Joanna
Johnson
October 3,
2010
Dr. Paul
Hillmer
Honors 110
The Relationship of Faith and Reason
Thomas Aquinas was of the firm belief that
reason and faith could live in harmony. He argued that they were, in fact, not
in contradiction to each other. Chapter VII of Summa Contra Gentiles explains
Thomas Aquinas's thoughts about this thought. Thomas Aquinas's argument for the
possibility of faith and reason living in harmony is well supported by the
primary truths known as the first principle and the first condition.
The
first principle and the first condition are essential elements in Thomas
Aquinas's argument. In order to completely understand his argument, it is
important to understand the primary truths. The primary truth called the first
principle is known as the principle of non-contradictions. This means that if
two things are contradictory they cannot both be true. An example of this in
light of Thomas Aquinas's case is as follows: if reason and faith are both
truths, they will not be at opposition with each other. The first condition is stated
as "the ability of the mind to know the truth". If we are not capable of
knowing the truth, there is no purpose to trying to find the truth. Also,
everything we think we know would be discredited. Therefore, in order for faith
or reason or anything to be true, our minds have to be able to know truth.
These two truths are the foundation for the rationale Aquinas makes in Summa
Contra Gentiles.
At the time of Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic
Church rejected the teaching of Aristotle, and others who emphasized human
reason. The church of the time felt threatened by the idea of truth being found
anywhere other than the Bible. They, wrongly according to Aquinas, thought that
revealing other means of gaining knowledge would lead people away from the
church. Thomas Aquinas disagreed with this view. He set out to express his
disagreement in the form of Summa Contra Gentiles. The Church rejected his writings originally,
but eventually his writings came to be associated with the beliefs of the
Orthodox Catholic Church. As the author states in the biography of Thomas
Aquinas in the Summa Contra Gentiles, "The authoritativeness of the
Thomistic doctrine was formally recognized by the Church in 1879 in the
encyclical Aeterni Patris of Pope leo XIII, which ordered all Catholic
schools to teach Thomas's position as the true philosophy (328)."
Thomas Aquinas verbalized his
opinion that faith and reason were not at odds with each other through the Summa
Contra Gentiles. Chapter seven was specifically about this topic. He argued
that faith cannot be false because it is shown to be true by God. In a similar
way, he argues that reason cannot be false, because it is a part of our nature.
The first condition supports this statement, in that, if the human mind is
capable of knowing truth, the natural means we have to arrive at truth must be
legitimate. Thomas Aquinas said that God would not put in our nature something
that is not true. He states:
For it is clear that those things which are implanted
in reason by nature, are most true, so much so that it is impossible to think
them to be false. Nor is it lawful to deem false that which is held by faith,
since it is so evidently confirmed by God. Seeing then that the false alone is
opposed to the true, as evidently appears if we examine their definitions, it
is impossible for the aforesaid truth of faith to be contrary to those
principles which reason knows naturally (Aquinas, 333).
Assuming that the aforesaid statements are true, the first principle
determines that they cannot be contrary to each other. If they are both truth,
than they cannot contradict, because truth does not contradict (333-334).
Thomas Aquinas's case is a
good one. He uses solid arguments that are based on primary truths. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the Catholic Church eventually accepted his
position. He was not arguing against a truth but was simply stating how one
truth does not threaten another. Thomas Aquinas did not disregard faith and the
Bible as sources of truth. He simply believed that God gave us reason as a
supplement to truth. The Bible supports his belief in many places including
Proverbs 18:15, "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of
the wise seek it out (NIV)." God did not create humans to passively receive
knowledge. He wants his children to seek it out. The world of today would be
quite different if not for the beliefs and writings of Thomas Aquinas. Many
things that are taken for granted now were revolutionary when he wrote them.
Not only the church, but also the rest of society would be extremely altered if
not for Thomas Aquinas.
Works Cited
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles. 327-334. Print.
Holy
Bible. NIV. Proverbs 18:15. Print.
