St. Thomas Aquinas: biography of this philosopher and theologian

This Catholic theologian and philosopher laid the foundations of Christianity in the Middle Ages.

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was a priest and theologian of the Dominican order of Roman Catholicism. He is recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of the scholastic tradition, defined as a theoretical movement that dominated much of the Middle Ages, using reason to understand the religious revelations of Christianity.

We will now look at a biography of St. Thomas Aquinasas well as a brief explanation of his contributions to philosophical and theological thought.

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Biography of St. Thomas Aquinas: philosopher and theologian.

Thomas Aquinas was born in the year 1225 in the kingdom of Naples, near the present-day province of Frosinone. The son of Count Landulf and Countess Theodora of Theati, Aquinas soon became associated with the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Roman emperors. In fact, Aquinas' family expected him to follow the Benedictine path, as it was the expected destiny for any son of the Italian nobility.

For this reason, Thomas Aquinas began his training in educational and religious institutions very early in life.. At the age of 16 he left the University of Naples, where he had studied with the Dominicans and Franciscans, which in turn had represented a challenge to the clergy of the time.

He intended to continue his Dominican formation, which did not please his family. In fact, the biographers of Thomas Aquinas tell that his family decided to lock him up for more than a year in the castle of Roccasecca, where he was born. This was to prevent him from joining the order.

Finally, after his imprisonment, he entered the Dominican School of Cologne in 1244, and in 1245 the University of Paris, where he was trained in philosophy and theology by Albert the Great. he studied philosophy and theology under the guidance of Albert the Great.. By 1428 he was appointed professor, and this is the time when he formally began his academic, literary and public life.

After spending many years in France, where he developed much of his work, Thomas Aquinas returned to Naples. He died in the same city on March 7, 1274 from a sudden illness. Some versions say that his death was actually provoked by a king of Sicily, who poisoned him because of political conflicts. Fifty years after his death Thomas Aquinas was canonized and recognized as one of the most representative intellectuals of the Middle Ages.

Philosophical thought: reason and faith

Aquinas' philosophical thought is one of the most influential in Christian theurgy, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.especially in the Roman Catholic Church. He is recognized as an important empiricist in the Aristotelian tradition, who influenced the later development of Western philosophy.

Among other things, Aquinas held that it was impossible for human beings to acquire any true knowledge without the help of God, since it is the latter who has the power to transform intellect into act.

He said, however, that human beings do have the possibility of knowing a part of the world in a natural way (without divine intervention). There were then two types of components of true knowledge. On the one hand, truth is known through reason, that is, by "natural revelation".

On the other hand, truth is known through faith, which corresponds to a "supernatural revelation", i.e., "supernatural revelation".. The latter is accessible through sacred scripture and the teachings of the prophets; while the former has to do with human nature.

For Thomas Aquinas, it was possible to find rational proofs of the existence of God and of his attributes (truth, goodness, goodness, power, knowledge, unity). Likewise, it was possible to know the Trinity only through special sacred revelations.. Rather than contradictory elements, for Thomas Aquinas, reason and faith are complementary, and their search is what leads to true knowledge.

Among the earlier philosophers, who marked in an important way the works of Thomas Aquinas, are Plato, the main theories of Aristotle, the Jewish thought Avicenna, and the work of Albertus Magnus, with whom he trained for many years.

Theology and argument on the existence of God

The theological thought of Thomas Aquinas is influenced in an important way by the work of Augustine of Hippo, the Bible and the decrees of the councils and popes. That is to say, he combines the thought of Greek philosophy with the Christian doctrine of the Church..

Returning to the connection between reason and faith, for Aquinas, theology (sacred doctrine) is itself a science. And the sacred scriptures are the faithful replication of the data of that science, since they have been produced both by revelation and by natural knowledge.

For Aquinas, the ultimate goal of theology is the use of reason to know God and to find true salvation.. In the same vein he spoke of the essential properties of God, maintaining that his existence is not self-evident and cannot easily be put to the test.

In one of his great works, Summa TheologicaIn his ontological arguments for the existence of God, he argues that there are five ways that correspond to five qualities of God and are, therefore, rational proofs of his existence:

• Way One: God in simple (does not break down into simpler parts).
• Way Two: God is perfect (unlike any other being, he lacks nothing).
• Third Way: God is infinite (because his nature is different from the finitude of physics).
• Way Four: God is immutable (his essence and character do not change).
• Fifth Way: God is unity (he does not diversify within himself).

Likewise, Thomas Aquinas holds that the existence of God can be proved through the movement of objects, through the hierarchy of objects, through the hierarchy of objects.through the hierarchy of values and elements of the world, through how natural bodies are ordered, and through the world of possibilities.