1 St. ThomasRead more at location 139
As Aquinas himself once wrote, “the study of philosophy is not about knowing what individuals thought, but about the way things are”Read more at location 150
The main value of studying what Aquinas or any other thinker said about God, science, or some other topic is to find out whether what he said is true, or at least likely to lead us closer to the truth.Read more at location 151
Whether one thinks that challenge ultimately succeeds or not, it is important to treat Aquinas as in this sense a living author rather than a museum piece. Martin’s reference to “science” might strike some readers as odd. Wasn’t Aquinas a philosopher and a theologian, rather than a scientist?Read more at location 158
For Aquinas, a science is an organized body of knowledge of both the facts about some area of study and of their causes or explanations (In PA I.4); and while this includes the fields typically regarded today as paradigmatically scientific (physics, biology, and so forth), it also includes metaphysics, ethics, and even theology.Read more at location 163
To be sure, a part of theology (what is generally called “revealed theology”) is based on what Aquinas regards as truths that have been revealed to us by God. To that extent theology is based on faith. But “faith,” for Aquinas, does not mean an irrational will to believe something for which there is no evidence. It is rather a matter of believing something on the basis of divine authorityRead more at location 165
the fact that it really has been revealed by God can be confirmed by the miraclesRead more at location 168
In any case, there is another part of theology (known as “natural theology”) that does not depend on faith, but rather concerns truths about God that can be known via reason alone.Read more at location 169
