In his anti-theistic tome, The God Delusion, the champion of the New Atheists Richard Dawkins sets out to expose St. Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways as “vacuous”. Unable to grasp any of the subtlety or even the gist of what St. Thomas was trying to argue, He instead reveals that he is out of his element. What is particularly noteworthy however is that he launches his attack only after admitting his own hesitance to attack such an “eminent” thinker of St. Thomas. This is one example among many atheists who stop to recognize the towering intellect of the Dumb Ox and are wont to point out that he is one of the greatest thinkers to have ever lived. He is the pre-eminent Christian philosopher whose unique philosophy makes the Faith intelligible to Christians and non-Christians alike. The Church has long recognized the value of his thought, even if the members have been guilty of forgetting it at times. It was, according to Pope Leo XIII, “the chief and special glory of Thomas, one which he has shared with none of the Catholic Doctors, is that the Fathers of Trent [1545-1563] made it part of the order of conclave to lay upon the altar, together with sacred Scripture and the decrees of the supreme Pontiffs, the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, whence to seek counsel, reason, and inspiration (Aeterni Patris, 22). As the Church marks his feast day, it is a good time to revisit why it is important for us to study not just St. Thomas’ theology, but his philosophy as well.
We must first admit that the project of the Enlightenment, judging solely by its fruits, is a complete failure. It is, at its core, a rejection of St. Thomas and his systematic integration of faith and reason, the foundation upon which medieval society was built. Enlightenment thought is varied but at its core it takes what is ultimately an exaggerated view of human reason in which reason alone is the source of truth. This viewpoint, dubbed as rationalism, exalts human reason to the point of setting faith aside. Faith no longer is a source of knowledge and science becomes the only means of certitude. Errors always come in pairs. The rejection of a whole field of knowledge in divine revelation leads to an error in over-correction called fideism. This viewpoint denigrates human reason to the extent that divine revelation becomes the only source of knowledge.
St. Thomas and the Pursuit of Wisdom
Although not the only Christian philosopher in the history of the Church, St. Thomas was the most successful precisely because of his love for wisdom. In this way he was the true philosophe. Wisdom consists of the right ordering of things in relation to man’s end and St. Thomas knew that the path to wisdom comes from both above and below. Philosophy starts with what is visible and ascends to what is invisible. Theology, or “faith seeking understanding” starts from above by using divine revelation and puts ordering to all things according to the divinely revealed End, God Himself. Even if faith is the higher and more certain of the two, resting as it does on the authority of God Who can neither deceive nor be deceived, faith and reason end up in the same place. One ascends and the other descends, but there can never be any conflict between the two.
What St. Thomas offers us is the most complete school of thought that enables this meeting of the minds to occur. This school, from which we draw the term Scholasticism, successfully “unites the forces of revelation and reason” and remains “the invincible bulwark of the faith” prompting Pope Leo XIII to command that “carefully selected teachers endeavor to implant the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas in the minds of students, and set forth clearly his solidity and excellence over others” (AP, 29, 31).
The reason why this connection between Scholasticism and Catholicism must remain intact becomes readily apparent when we examine the role that philosophy plays in theology. A quick survey of the Church’s battles against the great heresies reveals that there is always a philosophical error attached to each of them. The Arian heresy was defeated using a metaphysical and anthropological solution that distinguished between nature and person. The Protestant heresy’s disdain for Scholasticism led to its ready adoption of nominalism and the ultimate rejection of the Sacraments, Sanctifying Grace and the gift of Faith. What this shows is that while philosophy cannot prove revelation, it can defend it. But not just philosophy in general, but Scholasticism in particular. Scholasticism may not be the only means of doing so, but it is the most thorough explanation of the reasonableness of the Church’s teaching. As St. John Paul II put it, “[A]lthough he made much of the supernatural character of faith, the Angelic Doctor did not overlook the importance of its reasonableness; indeed he was able to plumb the depths and explain the meaning of this reasonableness” (Fides et Ratio, 43).
Nothing but Straw?
Before closing, there is one further point that St. Thomas teaches us. By all accounts, near the end of his life, St. Thomas had a mystical encounter with Christ that left him completely unmotivated to continue his prolific writing. When asked by one of his fellow Dominicans why he was no longer writing, he told him “all that I have written is straw.” Some interpret this to mean that he thought all of his theological and philosophical writings were useless. But this should not be interpreted as a judgment upon his work, but upon the science of theology as a whole. Neither philosophy nor theology can ever bring us to the direct vision of God, they are but straw compared to that. But that doesn’t make them useless, but invaluable when we see “dimly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). Think of a man who lives only in the darkness of night and sees only by the moon. The moon is but a reflection of the sun, telling the man of the sun, but once day appears the moon is but straw compared to the luminosity of the sun itself. So too the work of St. Thomas is a bright enough light that draws us to the Sun of Justice.
In closing we must make one last point. Right thinking always leads to right action. It was the clarity of thought that made St. Thomas Aquinas act like a saint. He knew the Truth and it set him free. Please God, that through his intercession and a thorough study of his teachings, we might likewise follow.