Theology: Faith, Reason, and Existential Perspectives

Religious and Philosophical Theology

Theology (Faith and Reason)

St. Thomas Aquinas established a distinction between religious truths of the Bible's revelation, which are the subject of faith, and philosophical truths that are the subject of reason. Claims like Jesus' death and resurrection cannot be known or proven by reason; they can only be believed and are the object of faith.

Aquinas, following Aristotle, holds that truths like God's existence and other aspects regarding the essence and attributes of God are capable of proof or rational demonstration. Hence, the possibility of a purely rational theology that serves as an introduction to the revealed or religious. The difference between them lies not in the object, which is the same for both (God), but in the method that addresses this subject, whether through reason or faith.

This does not mean that rational truths are not also guaranteed by faith; they are. This is very convenient for humanity, given that human reason is fallible, subject to error, and always operates within a certain obscurity. Without the aid of divine revelation, the truths about God searchable by human reason are reached by a few, after a long time, and mixed with many errors.

Existential Theology

After discussing the relationship between reason and faith, Aquinas proceeds to demonstrate the existence of God philosophically.

Essential Theology

Having proven the existence of God from the world in a bottom-up movement, Aquinas starts the opposite movement, from top to bottom, defining God in such a way that the world can be understood from the essence of God:

1. As a share of God's perfection
2. As an effect of God's creation

This theology is essential to a true synthesis between Plato, Aristotle, and Christianity.

Thus, Aquinas, alongside God, considers platonic perfection, viewing the world as a static hierarchy of degrees of perfection, in which each person imitates God or a part of the divine perfection in terms of its essence. With this Platonism, Aquinas expresses philosophically two truths of the Bible: man was made in the image and likeness of God, and God saw that everything done by Him was good.

On the other hand, God is thought of in Aristotelian terms as the act, and the world is seen as a dynamic cause and effect. The pure act of that first cause is God. Philosophically, this formula represents the biblical theme of the creation of the world from scratch.

In both cases, Aquinas adapts Plato and Aristotle to serve Christian truth:

1. He weakens the notion of participation, understood only in an analogical sense. Such a notion in the strong sense is dangerous for Christianity, as it leads directly to pantheism, a doctrine that identifies the world with God. If the world is part of God, somehow, the world is or becomes divine.
2. He reinforces the concept of causality, understanding it dramatically, not only because of the movement of the world but as a cause of being of the world. The moving cause becomes a creative cause.