Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P., was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, where his family held land until 1137...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionTheologian
CountryItaly
religion atheism needs
Now it seems that everything in the world stems from sources other than God, since the products of nature have their source in nature; deliberate effects can be traced back to human reason or will as their source. There is no need then to assume that God exists.
teaching two sacred-scripture
In questions of this sort there are two things to be observed. First, that the truth of the Scriptures be inviolably maintained. Secondly, since Scripture doth admit of diverse interpretations, that no one cling to any particular exposition with such pertinacity that, if what he supposed to be the teaching of Scripture should afterward turn out to be clearly false, he should nevertheless still presume to put it forward, lest thereby the sacred Scriptures should be exposed to the derision of unbelievers and the way of salvation should be closed to them.
fall omnipotence contradiction
Nothing which implies contradiction falls under the omnipotence of God.
atheist existence
Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing
writing written seems
I can write no more. All that I have written seems like straw.
beauty christian radiance
Characteristics which define beauty are wholeness, harmony and radiance.
substance matter individual
God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.
ignorance knowledge men
Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.
love-is force binding
Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.
done conscience
Anything done against faith or conscience is sinful.
god reason command
To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to contemning the command of God.
christian religious stars
As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary.
perfection divine-power divine
So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power.
understanding way principles
For creation is not a change, but that dependence of the created existence on the principle from which it is instituted, and thus is of the genus of relation; whence nothing prohibits it being in the created as in the subject. Creation is thus said to be a kind of change, according to the way of understanding, insofar as our intellect accepts one and the same thing as not existing before and afterwards existing.