Thomas Aquinas is one of the most influential theologians in the history of Western Christianity. Born into a noble Italian family, probably in 1225, he entered the new Dominican Order of Preachers as a young man, and soon became an outstanding teacher in an age of intellectual ferment.
Perceiving the challenges that the recent rediscovery of Aristotle’s works might entail for traditional Christian doctrine, especially in their emphasis upon empirical knowledge derived from reason and sense perception independent of faith and revelation, Thomas asserted that reason and revelation are in basic harmony. “Grace”, he said, “is not the denial of nature, but the perfection of it.” This synthesis Thomas accomplished in his greatest works, the Summa Theologiae and the Summa Contra Gentiles, which even today continue to exercise profound influence on Christian thought and philosophy. Although his theology is now considered to be conventional by many Christians, especially among Roman Catholics, in his own day Thomas was considered a bold thinker, even a “radical,” and certain aspects of his thought were condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. His canonization on July 18th, 1323 vindicated him.
Thomas understood God’s disclosure of his Name, in Exodus 3:14, “I Am Who I Am,” to mean that God is Being, the Ultimate Reality from which everything else derives its being. The difference between God and the world is that God’s essence is to exist, whereas all other beings derive their being from him by the act of creation. Although God and the world are distinct, there is, nevertheless, an analogy of being between God and the world, since the Creator is reflected in his creation. It is therefore possible to have a limited knowledge of God by analogy from the created world. On this basis, human reason can demonstrate that God exists; that he created the world; and that he contains in himself, as their cause, all the perfections that exist in his creation. The distinctive truths of Christian faith, however, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are known only by revelation.
In December 1273, after decades of churning out theological writings at an astonishing pace, Thomas suddenly stopped, leaving his great Summa unfinished. When pressed as to why, he could only say that he had experienced a mystical encounter so profound that all of his former words seemed empty to him now. “All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me!”
Thomas died in 1274, just under fifty years of age. In 1369, on January 28th, his remains were transferred to Toulouse. In addition to his many theological writings, he composed several eucharistic hymns. They include “O saving Victim” (The Hymnal 1982, #310; #311) and “Now, my tongue, the mystery telling” (The Hymnal 1982, #329; #330; #331).
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