Aquinas People Had Always Been

Aquinas

People had always been fascinated and intrigued by philosophy, as it referred to practically all human values and it had been based only on rationality. The world has given birth to several notable philosophers and Saint Thomas Aquinas has been one of them. His theories are unique in their character for the fact that they discuss the connection between religion and philosophy.

Most classical philosophers had been pagan, and they did not accept the existence of God for the fact that such a divine character could not exist from a philosophical point-of-view. Aquinas, on the other hand, had been a committed Christian, and, unlike the majority of religious people from the time, he did not reject Greek philosophy.

Aquinas is recognized today as being one of the most influential figures of the second millennium. His fame is most probably due to the fact that his teachings had not lost their importance with the passing of time and they can still be applied today.

Born in 1225 as the son of an aristocrat family, Aquinas had the advantage of receiving higher education from an early age. After attending the famous Benedictine monastery of Monte Casino, he proved to have a wonderful capacity to learn. He first encountered Greek philosophy after his parents had signed him up at a newly established university in Naples. It was there that he started to pay more attention to philosophical and theological theories.

At Naples he joined the Dominican Order, even though his mother strongly opposed it. He was shortly caught by his brothers while attempting to leave the country and he was kept captive for two years. During that time his family had vainly tried to make him reconsider his choice. Subsequent to his release, he went to continue his studies in Paris and in Koln, where he attended Albertus Magnus's school. As Albertus Magnus had been an analyst of Aristotle's works, Aquinas too started to study Aristotelian philosophy.

By commenting Aristotle's De Caelo, Aquinas challenges the belief of several previous philosophers that have gone at interpreting the work. The four books of the De Caelo discuss the entire universe and its divisions as bodies. "Book I of De Caelo considers the entire corporeal universe prior to considering its parts; Book II considers simple bodies prior to the mixed; and Books III and IV consider elemental bodies prior to the complex and compound bodies." (Davies, Brian pp. 45) Most arguments with reference to the De Caelo stated that Aristotle had been referring to simple bodies. In contrast, Thomas argued that the Greek philosopher actually meant to talk about the universe and all of the bodies as elements of the universe.

In his life as a philosopher, Aquinas has written several philosophical texts. Some of his most significant works had been Summa Contra Gentiles, written between 1259 and 1264, and Summa Theologica, which he wrote between 1265 and 1273 and has left it unfinished.

In Summa Contra Gentiles, Aquinas puts a great accent on natural reason in order to demonstrate the rationality of having faith as a Christian. The text is mainly written as a method of making the Greco-Islamic community understand the concept of God through reason. According to Alister E. McGrath, Aquinas claims that God's divine character is connected to the making of the world and of everything that exists (McGrath pp. 160). Furthermore, Aquinas considers all people as being creations of God and parts of a whole that God represents. God's perfection has been passed on to its creations and thus all humans are perfect in their nature.

Aquinas is obsessed with demonstrating the existence of God and this can be seen in most of his writings. F.C. Copleston elucidates the reason for this through the fact that "in arguing for the truth of theism he places special emphasis on one argument, which I shall call 'The Existence Argument'." (Copleston, F.C. pp. 31)