Religious thought throughout the centuries has been diverted numerous times into various philosophical avenues. One of these is the deist view. Deism pictures a God who is remote from man, one who has created man but has then left him to his own devices. Having created man with the power to reason, deists contended, God expected man to use those reasoning powers on his own. In contrast with the beliefs of deism, St. Augustine saw God as one who was concerned with every action of man, and St. Thomas Aquinas saw God more precisely from the Catholic viewpoint. As religious thought progressed throughout the centuries, the deist viewpoint gave way to the theist concept of a remote and uninvolved God, which eventually led to the idea of God intimately involved in the affairs of men's lives and concerned that their hearts be directed toward Him. This was a pivotal transition in the realm of Christian thought, and one that has had enduring effect on the body of Christ, as it not only changed the image that men had of God but also their relationship with Him and their understanding of their responsibility toward Him. This paper will examine deism, St. Augustine's ideas, and those of St. Thomas Aquinas, arguing that each of these men is the most influential philosopher of his era.
The study of deism provides interesting background to the study of both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. As Bilynskyj points out, the deistic view "may be the pre-reflective view of most theists," as it was the prevalent religious perspective prior to St. Augustine, and "Augustine himself may occasionally be interpreted deistically." The deist sees God as "the primary cause of all that occurs," either bringing about every event or supporting the existence of every event (Bilynskyj). Bilynskyj uses the illustration that "A match produces a fire only because God conserves it in existence as the sort of thing that can produce a flame." T...