He made a decisive contribution to the establishment of mendicant orders, whose unconventional work shaped not only the church but also universities.
Carlo Crivelli: Thomas Aquinas (15th century). Source: Wikipedia
Although St. Thomas Aquinas is no longer recognized without exception as a “general teacher” ( doctor communis), his influence on Western philosophy and theology is permanent.
A native of Aquinas near Naples, he died on March 7, 750 years ago, in the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, southeast of Rome.
Courage for new things.
Thomas was born around 1225 into a Norman noble family from the circle of Frederick II, who had been living in southern Italy for several generations.
He was expected to make an ecclesiastical career, but from an early age, he showed a special interest in science and new things. In his time, Aristotle was rediscovered, and the discussion of this “new thinking” aroused emotions, especially within Western theology.
The family entrusted Thomas to the well-known Benedictine abbey of Montecassino. However, it soon became too stuffy and tight for him there. Long gone was the era of the monastic reform movements of Cluny, Citeaux… For a young intellectual, a monastery was not a place that could satisfy his curiosity.
Thomas went to the University of Naples. There he learned about Aristotle and met the young and dynamic order of preachers, the Dominicans. These two discoveries were decisive for his further life.
Despite the great opposition of his noble family, Tomáš joined the attractive mendicant order. Later, as a recognized theologian, he made a decisive contribution to the defense and establishment of the mendicant orders, whose mobility and unconventional pastorate shaped the church, but above all the great universities of the High Middle Ages – much to the displeasure of the traditional clergy.
Thomas’s stay in Paris and Cologne, where he met important thinkers and continued his intensive study of Aristotle, was a turning point in European intellectual history. Under the guidance of Albert the Great and other scholars, he fundamentally contributed to the ecclesiastical authority by aligning Aristotelian thought with the principles of the Christian faith, which was initially suspected.
Finally, “straw alone”?
The extensive but unfinished work of Thomas Aquinas, of which the Summa theologiae is the most famous, was not created in a peaceful environment. As was customary with Dominicans, Tomas traveled a lot. His journey led from Naples to Paris, from Paris to Cologne and back, from Paris to Toulouse and Rome, and from there back to Naples. Without the help of his fellow brothers, to whom he dictated his works, his monumental work would never have been realized.
In his writings, Thomas is characterized by a clear and thoughtful style that is still admired today; his thinking is influenced by the distinction between knowledge and faith, emphasizing that reality is objective and true, while God’s revelation can only be grasped by faith.
Until the Second Vatican Council, Thomas Aquinas was considered the true guarantor and final authority on matters of Roman Catholic theology. However, he himself would not have agreed to it.
However, this methodological distinction did not prevent him from using rational means to make the existence of God acceptable. He influenced the entire tradition of scholastic philosophy with his method of precisely formulating various positions and answering them logically and rigorously. Many “contradictory” opinions became comprehensible only thanks to Tomáš’s precise presentation.
His influence spanned the centuries, from his canonization in 1322 to the official recognition of his teachings as the authoritative summation of Catholic faith and thought. Thomas’ canonization was, not least, the first church canonization of a complete theological work. The life and thoughts of Saint Thomas are inextricably linked.
Until the Second Vatican Council, Thomas Aquinas was considered the true guarantor and final authority on matters of Roman Catholic theology. However, he himself would not have agreed to it. He fundamentally rejected arguments that referred only to generally recognized thinkers.
At the beginning of December 1273, Thomas suddenly stopped writing. “Everything I’ve written seems like straw compared to what I’ve seen,” he said. Did he have a mystical experience or was it exhaustion?
In any case, he was deserted by the forces on his way from Naples to the Council of Lyons, where he was summoned by the Pope. Thomas died precisely among the monks, i.e. in the environment he deliberately left as a young man, in 1274 at the age of 49.
The “Angelic Teacher” was supported by angels during the mystical rapture, depicted by Diego Velázquez (1632). Source: Wikipedia
It never went out of fashion
On the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274), the Dominican order also commemorates its famous brother. The German Dominican monk and social ethicist Thomas Eggensperger does not think that the existence of God can be proven. However, he still finds Thomas’s “proofs of God” inspiring, as he admitted in an interview with katolisch.de :
How well can the theology of Thomas Aquinas be reconciled with modern thinking?
Thomas is a medieval theologian, we cannot simply bridge this gap. Nevertheless, his understanding of human reason.
Thomas’s reputation still suffers from the fact that Catholic theologians at the end of the 19th century opposed him to modernity, especially Pope Leo XIII. By right?
Neo-Thomism was an attempt to cope with modernity. Thomas’s theology gives reason a high status. It is therefore well suited to bringing Christian thought into dialogue with non-Christian philosophy and the humanities—much more so than faith-centered theology or divine revelation.
From today’s point of view, the approach of the neo-Thomists seems rather apologetic. They often tried to prove the truth of their theological positions in opposition to various contemporary trends. Tomáš would be surprised to see how some make him a measure of truth.
Thomas used theology and the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who was rediscovered in his time, to show the fruitful interaction between faith and reason. In this way, he faced one-sided dogmatism and fundamentalism. For this reason, and not only because his work was repeatedly elevated to the Catholic doctrinal standard in the course of church history, it can be said that Thomas never actually went out of fashion.
Except Protestants. Why did Protestant theologians consider Thomas as their main opponent for a long time?
The theological concept of justification by faith alone, as defended by Martin Luther, did not suit Thomas, according to whom faith without love, i.e. without practical action, is possible, but is no longer a virtue. Even Luther’s pessimistic theology of sin cannot be combined with the harmonizing concept of Thomas, according to whom sin is simply human in various degrees and the struggle with sin belongs to human nature.
With all due respect to Thomistic theology, Martin Luther perceived this Dominican as a representative of classical “Roman”, ie papal theology, with which he argued as a reformer. This hostile image was consolidated in Protestant theology until the reformed theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), who once again tried to place God’s revelation above reason. However, this is not possible with Thomas
In Luther’s time, at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, a great renaissance of Thomas’s thinking took place in Spain and Italy.
At the same time, the Spanish crown demanded an ethical discussion in the face of the atrocities that the Spanish settlers were committing on the native population of the newly conquered territories in America. The Crown regarded the West Indies as another province with all the rights and responsibilities as in Europe. On the other hand, the Spanish settlers did not show much interest in the demands of the authorities.
The theological school of Salamanca called for humane treatment of the native population, based on Tomas’s thinking. One of the representatives of this school, Francisco de Vitoria, referred in particular to the discourse on justice in the Summa Theologiae. Today he is considered the father of modern international law. Bartolomé de Las Casas, a fighter for the rights of indigenous peoples of America and the bishop of Chiapas in today’s Mexico, also refers to Tomáš and his concept of wisdom in his work.
In the 20th century, Thomas’ ethics also had an impact on discussions about the relationship between the general good and the good of the individual.
Thomas here clearly prefers the community to the individual. Today, it seems self-evident to give space to both the community and the individual, and not to perceive the relationship in terms of superiority or inferiority, but rather as qualitatively interrelated and to assume an interplay of goods.
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin celebrated the Holy Mass at the place where Tomas died, in the Fossanova monastery. Should the Vatican have done more to honor this anniversary?
Yes, we wished we could see more. In any case, the Vatican continues to fund the Commissio Leonina. This commission was established in 1880 by the “social pope” Leo XIII, to publish a critical edition of the theological work of Saint Thomas.
Among the popes, only John Paul II knew Tomas. Benedict XVI was less interested in him and Francis does not consider himself a scientist anyway.
