Aquinas’s legacy is as one who tried to show a compatibility between Aristotle’s system of thought and Christian teaching, defining the borders between reason and faith.

One of the easiest ways to see how Aquinas does this is to notice how he divides two concepts: these concepts are (1) the preambles of faith and (2) the mysteries of faith. The preambles of faith are those aspects of knowledge of the created order that are available to the unguided human reason, whereas the mysteries are those parts of Christian teaching the rely on divine revelation.

References used in this episode:

-"Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages". A lecture series by Dr. Thomas Williams on Audible.

-Socrates to Sartre and Beyond, Seventh Edition, by Samuel Enoch Stump and James Fieser, 2003.

-The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Trans. by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1952.

Extended quotations in episode:

From Summa (see citation above) pg. 61:

Question, 12, Article 12: “It seems that we cannot know God in this life.”

Aquinas's response:

“Our natural knowledge takes its beginning from sense. Hence, our natural knowledge can go as far as it can be led by sensible things. But our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God, because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. Hence from the knowledge of sensible things the whole power of God cannot be known; nor therefore can his essence be seen. But because they are his effects and depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God whether he exists, and to know of him what must necessarily belong to him as the first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by him. Hence we know of His relationship with creatures that he is the cause of them all; also that creatures differ from him, since he is not in any way part of what is caused by him; and that creatures are not removed from him by reason of any defect on his part, but because he superexceeds them all.”

Thanks for listening to the Poiein podcast. This was episode nine of a series on reason and desire.

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