Program / Course 12: Patristics and Historical Theology / Lesson 5.3
What you will learn
- Outline the main events in the life of Thomas Aquinas, c. 1225 to 1274.
- Describe the three parts of the Summa Theologiae and what each treats.
- Read the structure of an article: objections, on the contrary, I answer that, and replies.
- Explain why the form of the Summa reflects Aquinas’s view of how to seek truth.
The big idea
Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and university master, wrote the Summa Theologiae to teach beginners the whole of Christian theology in an orderly way. It moves from God to the creation of human beings, then to how human beings return to God, and finally to Christ and the sacraments, the way of return. Each topic is divided into short articles that state the best objections first and answer them. The form shows a mind that wanted to hear every side, and the content has shaped Catholic theology and influenced many others.
Key terms
- Summa
- Latin for a sum or summary. A medieval summa is a systematic treatment of a whole field.
- Article
- The basic unit of the Summa: a single question, such as whether God exists, treated in a fixed pattern.
- Sed contra
- Latin for on the contrary. The short section in each article that offers an authority for the answer Aquinas will give.
- Respondeo
- Latin for I answer that. The section in which Aquinas gives his own answer and reasons.
- Dominican
- A member of the Order of Preachers, founded by Dominic and approved in 1216, devoted to preaching and study.
- Doctor of the Church
- A title given by the Catholic Church to saints whose teaching is regarded as especially valuable. Aquinas was named one in 1567.
- Thomism
- The tradition of philosophy and theology that follows the teaching of Aquinas.
Background
Thomas was born around 1225 at Roccasecca, near Aquino in southern Italy, to a noble family. He was sent as a boy to the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, where his family hoped he might one day be abbot. He studied in Naples, where he met the Dominicans, and around 1244 he decided to join them. His family opposed a decision that took him from a prestigious path to a mendicant order, and his brothers held him at home for a year or so. He eventually left.
He studied in Paris and Cologne under Albert the Great, who taught him to value Aristotle. He became a master of theology at Paris in 1256, taught in Italian cities and returned to Paris, then to Naples. He wrote a huge amount: commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle, disputed questions, a work called the Summa contra Gentiles, hymns for the liturgy and the Summa Theologiae.
On December 6, 1273, he stopped writing. Tradition says that after an experience while saying Mass he told a friend that all he had written seemed like straw compared with what he had seen. He died on March 7, 1274, on his way to the Council of Lyon. The Church canonized him in 1323.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Why a Summa
Aquinas explains in the prologue that the Summa is for beginners. He had found that students were burdened by long arguments, unnecessary questions and an order that followed the occasion and not the subject. He proposed a plan that would treat the matter briefly and clearly, in the order of the subject itself.
Readers should remember that the work is unfinished. Aquinas stopped before completing the third part, and a later hand added a supplement from his earlier writings.
Step 2: The three parts
The first part treats God: that God exists, what God is, the Trinity, and then creation, angels and human nature. It includes the famous five ways of reasoning toward God’s existence. The second part, divided into two halves, treats human action and the return of human beings to God. It covers happiness, the passions, habits, virtues, vices, law and grace, and then, in the second half, the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) and the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance). The third part treats Christ, who is the way, and the sacraments.
A common summary describes the plan as exit and return: everything comes from God and returns to God, and Christ is the means of return. Scholars debate how neatly the plan fits the text, but it is a useful guide.
Step 3: The shape of an article
Take the question whether God exists. The article begins with the phrase it seems that God does not exist, and gives two objections: one from evil, and one from the sufficiency of nature. Then comes sed contra, on the contrary, with a line from Exodus 3:14, I am who am. Then respondeo, I answer that, where Aquinas gives the five ways. Finally, he replies to each objection in turn.
This form builds in fairness. A reader meets the strongest objections before the answer, and each objection is answered. Aquinas often finds something true in the objection and corrects it. Notice how often he says that an objection is right in one respect and wrong in another, which is the scholastic use of distinctions.
Step 4: Sources and authorities
The Summa quotes Scripture constantly, along with Augustine, Gregory the Great, John of Damascus, Pseudo-Dionysius and many others. Aristotle appears so often that Aquinas calls him the Philosopher. A modern reader should know that Aquinas had his sources through manuscript translations, and that some texts he trusted were misattributed. For example, the Book of Causes was thought to be by Aristotle and the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius were thought to be by a convert of Paul.
The structure of authority is layered. Scripture and the church’s teaching come first. Reason is used to clarify what is believed and to defend it, and philosophy serves theology.
Step 5: Reading the Summa today
The Summa can be read in small pieces. A student can choose one question, for example on happiness or on the virtue of justice, and follow the pattern. The language is plain, but the ideas are compressed and often depend on terms defined earlier. A good habit is to read the objections and replies slowly and to ask what the objector would say next.
The Summa has had a long history of use and dispute. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII commended Thomistic philosophy to Catholic schools, and Thomism became a dominant school in Catholic thought. In the twentieth century, other Catholic theologians sought a broader range of approaches. Protestants have largely read Aquinas with interest and critical distance, and Orthodox writers have admired and criticized him.
- Why might it help to state the opposing view before giving your own?
- What does it mean to organize a field by the order of the subject?
- How does the plan of exit and return connect creation and salvation?
- What do you make of Aquinas’s decision to stop writing?
- Which of the topics in the Summa would you most want to explore first?
- What is gained and lost by writing theology as a series of short articles?
Examples
An article about God’s existence
The first objection says that if God is infinite goodness, then evil would not exist, and since evil exists, God does not. The second says that everything seen can be explained by nature and human will, so God is not needed. Aquinas then replies to each, using the idea that God can bring good out of evil and that nature itself depends on a first cause.
A day in the life of a master
Aquinas lectured on Scripture in the morning, held disputations on set questions and wrote in the afternoon. Reports say that he dictated to several secretaries at once. The picture of a busy teacher helps explain the volume of his work.
The straw
Late in 1273, according to his friend Reginald, Thomas said that he could write no more. Historians debate what happened, whether a vision, an illness or exhaustion, but all agree that he stopped.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic Church honors Aquinas as the Common Doctor and Angelic Doctor, and has repeatedly recommended his works. Catholic scholars today differ about how far to follow his philosophy, but he remains a central figure for the training of priests and theologians.
Orthodox
Orthodox writers differ. Some, influenced by Gregory Palamas, criticize Aquinas for what they see as too much confidence in reason and too little room for the unknowability of God. Others, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, have read him more sympathetically, noting that he also affirms God’s mystery. Aquinas’s teaching on the Filioque and on divine simplicity are major points of discussion.
Protestant
Reformation churches rejected parts of Aquinas, especially on merit and the sacraments, and many Protestant traditions are suspicious of natural theology. Yet Reformed scholastics of the seventeenth century used his method, and philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and Eleonore Stump engage him respectfully.
Scholarly views
Historians place Aquinas in the thirteenth century debates between those who welcomed Aristotle and those who feared him. They argue about how original he was, how much he depended on Albert and others, and how his thought developed. Some of his positions were condemned in 1277 and later restored.
Why it matters
Aquinas is one of the most widely read theologians in history, and many questions that people ask today about God, goodness, law and happiness have a long answer in his work. Learning the form of the Summa also trains a habit of fairness that is useful in any disagreement.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Aquinas tried to prove everything about Christianity by reason.
Correction: He held that some truths, such as the Trinity and the incarnation, are known only by revelation. Reason can prepare for faith and defend it, but it cannot replace it.
Misunderstanding: The Summa is a finished work.
Correction: It was left unfinished, and the end of the third part was added by others from earlier writings.
Misunderstanding: Aquinas was accepted immediately.
Correction: Some of his views were criticized and parts were condemned in Paris and Oxford in 1277. He was canonized in 1323 and honored as a Doctor in 1567.
Misunderstanding: He was an Aristotelian who rejected the Fathers.
Correction: He cited Augustine and other Fathers extensively. His aim was to harmonize reason, the Fathers and Scripture.
Knowledge check
What are the three parts of the Summa Theologiae?
The first part treats God and creation, including human nature. The second part, in two halves, treats human action and the return of human beings to God, including virtues, law and grace. The third part treats Christ and the sacraments, and was left unfinished.
Describe the structure of an article.
Each article poses a question, gives objections introduced by it seems that, offers a contrary authority introduced by on the contrary, gives Aquinas’s own answer introduced by I answer that, and then replies to each objection in turn. The form builds in fairness by stating the objections first.
Why did Aquinas stop writing in 1273?
Tradition says that after an experience while celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273, he told a friend that all he had written seemed like straw. Historians debate whether this was a vision, an illness or exhaustion. He died in March 1274 and the Summa was left unfinished.
Who was Albert the Great?
Albert was a Dominican scholar who taught Aquinas in Paris and Cologne. He studied the works of Aristotle and the natural world, and taught his student to value Aristotle as a source for theology. He is honored as a saint and Doctor of the Church.
Think it through
- Would it change how you read an opponent if you had to state their view first?
- What does it say about Aquinas that he chose to write for beginners?
- Why might someone stop writing at the height of their powers?
- How could the plan of exit and return help a person read the whole Bible?
Independent assignment
Following one article
Choose one article from the Summa in the library, for example Part 1, Question 2, Article 3 on whether God exists. In your notebook, copy out the question and write the objections, the on the contrary, the answer and the replies in your own words, labeling each part. Add a paragraph of 150 words about which part you found most persuasive and why. Aim for 400 to 600 words.
Further study
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read the prologue and the first questions of Part 1.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, Q. 2: The Existence of God Read the article on the existence of God.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas A reliable overview of his life and thought.
- Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction Use it for the background on medieval systematic theology.
- Exodus 3:14 I AM THAT I AM.
- Romans 1:20 The invisible things of him are clearly seen.
- Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing.