The Death of St. Thomas Aquinas
By Milan Perera, 3rd Year English
Without the faintest whiff of hyperbole, Thomas Aquinas could be considered one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers during the Middle Ages who still cast long shadows. He gave rise to a school of philosophy named after him: Thomism. A clergyman, a liturgist, a philosopher, a thinker and a theologian, Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy is discussed with considerable detail and nuance by the likes of Bertrand Russell, who cared little for religion or the religious. To Christian philosophy, he was what Maimonides was to Jewish thought or Averroes was to Islamic philosophy. At the Council of Trent (see details from past posts), his Magnum Opus, the Summa Theologica, was placed by the side of the Bible. Such was the importance of Thomas Aquinas’s synthesis of Christian thought during the Middle Ages. Perhaps, one of his greatest contributions to Western philosophy is bringing back Aristotle from oblivion to the forefront of the philosophical discourse. He somehow managed to accomplish the impossible - to marry Aristotle with Christ.
Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 at Roccasecca in Italy to wealth and prestige. His father, Landulph, was no less the nephew of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Aquinas was sent to school at the age of 5 to the famous Abbey of Monte Cassino, run by the Benedictines. In 1239, he left for the University of Naples, which marked a turning point in his life as he derived a keen interest in Aristotle from one of his professors, Peter of Ireland. This spark of interest in Aristotle was fanned into a burning preoccupation as he came under the influence of the Medieval polymath Albert Magnus at the University of Paris in 1245.
It must be reiterated that the writings of Aquinas would fail to make the necessary intellectual impression without a context of his times. Medieval thought was governed by a central tenant of a belief in a Supreme Deity – God, albeit it in a spectrum of observance levels. Aquinas argued that reason and faith are not mutually exclusive but entities that complement one another.
Thomas Aquinas developed the idea of what or who God is. And he did it by means of positive ideas trying to discover his nature. In his deductive thinking, Aquinas said that God is simple, perfect, infinite, immutable and unique. According to him, God is not composed of parts; that is, he has no body and soul, neither matter nor form. It is so perfect that it lacks nothing and is not limited in any way. Their character and essence are solid, and nothing can change them.
From a philosophical point of view, Aquinas was characterised by being a champion of Aristotle. He took the physical analysis of objects as the starting point. Taking the ideas and research of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas deepened his gaze on knowledge and managed to convey a different and more intellectual perception of what had never been done: he tried to synthesize reason and faith, philosophy and theology, university and monastery, and activity and contemplation. In his writings, however, faith and theology ultimately took precedence over reason and philosophy because the former were presumed to give access to truths that were not available through rational inquiry.
One of the most prominent concepts in his philosophical thinking is the notion that objects, and everything present in the universe, exist alongside their essence, meaning that all matter exists physically, but its essence is manifested by the perfect creation of God.
One of the points where Aquinas differs vastly from Augustine, the 4th-century philosopher, theologian and Father of the Church, was his reasoning of free will, where human beings are not limited by the idea of cause and effect. Therefore, human beings are responsible for their own actions. However, the existence of free will is not contrary to the existence of God.
His contribution to pedagogy could not be exaggerated. It is of little wonder that he is celebrated as the patron of Catholic Schools, Colleges and Universities. His parallel career as a university professor at the University of Paris gave him a unique perspective of translating his thoughts into work. According to Aquinas, while it is possible to learn through self-application and voluntary studies, teaching remains essential. On this basis, Thomas Aquinas distinguished distinct types of wisdom: productive, moral, rational, and natural.
Within the field of law, the writings of Aquinas play an important role. His thinking is taken as one of the axes of the theory of law as a starting point for the reflection of future lawyers. His idea of the divine order, present in each exposition of his legacy, affirms that law is made up of laws that are instruments for the common good. However, these laws are valid only if they are “right”.
Strange as it may sound, Aquinas’s writings contributed to the theory of economics as well.
He believed that commodities around us were not really ours because God was the great benefactor, and we have a duty to share them and should consider it a gift. However, he considered that man needed incentives to function, and, in this respect, private property was part of this incentive and the result of human labour.
Although Aquinas may not be considered a “Romantic” in the sense of the 19th-century artistic movement, he was not an arid intellectual either. Under the auspices of Pope Urban IV, Aquinas composed the Divine Office, and Service for Corpus Christi of the Roman Catholic Church liturgy noted for their devotional simplicity.
His complete works make up a staggering 20 large volumes that include the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles, but in 1273 he abruptly halted his writing as he felt that what he had written seemed “as much as straw” compared to the revelations he experienced. He died the following year at the age of 49, on March 7, 1274, as he was preparing for the Council of Lyon.