Aquinas 101: Lesson Four

Saint Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli, downloaded from Wikipedia

Lesson 4: Why Read St. Thomas Aquinas?

It's an important question. The video was well produced. The selected reading from "Thomism for the New Evangelization" by Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. was also good, but I found the audio difficult to hear: there was a lot of background noise, Fr. White was often not talking directly into the microphone, and I'm growing old, so it's more difficult to hear (but even headphones did not seem to help). 

I've found two links which may help.

* The audio from SoundCloud, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP: "Why Aquinas Matters: Thomism and the New Evangelization" (July, 2017)

* And a larger excerpt from the book, "Thomism for the New Evangelization" by Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P.

The audio and the book excerpt overlap significantly, but they're not the same. In the lecture, Fr. White covers five points, while in the book excerpt, he covers six points. And so obviously, the outline is different even though there is overlap of the ground covered. I'm going to bravely try to summarize the lecture, because I think that's best suited to my mode of learning (which is summarizing what I hear) and I'll  fill in gaps from the book excerpt. I was tempted to quote a lot from the excerpt, but that's changed to a recommendation to read it, and I'll keep to a few quotes. The first quote is this:

How does the intellect provide for our deepest happiness? By giving us ultimate perspective. If you know where your true good lies, you can love that good, and in loving that good, you can remain at peace, even in the midst of the storms of life.

The first point dealt with a unity of knowledge and the crisis of the university. Except for a few rare cases, knowledge at the university level is fragmented into diverse disciplines. That's not a problem except that the parts don't seem to be connected to a whole. The excerpt goes into the degrees or levels of knowledge: first one counts, and so there is mathematics, then the observational sciences, then a philosophy of nature, which, if one goes further, leads to metaphysics and the question about the existence of God (the answer is in the affirmative). Theology gives us knowledge about God, and this is where Aquinas is helpful, since he speaks of the unity of truth (since God is Truth itself), and hence there is a unity of knowledge. And Aquinas is helpful in teaching us how this is so.

The second point is about a deep doctrinal amnesia (and this is internal to the Catholic Church). And as a revert who has returned to the faith, and as a catechist who is trying to remedy this, I know this personally. The Church has a rich treasure, a beauty which does not reside within an overwhelming majority of her members here in the world. In the Internet age, this can be easily remedied, and hence Aquinas 101. Fr. White recommends reading an article of the Summa Theologica each day. St. Thomas will not only teach you the faith, he will teach you a method in exploring the mysteries of the faith on your own.

The third point is about the deep despair of the use of human freedom. What is freedom for? Well, we want to be happy. But that's not so easily obtainable. Learning the virtues (the cardinal and supernatural virtues) and learning to love and being like what you love (i.e. God), this will shape your life toward happiness (I found the excerpt to be helpful here, and both the lecture and the excerpt used the analogy of playing jazz).

The fourth point dealt with religion. It's difficult to be religious in any age, but now secularism is pushing religion into the margins, and secular people point to irrational religious behavior as why this should be so. The other problem is a fear of institutional formats (creeds, and rituals, etc.). It has privatized and abstracted into a "spiritual but not religious." Fr. White points out that we're not angels (not spiritual beings only but both spiritual and animal). We do need a structured rational religion which will help us to avoid superstitious beliefs and behavior. This is also covered in the excerpt provided by the page at Aquinas 101.

What is the Bible about for St. Thomas? Finding out who God is.

And, 

Aquinas has a very deep reading of the Bible, and his beautiful interpretation of the life of Christ in the Summa Theologiae is accessible to anyone who takes a little time to read it.

The final point is about contemplation.  In this culture, we tend to be utilitarian and ask ourselves: is it practical? But we are meant to contemplate (Aristotle saw this). Today, we do low levels of contemplation like XBox or TV. But there is a higher level of contemplation. We could awaken wonder about the world, and thence wonder about God. Fr. White speaks of the "chapel of the heart" (which is good), but also suggests developing a "chapel of the mind."

For Aquinas you begin to contemplate when you encounter a good that your intellect has to ponder, which it can’t fully comprehend. 

And

Contemplation is about making progress intellectually in understanding who God is, so as to become true friends with God.