5 Ways Thomas Aquinas has helped me. How about you?

[RealisticCatholic]

For those who want a robust understanding of Christianity and Catholicism in particular, I recommend Aquinas. He provides a philosophical underpinning that unites the Christian Faith.

Anyway, I have just begun to learn about Aquinas, actually reading his own writings. Here are 5 particular “Thomistic” insights that have encouraged my thinking about the Faith:

(1) The soul. Reading about the soul from Aquinas was very refreshing. As Christians, we have to admit a spiritual nature in man that is not due to the other animals. Aquinas provides a way forward that also underscores the essentially bodily nature of man. The soul is not more important than the body, and it’s not some ectoplasm that is squished inside the body (think dualism). Instead, it’s the form: the description of what it means to be human, in the first place!

(2) God. Ah, the Thomistic approach to God. Much could be said. But I am grateful for his Ways to God, particularly how they conclude in God being Pure Actuality and Being itself, and therefore unlike any physical thing. Aquinas gets you right to the beginnings of the existence of God as spiritual, as Mind. The 5th Way is impressive and has strongly influenced my considering God as intelligent. Moreover, divine simplicity is a remarkable understanding of God’s nature.

(3) The Atonement. Many people wonder why Jesus had to die. Was God a wrathful monster? Aquinas helped show me that the death of Jesus was not necessary. God, Love, could have forgiven our sins without the atoning death of Christ. But death on a cross was fitting, as it manifests God’s love, and it provides a way for humans to align themselves with Christ and therefore be transformed from the inside-out. Atonement for Aquinas is about humanity’s problem, not God’s.

(4) Original Sin. Aquinas’ approach to Original Sin is so helpful that I wish everyone knew about it. It clarifies so many misunderstandings regarding the Catholic belief. The most remarkable insight I have gained is that Original Sin is not some arbitrary punishment. Instead, it is the reduction of man back to pure nature, without the additional supernatural gifts God granted our first parents — grace in relationship to him, as well as following gifts like integrity. Original Sin is a lack of grace, fundamentally, not a positive corruption of human nature.

(5) End of man, Salvation, and Virtue Ethics. Human fulfillment or beatitude is found in God alone, for he is the ultimate Good. Salvation consists in this, and starts on Earth by God’s transforming us, preparing us for enjoyment of Him in Heaven (which will also be a New Creation). This occurs through the infusion of virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts that unite us to God and uplift our human nature, ordering our passions and desires, centered around God.

How has he helped you? (Specifically, like I did above, or just in general.)

 

[Zach]

He helped me understand the difference between what we can know by reason and what we can know by faith and revelation. Before reading his five(?) ways of knowing God through reason I thought belief in God was solely through faith and God’s revelation as is the case with belief in, say, the Trinity, which can’t be known through reason.

Also his distinguishing between accident and substance helped me better understand the Eucharist transubstantiation. Christ’s body and blood make up the whole substance beneath the accident or appearance of the bread and wine.
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[IWantGod]

How has he helped you? (Specifically, like I did above, or just in general.)

Without my introduction to Thomism, and Christian philosophy in general, i doubt that i would be alive right now.

A bit of Thomism is great if you are having an existential crisis.

 

[Pug]

St. Thomas (Thomists) helped me feel less stuck hanging by the impossibly thin thread of my free will. They helped allowed me to feel comfortable trusting God.

 

[tafan2]

I don’t think I could do any better than your list. Except for the first, I did not learn those concepts directly by studying Aquinas. But have certainly come to a better understanding of all of them thru readings in the Summa.

 

[Emeraldlady]

Of course he contributed greatly to understanding the principle of ‘double effect’.

Also his clarity on the part of natural law in treating of Divine law that guards against the gnostics temptation to ‘hear’ God independently of nature and reason.

“For just as grace presupposes nature, so must the Divine law presuppose the natural law.”