Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica

Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica between 1265 and 1273. The third article of the Summa attempts to demonstrate in a rational manner the existence of God. The article consists of five short, almost cursory proofs, totalling less than three pages, and yet it remains one of the most influential pieces of scholastic theology ever written. Aquinas' general method was to try to show how God can be known from his effects, i.e. the world around us, and he limited himself, by and large, to arguments based on reason rather than revelation.

The Five Ways, as they have come to be called, are grounded in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aquinas' mentor, Albert the Great, was one of the first scholars to put pagan philosophy to work in the service of Catholic theology and Aquinas carried this approach on to its zenith. It has been argued that the Five Ways are structured in such a way as to reflect Aristotle's Doctrine of the Four Causes: the First and Second Ways deal with two different aspects of efficient causality, the Third Way deals with material causality, the Fourth Way deals with formal causality, and the Fifth way deals with final causality.

Probably the most famous (and obvious) example of Aquinas' reliance on Aristotle can be seen in the first Way, in which Aquinas uses Aristotle's notion of the unmoved mover to prove the existence of God. In Metaphysics Beta, Aristotle argued that change implies the existence of an ultimate and unchanging source of change, since an i

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themselves. 4. There cannot be an infinite series of efficient causes stretching backwards. 5. To take away the cause is to take away the effect. 6. If there is no first cause, then there can be no intermediate causes, and, therefore, no effects, "all of which is plainly false." 7. Therefore, there must be a first efficient cause which is itself uncaused, and this "everyone gives the name of God." Since the structure of this proof is so similar to the First, it is unsurprising that the problems are also much the same. Firstly, it should be known that by "efficient cause" Aquinas means the creation of something out of nothing, not the creation of something out of pre-existent matter. This is itself a debatable notion, insofar as it is no harder to conceive of eternally-existing matter randomly creating life than it is to conceive of an eternally-existing being creating life out of nothing. Further, once the first life has been created, wither by accident or design, out of something or nothing, there is nothing to prohibit a series of causes for all other things stretching forward into eternity with no additional help from the first causal factor. This negates Aquinas' traditional Catholic idea that only God's cons

Category: Philosophy - T