Church History · 1265 to 1274

Thomas Aquinas and the Summa Theologica

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian friar and teacher who began his huge Summa Theologica around 1265 and worked on it until shortly before his death in 1274. He argued that faith and reason work together, gave five famous arguments for God's existence, and is still studied in schools and seminaries.

Read it in the Bible: Romans 1:20 Exodus 3:14 1 Corinthians 13:12 1 Peter 3:15

Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar, priest and teacher who lived from about 1225 to 1274. He is the most famous theologian of the Middle Ages. His greatest work, the Summa Theologica, which he began around 1265 and never finished, tried to explain the whole Christian faith in an orderly way. Its core idea is that faith and reason are friends, not enemies. Both come from God, so they can't truly contradict each other. Nearly 750 years later, his work is still taught in universities, seminaries and philosophy classes around the world.

Who Was Thomas Aquinas?

Thomas was born around 1225 at the family castle of Roccasecca, near the town of Aquino in Italy. That is where the name Aquinas comes from. His noble family sent him as a boy to the great Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, hoping he would one day become its abbot. That would have been a fine, respectable job for a nobleman's son.

Instead, as a student in Naples, Thomas joined the Dominicans, a new order of preaching friars who lived in poverty. His family was horrified. His brothers grabbed him on the road and kept him at the family castle for about a year. He did not budge. Eventually they let him go.

Why Was Thomas Aquinas Called the Dumb Ox?

Thomas went on to study under Albert the Great, one of the leading scholars of his day, in Cologne. Thomas was large, quiet and slow to speak, and his classmates nicknamed him the dumb ox. The story goes that Albert told them that one day this ox would bellow so loud the whole world would hear. That story comes from early biographies, so it may be polished, but it certainly turned out true.

Thomas taught at the University of Paris and in several Italian cities. He wrote an astonishing amount, including commentaries on books of the Bible and on the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and a defense of the faith known as the Summa Contra Gentiles.

What Is the Summa Theologica?

Summa means summary, and Theologica means of theology. It is also called the Summa Theologiae. Thomas wrote it as a guide for beginning students, which is funny, because it runs to millions of words. It has three main parts covering God, human life and morality, and Christ and the sacraments.

Its style is unique. Thomas asks a question, such as whether God exists. He lists the strongest objections against his own view first. Then he quotes an authority, gives his answer, and replies to each objection one by one. It is like a debate where you have to state your opponent's case better than he can before you answer him. That habit of fairness is one reason people still respect it.

What Are the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas?

Early in the Summa, Thomas gives five short arguments that God exists, which he called five ways. In simple terms:

Motion. Things change and move, and every change is caused by something else. There must be a first mover that is not moved by anything.
Cause. Everything has a cause. The chain can't go back forever, so there must be a first cause.
Necessity. Things around us might not have existed. Something must exist that cannot not exist, or nothing would be here at all.
Degrees. We see things that are more or less good and true. That points to something that is the highest good and truth.
Design. Things without minds act toward goals, like an arrow aimed by an archer. That points to a mind directing nature.

And this, Thomas says, everyone calls God. Philosophers have argued about the five ways ever since, and some find parts of them weak or outdated. Still, they shaped how Christians defend belief in God, and they echo what Paul wrote.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20

How Did Aquinas Join Faith and Reason?

In Thomas's day, the writings of Aristotle were flooding into Europe through Arabic and Jewish scholars. Some Christians feared this pagan philosophy would wreck the faith. Thomas took the opposite approach. He believed all truth is God's truth.

He taught that reason alone can show that God exists and say some things about Him. But some truths, like the Trinity, the incarnation and salvation through Christ, can only be known because God revealed them. Reason gets you to the front door. Revelation invites you into the house. Grace, he said, does not destroy nature but perfects it.

What Happened at the End of His Life?

In December 1273, while celebrating Mass in Naples, Thomas had an experience that left him changed. He stopped writing, leaving the Summa unfinished. When his friend and secretary Reginald urged him to continue, Thomas is reported to have said that all he had written seemed to him like straw compared with what had been revealed to him.

A few months later, on his way to the Council of Lyon, he fell ill. He died at the abbey of Fossanova on March 7, 1274, about age 49. He was declared a saint in 1323 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

Is Aquinas Still Important Today?

Very. The Catholic Church treats him as its model theologian, and in 1879 Pope Leo XIII urged all Catholic schools to study him. Protestants have a mixed view. Luther disliked the heavy use of Aristotle in theology. Yet many Protestant thinkers use Aquinas's arguments for God and his ideas on natural law, and apologists of many traditions still borrow his five ways.

Why It Matters for You Today

Aquinas shows that you don't have to turn your brain off to follow Jesus. You can ask hard questions, take objections seriously, and still kneel in worship. And his last words on his work are a gentle warning. Our best thoughts about God are straw next to God Himself.

Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

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Questions People Ask

What is the Summa Theologica about?

The Summa Theologica is Thomas Aquinas's great summary of Christian teaching. It covers God, creation, human nature, morality, Christ and the sacraments in a question and answer format, stating objections first and then answering them. He began it around 1265 and left it unfinished at his death in 1274.

What are the five ways of Thomas Aquinas?

They are five arguments for God's existence from motion, cause, necessity, degrees of goodness, and design in nature. Each argues that the world we see points to a first source beyond it, which Aquinas says all people call God.

Why did Aquinas say his work was straw?

In December 1273 he had a deep spiritual experience during Mass and stopped writing. His secretary Reginald reported that Thomas said all he had written seemed like straw compared with what had been revealed to him.

Is Thomas Aquinas a saint?

Yes. He was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1567. His feast day in the Catholic calendar is January 28.

Sources

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