Thomas Aquinas on Salvation: Faith and Reason

Saint Thomas Aquinas indicates the main ideas of the argument showing the need for salvation theology. God, so that man goes and therefore should know, cannot be understood only by reason. In addition, disclosure is needed. Only with the right, the truth of God would be known by very few and with many errors. Instead, disclosure provides knowledge that is always true. In addition to philosophy, the science of reason, sacred doctrine or theology is needed, the science of revelation. Explain: According to Thomas Aquinas, so we can be saved, human reason and philosophy are not enough. Moreover, revelation is essential. Faith and reason are different sources of knowledge. Rational knowledge of sensory experience is limited by what we can deduce from it. But the end of man is God, and to achieve that purpose, He must be known. However, our reason cannot come to the knowledge of a God who is not offered to our senses. We, therefore, appeal to faith, rooted in divine revelation and extending perfectly right. Aquinas refers to truths accessible both from faith and from the right, the preambles. According to him, there is a field of exclusive knowledge of reason (the laws of physics, for example), one unique to faith (the mysteries, like the Holy Trinity), and a middle ground for both abilities. Examples of preambles are: God exists, the soul is immortal, or the world is created. The so-called "five ways" are rational demonstrations of the existence of God, the first of these preambles. Appreciable effects everywhere know the reason (movement, causes, etc.) and we establish the existence of God. Therefore, reason can lead us to know that God exists, but nothing makes it clear what God is. If we did not know these preambles also by revelation, few would come to them, and also because of the limitation of our reason, it could lead to errors. Therefore, disclosure allows men to learn more easily and safely about divinity. They are therefore necessary revelation and theology, science, when addressing the highest order, is itself supreme.

Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology

To justify the need for theology, as well as philosophy, for salvation, we present two arguments: "The end of man is to know God, but knowledge of God is beyond understanding our reason." "If we can not know God by revelation, only a few men would know Him and with many errors."

Historical Context of Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was a thirteenth-century Christian philosopher who represents the pinnacle of scholasticism. He is responsible for the adaptation of Aristotelian philosophy to the philosophical and religious tradition of Christianity.

The Central Problem

For human salvation, reason and philosophy are not enough; divine revelation, theology, is also needed.

Contemporary Relevance of Aquinas' Ideas

The contemporary relevance of the ideas that Thomas Aquinas stated in the text depends on whether one believes in the premises of his argument. We can consider the argument to be logically correct, that is, it is formally a demonstration. But, like any logical argument, it assumes the truth of the premises. Thus, to accept the conclusion (that disclosure is necessary for human salvation), we must agree with Aquinas that God is the purpose for which man is directed (in Him is salvation) and that understanding Him is beyond the ability of reason. In this case, theology would be required. This is certainly true for Christians, but for those who deny the truth of these premises, the argument is moot. More sense would today defend, as in the Middle Ages, that theology is the supreme science, under which others are situated knowledge, and that it should be servant philosophy. This conviction led to the conviction of ideas and thinkers such as Galileo, who were victims of the lack of radical separation between faith and reason. Mixing both fields creates confusion and often intolerance and repression. We could say that Thomas Aquinas began the process of separation between faith and reason, as he considered that reason had some autonomy (though he was subordinate to faith). Then Ockham advocated a much larger separation, and finally, Modernity completed the autonomy of rational thought. We must not give up that achievement of human reason.