What is Thomism?
Thomism is the philosophical and theological tradition that follows St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 to 1274). It takes up Aquinas's synthesis of faith and reason, drawing on Aristotle and the Fathers of the Church, and develops it in conversation with later questions. Thomism has had many schools, from the early commentators such as Cajetan to the twentieth-century revival.
Core ideas
- Faith and reason: reason can know truths about God and the world on its own, and revelation perfects reason rather than contradicting it.
- Act and potency: change is explained as the passage from what a thing can be to what it actually is. This distinction underlies much of Aquinas's account of nature and of God as pure act.
- Essence and existence: in every creature, what a thing is differs from the fact that it is. Only in God are they the same.
- Natural law: the moral law is knowable by reason as a participation in the eternal law. Its first precept is that good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided.
- Analogy: words such as "good" or "wise" are said of God and creatures neither in exactly the same sense nor in wholly different senses, but by analogy.
The method
Thomism reasons by distinction. Before it concludes, it asks in what sense a term is meant. Its characteristic form is the disputation, in which objections are stated fairly before they are answered. Authorities are weighed in order: Scripture, Tradition, the Magisterium, the Fathers, and Aquinas himself.
How Aquinian reasons after the manner of Aquinas
Aquinian is a virtual Thomistic intellect for theology, philosophy, doctrine, natural law and cultural analysis. It reasons after the manner of Aquinas, in fidelity to the Thomistic tradition. It distinguishes before concluding and does not invent quotations.
Aquinian can reason with authority. It does not become authority: it is not an ecclesial authority, and what cannot be verified stays marked rather than invented.
Begin with the question. New readers get 150 complimentary credits, no card required.