Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) (In Brief/PhD Edit)

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) (In Brief/PhD Edit)

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Thomas Aquinas (1261)(1920) writes in Summa Theologiae that evil was only possible from a corruption of the good.[1]  Hick concludes that Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)s[2] were not content with merely establishing a Biblical doctrine of God’s goodness and the related goodness of his creation.[3]  Augustine and Aquinas were influenced by Neo-Platonic thought and equated being with goodness, so that greater existence (existence without evil) meant greater goodness.[4]   Aquinas postulates that everything desired as an end is perfection,[5] and that since every nature desires its own being and perfection, this is good.[6]  Therefore evil cannot signify a being, form, or nature, as evil is not desirable and is only possible by corrupting the good.[7]

Also

Thomas Aquinas is famous for discussing The Five Ways and his cosmological argument within Summa Theologica.[8]  Plantinga reasons that aspects of Aquinas’ presentation[9] are reasonable, but overall the argument is unsuccessful.[10]  I reason this does not render all arguments for first cause unsuccessful, but Plantinga points out difficulties with Aquinas’ approach,[11] which is perhaps too extensive.[12]

June 5, 2013

Thomas Aquinas is understood to have held to a view of privation as was Augustine. The view discussed in section one.  Blog readers will have mainly read the concept connected to Augustine in the past due to the fact that he was a major exemplar in my MPhil/PhD work and Aquinas was not.

I have noted many times on my blogs I do hold to and therefore argue that God is the first cause, and this is without subscribing to a formal classic cosmological argument such as that of Aquinas.

AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.              

AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F. Shaw,  Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.

AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

AQUINAS, THOMAS (1261)(1920) Summa Theologica, Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, London, Fathers of the English Dominican Province.

GEIVETT, R. DOUGLAS (1993) Evil and the Evidence for God, Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

HICK, JOHN (1970) Evil and The God of Love, London, The Fontana Library.

HICK, JOHN (1978) ‘Present and Future Life’, Harvard Theological Review, Volume 71, Number 1-2, January-April, Harvard University.

HICK, JOHN (1981) Encountering Evil, Stephen T. Davis (ed.),  Atlanta, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN (1993)  ‘Afterword’ in GEIVETT, R. DOUGLAS (1993) Evil and the Evidence for God, Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

HICK, JOHN (1993) The Metaphor of God Incarnate, Louisville, Kentucky, John Know Press.

HICK, JOHN (1994) Death and Eternal Life, Louisville, Kentucky, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN (1999) ‘Life after Death’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press.

PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1982) The Nature of Necessity, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (2000) Warranted Christian Belief, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.

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[1] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[2] Pojman (1996: 38). 

[3] Hick (1970: 176).

[4] Hick (1970: 176).  Augustine (388-395)(1964: 117).  Augustine (421)(1998: Chapter 13: 7).  Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[5] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[6] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[7] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[8] Aquinas, Thomas (1261)(1920) Summa Theologica, Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, London, Fathers of the English Dominican Province.

[9] Aquinas, Thomas (1261)(1920).

[10] Plantinga (1977)(2002: 80).

[11] Aquinas, Thomas (1261)(1920).

[12] Aquinas’ presentation although classic and important, is very speculative and Plantinga has disagreements with his overall work.  Plantinga (1977)(2002: 80).  Geivett reasons Plantinga is too negative concerning natural theology as possibly working.  Geivett (1993: 59-60).