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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:38:49 -0500
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      Thomas Aquinas (28 Jan 1274)

THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST, FRIAR, AND THEOLOGIAN (28 JAN 1274)

In the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas lived, the works of
Aristotle, largely forgotten in Western Europe, began to be
available again, partly from Eastern European sources and partly
from Moslem Arab sources in Africa and Spain. These works offered a
new and exciting way of looking at the world. Many enthusiastic
students of Aristotle adopted him quite frankly as as an alternative
to Christianity. The response of many Christians was to denounce
Aristotle as an enemy of the Christian Faith. A third approach was
that of those who tried to hold both Christian and Aristotelian
views side by side with no attempt to reconcile the two. Aquinas had
a fourth approach. While remaining a Christian, he immersed himself
in the ideas of Aristotle, and then undertook to explain Christian
ideas and beliefs in language that would make sense to disciples of
Aristotle. At the time, this seemed like a very dangerous and
radical idea, and Aquinas spent much of his life living on the edge
of ecclesiastical approval. His success can be measured by the
prevalence today of the notion that of course ALL Christian scholars
in the Middle Ages were followers of Aristotle.

Aristotle is no longer the latest intellectual fashion, but
Aquinas's insistence that the Christian scholar must be prepared to
meet other scholars on their own ground, to become familiar with
their viewpoints, to argue from their premises, has been a permanent
and valuable contribution to Christian thought.

Some Christian scholars today are undertaking, with varying degrees
of success, to explore the relations between Christianity and
various contemporary studies or world-outlooks that have been used
as weapons by opponents of Christianity. Examples that come to mind
include G B Sanders, author of CHRISTIANITY AFTER FREUD (see my
Genesis Essays, to be obtained by sending the message GET GEN## RUFF
to LISTSERV@ASUACAD.BITNET or to LISTSERV@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU where
## is to be replaced by a two-digit number in the range from 01 to
07), various writers on "liberation theology" who have undertaken to
show that Marxism, properly interpreted, does not imply the falsity
of Christianity; and a couple of Anglican priests who are also
physicists: William G Pollard, Executive Director of the Oak Ridge
Institute for Nuclear Studies and author of CHANCE AND PROVIDENCE
and PHYSICIST AND CHRISTIAN, and John Polkinghorne, FRS, author of
SCIENCE AND CREATION and SCIENCE AND PROVIDENCE, and various other
works.

PRAYER (traditional wording)
   Almighty God, who hast enriched thy Church with the singular
   learning and holiness of thy servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten
   us more and more, we pray thee, by the disciplined thinking and
   teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the
   example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
   liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for
   ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary wording)
   Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular
   learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten
   us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and
   teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the
   example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
   lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for
   ever and ever.
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