people, the damned and the saints alike, will become ...
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Is the Theology of the Body in line with traditional Thomistic teaching on marriage?
Question: Is the Theology of the Body in line with traditional Thomistic teaching on marriage?
It seems to me that the love of husband and wife is sometimes brought to the level of adornment which ...
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Aquinas' understanding of love - is it desire?
St. Thomas Aquinas' definition of love is "to will the good of another" - is it same as defining love as "to desire the good of another"?
According to Aquinas, does "loving" always require "desire ...
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