Ideas In God According To Saint Thomas Aquinas

A twofold tradition, through Augustine and Dionysius, carried the doctrine of 'divine ideas' to Aquinas. It continues to play a key role in his theology and his handling of it allows us to asses the nature of his unique synthesis.

This work examines the role of the doctrine of 'divine ideas' in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, a question which remains controversial. Aquinas received this doctrine in two distinct forms, from Augustine and Dionysius. The historical origins and development of this twofold tradition are traced from Plato and Aristotle, through Hellenistic philosophy, to the patristic and medieval periods. In Aquinas' account of God's knowledge, of the Word of God, of Creation and of Providence the doctrine of divine ideas plays a key role. Various strands of neoplatonist thought are clearly important for him but it is Aristotle who is of greatest significance for Aquinas' sustained and original re-thinking of the doctrine. A study of this question provides a fresh perspective on the nature of Aquinas' unique synthesis.

Thinking about God is historical thinking and that in two senses : the idea of God has a history, and those who think about God think through an historically formed mind. The task of the theologian, is not the attempt to move outside his historicity - such an attempt constitutes a fallacy and not a virtue - but to accept its implications and limitations. Methodologically this means that the theologian must point to the historical perspectives that underlie the idea of God in its development and, in his own constructive thought, must work self-consciously with an historical perspective informed by the psychological and cosmological understanding of his own time. This book centers on that idea which traditionally has been associated with the very godness of God - the idea of divine abso luteness - and puts certain historical, logical, religious and, finally, cosmological questions to it. The roots of that idea lie in Greek thought, which entered Christian theology via the early church is much indication, particularly in Patristic fathers; even so, there trinitarian thought, that the Biblical heritage is pushing theological thlnking towards a social or relative concept of divine being (ch. 1).

Thinking Theologically contains new insights into the place of the divine ideas in the pedagogical design of Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae. It subsequently challenges the false dichotomy between philosophy and theology in the interpretation of Aquinas’s engagement with the doctrine.

Brian Davies offers the first in-depth study of Saint Thomas Aquinas's thoughts on God and evil, revealing that Aquinas's thinking about God and evil can be traced through his metaphysical philosophy, his thoughts on God and creation, and his writings about Christian revelation and the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Davies first gives an introduction to Aquinas's philosophical theology, as well as a nuanced analysis of the ways in which Aquinas's writings have been considered over time. For hundreds of years scholars have argued that Aquinas's views on God and evil were original and different from those of his contemporaries. Davies shows that Aquinas's views were by modern standards very original, but that in their historical context they were more traditional than many scholars since have realized. Davies also provides insight into what we can learn from Aquinas's philosophy. Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil is a clear and engaging guide for anyone who struggles with the relation of God and theology to the problem of evil.

It may be surprising that the thought of a medieval theologian still informs many areas of intellectual debate, but there continues to be lively interest in the work of Thomas Aquinas. He considers the most radical questions for our thinking about education: what is a human being? what does it mean to learn? what does it mean to teach? what does it mean to know, to understand, and to search for the truth? In this text, Vivian Boland offers a short biography of Aquinas focused on his personal experiences as a student and teacher. The book then provides a critical exposition of the texts in which Aquinas develops his views about education and includes a short account of the reception and influence of his thinking. Finally, it considers in some detail the most significant points of contact between Aquinas's educational thought and current concerns – his conviction about the goodness of the world, his holistic understanding of human experience and his contributions to virtue theory – and highlights the continuing relevance and influence of this work and thinking within educational philosophy today.

Gregory T. Doolan provides here the first detailed consideration of the divine ideas as causal principles. He examines Thomas Aquinas's philosophical doctrine of the divine ideas and convincingly argues that it is an essential element of his metaphysics