Thomas Aquinas: Life And Works

Thomas Aquinas: Life and Works Thomas Aquinas, born in 1225 in Roccasecca Italy, began his studies as early as age five. His parents enrolled him in a monastery where he would receive education in grammar, rhetoric, and logic.(McInerny, 2) His instruction was complemented with a r orous studying of the Bible. Several years later Aquinas transferred to Naples where he pursued his thirst for knowledge with the works of Aristotle.(McInerny, 2) At the university Aquinas entered a program of scripture study and oration, which genera y required 10-15 years before one was granted mastery in the field. After completing a thesis on the Sentences, written by Lombard in the 12th Century, he was granted the seal of approval from the university and allowed to give his inaugural lecture wh h is a feat of great accomplishment.(McInerny, 3) From this point Thomas Aquinas no longer spent his days as a student at the university but he did not stop studying Catholic history. When Aquinas had finished his stint in Naples he went to Rome in 126 During the next 6-7 years he studied the works of Aristotle.

He wrote many commentaries, including On the Soul(McInerny, 3) At this point Thomas Aquinas begins his works on the Catholic doctrine which gave him much fame and accreditation.(McInerny, Although Aquinas was also well known for his philosophical works and studies, his works on Catholic dogma are ever-present in all his works.(McInerny, 2) “At the time of his death in 1274 he was under a cloud in Paris and in 1227 propositions were con mned by a commission appointed by the Bishop of Paris, among them tenets of Thomas (Aquinas). This was soon lifted, he was canonized and eventually was given the title of Common Doctor of the Church. But the subtle and delicate assimilation of Aristot that characterized his work in both philosophy and theology did not survive his death, outside the Dominican Order, and has experienced ups and downs ever since.”(McInerny, 3) When Aquinas attacked the Dominican House of studies in his propositions, f their lack of logic and reasoning, he was scornfully looked upon by his contemporaries, but soon after his death his works were recognized for their insight and intellectualism which allowed for his canonization.

In Aquinas’s seminal work Summa Theolo ca the author asks the question “Whether providence is suitably assigned to God?”(Pegis, 229-Vol 1) and provides the following answer “It seems that providence is not becoming to God. For providence, according to Tully, is a part of prudence. But sinc according to the Philosopher, prudence gives good counsel, it cannot belong to God, Who never has any doubt for which He should take counsel. Therefore providence cannot belong to God.”(Pegis, 229-Vol 1) This article focuses on the ideological value free will and how Catholics believe that free will was given from God to human’s and thus allows them to act of their own valition. Aquinas also based some of his works on the belief of the soul, and whether or not is an actual “material body or more the metaphysical”(Kenny, 129) type of being. “The soul, he concludes, which is the primary principle of life, is not a body, but an tuality of the body, just as heat, which is the principal of heating, is not a body, but a certain actuality of a body.”(Kenny,130) Aquinas tackles the concept of the actual tangibility of the soul, and thus states that the soul is not a being, but wit ut the soul the body wouldn’t exist.

“Aquinas's accomplishment was immense; his work marks one of the few great culmination’s in the history of philosophy. After Aquinas, Western philosophers could choose only between humbly following him and striking off in some altogether different di ction. In the centuries immediately following his death, the dominant tendency, even among Roman Catholic thinkers, was to adopt the second alternative. Interest in Thomist philosophy began to revive, however, toward the end of the 19th century. In the cyclical Aeterni Patris (Of the Eternal Father, 1879), Pope Leo XIII recommended that St. Thomas's philosophy be made the basis of instruction in all Roman Catholic schools. Pope Pius XII, in the encyclical Humani Generis (Of the Human Race, 1950), affi ed that the Thomist philosophy is the surest guide to Roman Catholic doctrine and discouraged all departures from it.