Why Thomistic Philosophy
Philosophy is the Handmaid of Theology
My work is focused around five key areas, and I want provide an introduction to each of these five key doctrinal areas. I briefly described them in my introductory article, but this article is an introduction to Thomistic philosophy. In this area, as with the other five areas, I plan to (1) explain, (2) develop, and (3) defend them in my work.
Beginnings in Philosophy
The philosophy of the scholar from the Middle Ages Thomas Aquinas is an important area to me. While some may see the term “theologian” as something dry and academic and unpractical, the term philosopher is even more likely to generate a “groan” if you introduce yourself as such. The practice of philosophy as I envision it has to do with important first principles - things like how do we know there is a real world, how do we know that anything is true or real, theoretical issues concerning how language works, and even a bit of interaction with how we can know there is right acts and wrong acts. Philosophy is rightly viewed as the handmaid of theology, but we also must beware of human philosophy. This is what the Bible has in mind as it says, “Be careful that no one takes you captive through [human] philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.” (emphasis mine). I doubt that a defense of Christianity’s truthfulness is possible without some of the prerequisites that are described as areas of philosophy.
Admittedly, I have had the least training in this area compared to some other areas. However, I can trace the influence of Thomism on my life for a long time. During my first Bible college experience in 2006, I was assigned for a class on defending Christianity a book. It was in this class that I was assigned the work Christian Apologetics written by the Thomistic philosopher-apologist-theological scholar Norman L. Geisler. As it pertains to the defense of the truthfulness of Christiantiy, a popular Thomistic contribution is his “five ways” of proving God’s existence as a precursor to defending the truth of Christianity centered in Jesus Christ. While I didn’t know it at the time, Geisler’s book was an early exposure to Thomistic-type thinking. Later, I also was impacted by Geisler’s approach to the preambles of theology as he laid out eleven foundational ideas that make orthodox, evangelical theology possible.
Areas of Thomistic Philosophy
I write here from the more existentialist Thomism stream than the phenomenological Thomism. This means my focus is on things as they actually are rather than how people are reacting to objects. Additionally, as has been implied, some Protestants accept Thomistic philosophy. However while some Catholics actually disagree with Thomas. What areas does Thomistic philosophy touch? There are five key areas I think of when it comes to Thomistic philosophy.
Realism
First, Thomistic philosophy is realist in that the world actually exists apart from our thoughts about them. If we understand Scripture to teach that God is eternal, then God must have existence apart from our thinking about him. An older movie called The Matrix was based on the premise that the world of humanity was basically unreal, existing only in the mind of the one inside. However, at the same time, implicit in the concept would still be that ultimately, the matrix itself is still real. So, the movie both could be said to illustrate the idealist position while still being undergirded by realism.
Classical Theism
Second, Thomistic philosophy affirms the classical view of God. This includes the ideas that God is simple (and not made up of component parts), self-existent (the theological term I have been teaching to my son is aseity), that he is eternal, that he is unchanging, that he has exhaustive knowledge of the future, and is omnipotent. While these things can be discovered from Scripture, Scripture also affirms that “[God’s] invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse“ (Romans 1:20 CSB). It is not unreasonable that something of God’s attributes would be discoverable by humans apart from Scripture. Typically, it is pointed out that the Trinity - God’s existence in three persons - is not something knowable by human reason, and Aquinas agreed it was a mystery. However, we can know something about the Trinitarian theistic God in creation, and we can know He exists through the classical proofs of God. God is the most basic metaphysical reality - without God, nothing else would exist.
Analogous Speech about God
Third, Thomistic philosophy affirms that we can speak meaningfully about the infinite God but only in an analogous way. This means that while God is unlike us, so far beyond us, we are not reduced to using words that have no connection to how he actually exists. It also means that while God is like us, we cannot speak directly about how He actually is. Instead, when we speak about God as loving, we mean that he loves in a way similar to our way of loving but that he surpasses us in some way. If you emphasize God’s transcendence so much, you can end up an atheist or an agnostic because you remove the possibility for any human to speak meaningfully of God. Aquinas’s defense of analogous language about God is crucial to making possible a revelation from God in human language (i.e. the Bible). The concept of anthropomorphisms where God is spoken of in terms that are like humans is a common instance of analogous speech about God. So, the Bible refers to God’s arm, eyes, and ears, but these are analogous to the way God really is but do not bring him down to be a mere human.
The Relationship of Faith and Reason
Fourth, Thomistic philosophy affirms a place for both faith and reason in discovering truth. I am perhaps slightly more on the reason side of this issue, and there is a bit of a debate about how Thomas held this relationship. But what I think as I have read about this aspect of Aquinas’s thought is that he affirms that some things may be believed just on the basis of what someone else said. Thus, we do not need proof of everything God reveals - if we know He has revealed it, then we can know it is true even if we haven’t seen it. However, we can also move from things we see and reason about, to lead to a reasonable conclusion that it is true. I believe for most that is exactly how it’s supposed to work concerning God’s existence. The problem is that so many have already accepted philosophical ideas - most notably naturalism, the belief that all that exists is what is natural - that lead them to miss that God exists through the things he made. Others though may rightly just believe in God and are justified to do so. This area is one I feel need for more reflection on, and Aquinas’s thought is perhaps no better to help deal with the tension today between faith and reason.
Natural Law
Fifth, I would include here that Thomistic philosophy includes a sympathy to natural law. In theological categories, natural law relates to the general revelation of right and wrong in conscience (see Romans 2:14-15). There is more to natural law than just conscience, as it includes the idea that proper reasoning can lead one to the conclusion that certain deeds are morally right, and some are morally wrong. In some cases, the negative result is what makes it clear that something is wrong. For example, it is wrong for a person to kill another living human being because that man has the right to life and the other person’s murder of the other is a deprivation of that person’s right to life. Even the American founding arguably is based on a conception of natural law as it affirms that certain rights are self-evident (The Declaration of Independence). The words self-evident implicitly invoke the concept of natural law. The contribution of this tradition of natural law is a very important one in my view to the future of political theology for Christians.
Conclusion
My work focuses on Thomistic philosophy, but that does not mean that I follow Aquinas uncritically or that I agree with him in everything. Certainly, I am also a traditional dispensational, classic free grace, fundamental, Baptist. Each of these areas clashes with various aspects of Thomas’s full theology as a Roman Catholic in the Middle Ages. True, Martin Luther the German Reformer was particularly critical of Aquinas’s type of theology. But in my opinion, other Reformers were more reliant on the scholastic tradition than they are given credit for. There was a significant resurgence of Thomistic philosophy a generation ago (the era of R. C. Sproul and Norman L. Geisler), but in the current era there is a growing moving toward “classical theology” or “retrieval theology.” If you are on the Internet and hearing about moves toward Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy, do not assume that I am exactly identified with those movements. I agree with most of the thoughts recently shared by Shawn Wright in The Good and Bad of Retrieval Theology. When you take, as I do, Thomistic philosophy with the other four areas, there is a protection against turning Roman Catholic and denying the gospel thereby. No one opposed the increasing joining of Roman Catholics and Evangelicalism than the Neo-Thomist philosopher-theologian R. C. Sproul in the 1990s.
In closing, the truths I believe that Thomistic philosophy contribute flow either from general revelation (anything explicitly about God or the natural law) or from God’s common grace. Certainly, other Christian philosophies may incorporate some of these views, and if they do great. However, as a package, I believe there is something helpful and indeed true in Thomistic philosophy. I believe that his philosophy represents a promising solution to the modernism and postmodernism that has undermined Christian faith the last two centuries. It is an expression of pre-modern philosophy. It lays the foundation in many respects for the rest of the truth by helping establish realism, classical theism, analogous religious language, a proper synthesis between faith and reason, and natural law. I look forward to giving it more attention in my research and writing.
Books on Aquinas
You can find his writings in the public domain but his manner of writing is difficult so some of these might be better! See below with Amazon Affiliate links (you support my work by purchasing things with my links!)
Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal. Second Edition, revised & expanded (Paperback and Kindle—available for free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!)
Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas by Matt Fradd and Robert Delfino (Paperback and Kindle—also available for free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!)
Being and Some Philosophers by Etienne Gilson (probably not in print, but check your local library)