Thomas Aquinas

Life

Aquinas was born around 1225 into a noble family at Roccasecca in the Kingdom of Sicily, in what is now southern Italy. As a boy he was educated at the monastery of Monte Cassino, and while studying in Naples he joined the Dominican Order, a mendicant order that renounces property and devotes itself to preaching and learning. His family is said to have opposed his entry into the order and to have held him in confinement for a time.

He went on to study under Albertus Magnus in Paris and Cologne and taught theology at the University of Paris and elsewhere. He stopped writing at the end of 1273. The following year, while traveling to the Council of Lyon, he died at the Abbey of Fossanova. He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1323.

Work and Achievements

Aquinas is the leading representative of Scholastic theology, an intellectual tradition of the medieval universities that systematized theology through a method of questions, objections, and replies. He integrated the philosophy of Aristotle, newly introduced to the West in his day, with Christian theology. He held that faith and reason do not conflict, and he is known for the principle that "grace does not destroy nature but perfects it."

His principal works are the Summa Theologiae, which remained unfinished, and the Summa contra Gentiles. He set forth the "Five Ways," rational arguments for the existence of God. He also gave systematic accounts of transubstantiation (the doctrine that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are changed in substance into the body and blood of Christ) and of the seven sacraments. His theology likewise distinguished poverty, chastity, and obedience from the commandments binding on all believers, describing them as "evangelical counsels" that lead to a higher perfection.

He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567. After Pope Leo XIII's 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris, his thought became the standard for Catholic theology and philosophy.

Assessment

The Catholic Church calls him the "Angelic Doctor" and honors him as one of its most authoritative theologians.

Protestant assessments are mixed. Martin Luther criticized Scholastic theology for its reliance on Aristotle. Protestant theologians also take issue with Aquinas's understanding of justification. He held that grace is infused into a person and transforms that person into one who is righteous, and he accepted the concept of merit; critics argue that this differs from the Protestant understanding that believers are declared righteous through faith. His view of the evangelical counsels, which regarded monastic vows as a higher path, was also criticized by the Reformers. Karl Barth sharply criticized the concept of the "analogy of being" in Catholic theology.

On the other hand, some studies indicate that Reformed orthodox theologians after the Reformation made considerable use of his methods and concepts. More recently, some Protestant scholars have reassessed him as part of a shared theological heritage.