Thomism is a Christian-philosophical doctrine formulated in the 13th century, by Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican scholar, who brought theories that reconciled the thoughts of Aristotle and St. Augustine. Thus, he showed that theology and philosophy are not opposites but complement each other, to explain the existence of being and reason.

Table of Contents

• Who was St. Thomas Aquinas?
  • Some Works of St. Thomas Aquinas
• What is Thomism?
• Thomistic Doctrine
  • 1) First Engine
  • 2) First Cause or Efficient Cause
  • 3) To be Necessary
  • 4) Being Perfect
  • 5) Ordering Intelligence
• General Aspects of Thomistic Philosophy
  • Want to learn more about philosophy and human behavior?

Who was St. Thomas Aquinas?

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Italian, was a Catholic Dominican friar, with works of strong influence in theology and philosophy, particularly in the Scholastic tradition - a method of critical thinking and learning that reconciles faith and knowledge. is Christian and rational thinking .

Father of Thomism, his ideals were strongly disseminated in ethics, political theory, ethics, and jusnaturalism. He even went against some ideas of Catholicism by following Aristotelian philosophy, mixing it with Christianity. His best known works were: "Summa Theologica" and "Summa contra Gentiles", which are still part of the liturgy of the Catholic Church.

Thomas Aquinas is regarded as a teacher by the Catholic Church for those studying for the priesthood, and was canonized as a Saint. In addition, he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1568 by Pius V - head of the Church from 1566 to 1572.

Some Works of St. Thomas Aquinas

• Summa contra gentiles ;
• Scriptum super sententiis ;
• Summa theologiae;
• Opuscula philosophica ;
• Rescripta ;
• Opuscula polemica pro mendicantibus ;
• Censurae ;
• Responses
• Opuscula theologica.

What is Thomism?

The scholastic philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is called Thomism, which, in short, is characterized by the teaching of reconciling Aristotelianism with Christianity. This means that Aquinas aimed to integrate the aristotelian and neoplatonic thoughts to biblical texts .

As a result, he generated a philosophy of being, inspired by faith and scientific theology, inspired by Aristotle, Plato, and St. Augustine. As a result, he created several doctrines, which resulted in his own theological and philosophical system, which became known as Thomism.

Basically, the highlight of the Thomism This was because its essence was to use metaphysics in favor of theology, bringing a rationalistic thought, which ended up, at the time, by, in a way, threatening Christianity's conception of reality.

However, for Aquinas, the Christian and Aristotelian concepts do not clash, although distinct, they are in harmony with each other. Thus, he demonstrated that the teachings about reality, according to Christianity, must use philosophy as its helper in the knowledge of being.and philosophy, that is, between faith and reason.

Thomistic Doctrine

Thomism, primarily, demonstrates the existence of being and the nature of God, according to reason In other words, philosophy and theology do not conflict, but complement each other. Thus, the rationalism of the doctrine that made Christianity survive, at a time when philosophical thought took shape and became dominant.

Over time, with the progress of technology and the evolution of society, especially from rural to urban, with the growth of the market, brought a change in mentality, where new generations began to want to control natural forces through the use of reason.

For Thomas Aquinas, the world was not explained from God, but from sensorial experience. Thus, using rationality, he was able to explain the existence of God, starting from the Aristotelian maxim that "nothing is in the intelligence without first having been in the senses.

In this sense, Aquinas formulated the so-called "Five Ways", being five arguments that would prove the existence of God and his effects. They are:

1) First Engine

Everything that moves is moved by someone, and this someone is not immobile. That is, there must be an engine that initiates the movement. In this way, there must always be an origin for the phenomenon of movement, that is, an engine, moved by someone, which would then be God.

2) First Cause or Efficient Cause

Every cause is the effect of another, but the first cause, which would be the uncaused cause that gave origin, would be God. In other words, all the things that exist do not have an efficient cause for existing, but are the result of another cause.

In other words, it is necessary to have an original cause, which, however, was not created by anyone. Thus, God would be this first cause or first effect.

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3) To be Necessary

As a consequence of the previous theory, for Thomas Aquinas, all beings could cease to exist and, therefore, nothing would exist, which is inadmissible. Therefore, it is necessary to admit the existence of a superior and eternal Being, the necessary cause for everything that exists, who is God.

4) Being Perfect

There are degrees of perfection in beings, where some are more perfect, beautiful, and true than others, a value judgment that we still make today. Starting from this reasoning, Thomas Aquinas concludes that there must be a being that has the maximum perfection, the absolute perfection. This being, then, is the cause of the degrees of perfection of the other beings, this being God.

5) Ordering Intelligence

There is an order in the Universe, where each thing has its function, which does not occur by chance, nor by chaos.

General Aspects of Thomistic Philosophy

With his original and innovative thinking, Thomas Aquinas stands out for his conception of the existence of beings. He shows that there is a supreme being, of total perfection, who created all other things and beings. God is attributed this entire creative process, where all his creatures have love for God as a natural tendency.

For him, theology must accept the authority of faith, but through the use of reason pertaining to philosophy. For Aquinas, the belief in a God complements the order of nature, with the world not being a consequence of the supernatural.

In short, the Thomism is the collection of the theories of Thomas Aquinas, who presented in eggs concepts for the existence of God, through "Five Ways Starting from Aristotelian philosophy, he ended up uniting faith and reason.

Throughout history, as a result of the theories of Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, theologians have tried to answer questions related to human behavior. Although he lived in the 13th century, Aquinas' thoughts are still relevant to explain human behavior, both from a Christian and philosophical point of view.ethics.

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