Chapter 35 Doctor Angel Thomas Aquinas

In the middle of the 13th century, there was a young professor of theology at the famous University of Paris. Because of his silence and meekness, he was nicknamed "dumb cow".But he is talented and has already emerged at a young age. Some famous scholars appreciate this young man very much. Albert once asserted that the voice of "dumb cow" will be famous all over the world. Sure enough, the "dumb cow" later became the most famous theologian and scholastic philosopher in the Middle Ages. He was the Italian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the master of medieval Christian scholastic philosophy.

Thomas Aquinas was born in an aristocratic family in Italy. He became a Dominican monk in his youth. He studied at the University of Naples and the University of Paris successively. He studied with the Aristotelian scholar Albert the Great. I am deeply impressed.This became a turning point in his life.Since 1257, he has taught theology at the University of Paris, devoted himself to teaching and writing activities for 10 years, and was appointed by the Holy See as a theological consultant and lecturer. At that time, the orthodox theologians of the Christian Church, such as Anselm, used to adopt Plato's transcendental philosophy to explain theological teachings.Facing the rising nominalism philosophy and Averroesism, this ideological system has been difficult to adapt to the requirements of the times.Thomas's book is a change from previous practice.He first affirmed that theology is a science, that is to say, God is not only the object of belief, but also the object of reason.Next, Thomas emphasized the necessity of natural theology while affirming the traditional idea of ​​apocalyptic God, and he himself paid more attention to the study of natural theology.Thomas's works extensively used Aristotle's philosophical categories and logical methods to re-argument the Christian belief and make it a brand new system.Thomas had an extremely important influence on the development of Christian thought.

Thomas Aquinas successfully integrated Christian theology and Aristotle's philosophy, and established a huge system of scholastic philosophy.He wrote 18 great works in his life, including "Summa of Theology" and "Summa of Philosophy", "On Being and Essence", "Summa of Anti-Paganism" and so on. All the theories of Thomas Aquinas are in service of the Catholic creed.He clearly stated that philosophy must serve theology, and later, he made a philosophical argument for the highest theological creed of the existence of God, and believed that the existence of God should be known through God's creation, using the teleology in Aristotle's philosophy The idealist thought deduces the existence of God, the creator of all things.

In his book "Summa Theology", he believes that the order of the universe is arranged according to the ladder of hierarchy, starting from non-living organisms, ascending to people, saints, angels, the highest is God, and each lower Levels have a higher level of purpose, and strive to achieve this purpose.So the whole system tends toward God, who is the ultimate purpose of the universe.All knowledge must serve theology, and if knowledge does not serve the purpose of proving God, any knowledge is a sin.Thomas' theology dominates the ideology of the Catholic Church to this day. At the end of the 19th century, the Holy See declared the theology of Thomas Aquinas to be the highest philosophical authority of the Catholic Church.In today's capitalist world, the so-called Neo-Thomism is still prevalent, trying to make science subordinate to religion and rationality subordinate to faith.

Thomas Aquinas also vigorously advocated the supremacy of the power of the church, believing that just as God is higher than man and the soul is higher than the body, the church is higher than the secular state.The pope is the agent of Christ, the government should be controlled by him, the country must obey the church, and the king must obey the pope.He also tried his best to maintain the ruling power of feudal monarchs, believing that monarchy is the best form of politics, and said that without a ruler to control and guide the people, society would disintegrate. Thomas Aquinas, starting from the point of view of the immortality of the soul, vigorously advocated "happiness in the afterlife", and believed that the happiness of earthly life is not the highest happiness, but the highest happiness is the contemplation of God, so that the soul can be saved.This can only be done in the afterlife, in the world beyond, and therefore the struggle for the happiness of this life is evil and crime, and the greatest crime is heresy or heresy.All heretics should be burned alive, "destroying them from the world".

After Thomas Aquinas's all-encompassing theological idealism system came into being, it was attacked by some orthodox theologians.Three years after his death, the masters of theology in Paris condemned 219 propositions, 12 of which were Thomas' views.In the Middle Ages, this was the most severe condemnation. However, the church even gave him great support and a high reputation during his lifetime, calling him the most glorious "Angel Doctor".His theory soon became the absolute dominant theory in the field of Western European medieval thought. In 1323, the Pope posthumously named him a "saint", and in 1567 he was named a "doctrine teacher". In 1879, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the Bulletin, stipulating that Thomism is the official theology and philosophy of Catholicism.Neo-Thomism has been very active in Western thought during this century.