Lesson 6 - Thomas Aquinas

Question 1

Who were the 3 Non-Christian philosophers who had a major influence on Thomas Aquinas?

Answer 1

1. ) Avicenna
2. ) Averroes
3. ) Moses Maimonides

Question 2

What was Aquinas important works?

Answer 2

• • Summa Contra Gentiles

- - Summa Theologica

Question 3

What was Aquinas’ method?

Answer 3

General approach: to appropriate Aristotle in the service of Christ

Question 4

What was Aquinas’ relationship between theology and philosophy?

Answer 4

Nature-grace scheme

• • nature: what man can accomplish without supernatural aid
• • grace: what man can accomplish with supernatural aid
• • theology and philosophy are entirely harmonious (don’t need double truth)

Question 5

What is Aquinas’ Scholastic Method?

Answer 5

• • Goal: to obtain the fullest understanding of the doctrines of faith
• • Approach: systematic application of reason to the doctrines of faith (arguments and counterarguments)

Question 6

What is Aquinas’ metaphysics?

Answer 6

• • Thomism: Christian theism within an Aristotle framework
• • Natural Theology: arguments for the existence of God based on natural reason (trace the creation to the creator, very different from Anselm)

Question 7

What are Aquinas’ five ways to prove God?

Answer 7

1. ) Motion (change) - every motion requires a mover
2. ) Efficient causes - every effect requires a cause
3. ) Contingency: every contingent being depends on another
4. ) Perfection: every judgment requires a standard
5. ) Design: means-end arrangement in nature points to a designer

Question 8

What is Aquinas’ anthropology?

Answer 8

– Humans are form-matter composites (similar to Aristotle)

Question 9

What is Aquinas’ epistemology?

Answer 9

Empiricist: all knowledge derives from sense-experience (Aristotle)
– The active intellect abstracts universals (forms) from sensed particulars

Question 10

How does Aquinas say we can know God if he can’t be sensed?

Answer 10

1. ) We can’t know God’s essence
2. ) Negation: negative theology
3. ) Analogy

Question 11

What did Aquinas say about language about God?

Answer 11

1. ) Univocally - terms apply in the same sense
   - - Luke is wise. God is wise
2. ) Equivocally - terms apply in different senses
   - - Luke works for the bank. Luke dove off the bank.
3. ) Analogically - terms apply in similar, but not identical senses
   - - Healthy medicine (cause); Healthy urine (effect)
   - - terms apply perfectly to God, imperfectly to Humans

Question 12

What is Aquinas’ ethics?

Answer 12

Virtue ethics

• • goal of human life is happiness (only found in God)
• • developed through habits

Question 13

What is Aquinas 4 cardinal (natural) virtues?

Answer 13

1. ) Prudence
2. ) Temperance
3. ) Justice
4. ) Fortitude

Question 14

What is Aquinas’ 3 theological virtues?

Answer 14

Faith, hope, love

Question 15

What is Aquinas’ 2 levels of conscience?

Answer 15

1. ) Synderesis: grasping the general principles of morality (murder is wrong)
2. ) Conscientia: inferring concrete applications from general principles (murder is wrong, therefore abortion is wrong)

Question 16

What is Aquinas’ 4 kinds of law?

Answer 16

1. ) Eternal Law - Foundational
2. ) Natural Law
3. ) Positive Law (Human Law) - e.g. speed limits
4. ) Divine Law - laws revealed through scriptures

Question 17

What is Aquinas’ big idea?

Answer 17

Aristotelian philosophy confirms that Christian theology is reasonable.