I started following St. Thomas Aquinas through the teachings he left behind. I have learned some really important lessons.
Let me say first of all that I feel a bit like a child playing around in the kiddie pool. I have not yet learned how to swim. Even so, just as that child can get tremendous enjoyment from splashing around in the water, I feel that I have gotten tremendous joy and peace of mind by my very pre-school, toddler level of Thomistic thought. Please excuse any errors. I am putting links in the sidebar to Thomist websites that seem to actually know what this is all about. Hopefully, they will forgive me, and hopefully anyone reading this will consult with those resources.
These are just the reflections of what I have called the fly's view from the horn of the great ox which is Thomas Aquinas.
I am trying to read St. Thomas' own works as much as I can to get a feel of the original sources. The problem is that I am a very slow reader. I tend to learn through listening and through dialogue rather than through the written page. So, I am also in conversation with a Thomist to get a feel for how Thomism works. Here is a quick definition of that word.
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.
Wikkipedia
Many Christians call themselves by the name of important Christian theologians - like Calvin or Luther. In the Catholic tradition, there are many groups that take the name of a specific Christian teacher and saint, like the Franciscans after St. Francis, the Jesuits after, well, Jesus, and so forth. Many others define themselves as Thomists.
So, this blog is dedicated to my feeble attempts to understand what Thomism is and how it can apply to my own life. I came to this late in life, but I will do my best to learn from this master teacher of philosophy and theology. It brings quietness and freedom to my mind I have to say.
I have studied Calvinism, and I like a lot of what I see there. However, it seems to be a bit formulaic. The Doctrines of Grace as seen in Scripture thrill me, however. It just seems that a person has to be able to express doctrines in such a precise way that I could never be a good Calvinist. I suppose, though, that a Calvinist could also use the kind of reasoning that Thomists use. If I understand right, Thomism is a way of defining and defending the Truth. It is apologetic in nature as well as philosophical and theological.
Thomism has to do with what Aristotle called "right reason." Thomism, as I understand it, encourages Christians to use their God-given powers of reason to arrive at truth. Our founding fathers used the term "laws of nature and nature's God." Thomism helps a person see what those laws of nature are, using nature itself as a teacher that points us towards God. As final authority, we have Scripture itself.
The Thomist uses Scripture as a backstop if you will to keep a person from error. If what the person thinks nature is saying contradicts Scripture, then that person's understanding is off.
Both nature and Scripture have to agree. So a Christian can argue from both sources of Truth. There is an assumption as well that God is a reasonable God. It is about using right reason, the reasoning ability that God gave to each human being. Scripture is not always explicit, however. Where Scripture is not explicit, we do not have to speak for it or force Scripture to say what we want it to say. We bow to it. It does not bow to us.
God is the God of both nature and special revelation found in His Word and revealed in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
