On St Thomas Aquinas

Most people will know that St Thomas Aquinas is a significant thinker in the history of philosophy and theology. He is well known for his (in)famous five ways for God's existence, and those who have studied the history of thought know that he made significant contributions to philosophy and theology. But what about the man himself? One can get lost in all the arguments and abstract reasoning and forget about the man; indeed I myself have often forgotten that the Angelic Doctor was just a man subject to the same challenges, disappointments, and failings as the rest of us.

Thomas was born around 1224 at Roccasecca Aquino. At around 5 he began his education with the Benedictine monks in Monte Cassino, but owing to disagreements between Pope and the Emperor Frederick II which spilled over into the abbey, Thomas was enrolled at the recently established university of Naples around the age of 15. It was here that he was exposed to two significant influences on his life: the study of Aristotle and the Dominican order.

Around 19 years of age Thomas decided to join the Dominicans. This decision horrified his family. They had intended for him to become a monk of Monte Cassino which in turn would have brought favour to the family. Instead he entered the newly formed Dominican order, devoted to apostolic poverty and preaching. On his way to Paris, Thomas's mother, Theodora, had him seized by his family and brought back to the family home and kept prisoner for around one year. His imprisonment was not at all harsh, yet it was designed to dissuade him from being a Dominican. A number of stories are told of the family's efforts to change Thomas's mind, even going so far as to bring in a prostitute to try to seduce him, all of which failed. 

Eventually, Thomas was permitted to 'escape' by his family, whereafter he went to Paris to study; it was likely that he met St Albert the Great here whom Thomas followed to Cologne. St Albert quickly realised Thomas's genius, and he progressed through the academic life eventually becoming master of theology at Paris in 1256. He remained at Paris until 1259 at which point he went to Naples as a general preacher and then in 1261 he went to Orvieto. In 1265 he was summoned to Rome to be papal theologian and also appointed by the Dominicans to teach at Santa Sabina where he began the Summa Theologiae. Owing to difficulty with the radical Aristotelians, Thomas returned to Paris in 1269 and engaged in the disputes there until 1272. In 1272 he was asked by the Dominicans to set up a studium at a place of his choosing; he chose Naples. 

Towards the end of 1273 he had an experience while saying mass after which he put away his writing materials and ceased work on the Summa Theologiae the third part of which he was writing. When pressed by his socius Reginald to continue writing he responded that he could not because everything he had written seemed like straw compared to what he had seen. After this, Thomas took a rest but was summoned to the Council of Lyon. On his way he hit his head on branch and became quite sick. He was brought to the nearby Cistercian abbey at Fossanova where he died on March 7th 1274.

It is easy to be impressed by the work of great genius, especially when there is not much in the life of a thinker that appeals to us. Aquinas was no Augustine. He did not go off the rails in his early life only to experience a dramatic reversal. Aquinas does not pour out his personal agonies on the page. His writing is not exciting; it is cold, hard, abstract, indeed boring. 

Aside from his great insights, what is there to impress us about St Thomas? 

Those who have read Thomas are well aware that the man very rarely comes across on the page; he keeps himself distant from the reader. Those of us who have spent a long time with Thomas in his writings have come to see the man in this very absence. To use a phrase by Denys Turner, Thomas is present in his work as a kind of holy absence. What does this mean?

At an early age, Thomas gave up the life of a monk at Monte Cassino to become a Dominican. The Dominicans were a recently founded order dedicated to apostolic preaching and poverty. The mission of the order is to preach the truth of the Gospel not primarily for the perfection of the members, but for those who are not members. This was one of the great innovations of St Dominic. Often when a person enters religious life and undertakes a rule by which to live, this is for their own perfection. But the Dominicans are such that their life is devoted to working for the perfection of others. It is a life of emptying themselves so that others may enjoy the truth about God revealed in the Gospel. We see this in Thomas's absence from the page.

Thomas does not put himself in his writing because he is not the centre of attention. Thomas is concerned with the truth. If he places himself in the way of truth, his readers will not come to know the truth, they will come to know him. Thomas does not want to be known, or better, he does not want to be known at the expense of the truth. He wants the truth to be known, and he sees that whatever graces of God he has been given to know the truth it is his responsibility as a teacher and preacher to empty himself so that his students can come to know that truth.

This is an admirable quality in any person, and requires a dose of humility rarely seen in human life. Thomas had fallen in love with God, and the only way he knew how to manifest that love was to get out of the way, to make himself transparent, so that God could be loved by others. The pearl of great price that Thomas had found and treasured was not something he sought to hide away from others; the good that he had come to realise in his own life would not have been the true good were it to remain self-contained and kept from others. 

Aquinas poured himself out on the page through keeping himself from the page and allowing the light of what he had understood to shine forth. This is why his work is so dry, difficult, and abstract - Thomas seeks to express the truth and only the truth. 

Today is the feast of St Thomas Aquinas, and I think that his practice of keeping himself out of the spotlight and only putting forth the truth he had come to understand is a virtue worth emulating.

Comments

  1. Great post!

    I remember reading somewhere that St Thomas Aquinas was able to recite to four scribes at once on completely different topics and not skip a beat. By "at once" I mean he would jump from one topic to the other showing superhuman mental dexterity and remarkable memory. Thought I would share that neat anecdote. I can find the source if requested.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Aquinas's Way to God

Welcome