The Summa Theologica focuses on religious matters pertinent to the organization and doctrine of the Catholic faith, discussions of virtues and the Sacraments, and the nature of the Christian triune God and His creation.

The Summa is divided into three parts that may be said to treat of God, Man, and Christ (or the God-Man). The first and second parts are wholly the work of Aquinas; only the first 90 questions of the third part are his.

The Summa Theologica (orig. Summa Theologiae) was written by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. It is the magnum opus of St. Thomas’ Summa contains broad, theological arguments such as the existence of God, the qualities of God, and God’s goodness in spite of the existence of evil.

Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica – The Summa Theologica of is cited by part (I, I-II, II-II, III), question, and article. For example, ST II-II, q. 23, a. 3, ad 1 means, the second part (half) of the second part, question twenty-three, article three, reply to the first objection.

Latin

Thus Aquinas’ five ways defined God as the Unmoved Mover, the First Cause, the Necessary Being, the Absolute Being and the Grand Designer. It should be noted that Aquinas’ arguments are based on some aspects of the sensible world. Aquinas’ arguments are therefore a posteriori in nature.

In Aquinas’s system, God is that paramount perfection. Aquinas’s fifth and final way to demonstrate God’s existence is an argument from final causes, or ends, in nature (see teleology). Again, he drew upon Aristotle, who held that each thing has its own natural purpose or end.

Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that the existence of God could be proven in five ways, mainly by: 1) observing movement in the world as proof of God, the “Immovable Mover”; 2) observing cause and effect and identifying God as the cause of everything; 3) concluding that the impermanent nature of beings proves the …

The master principle of natural law, wrote Aquinas, was that “good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided.” Aquinas stated that reason reveals particular natural laws that are good for humans such as self-preservation, marriage and family, and the desire to know God.

Aquinas argues that truth is a transcendental aspect of being, which means that everything that exists is true. In other words, truth is coextensive with being and convertible with being. 18 Yet truth does not add anything real to being, in the way an accident (color, for example) adds something real to a substance.

49 years (1225–1274)

Couvent des Jacobins, Toulouse, France

For Aquinas, the statement God exists is self-evident in itself since existence is a part of God’s essence or nature (that is, God is his existence—a claim to which we’ll turn below). Yet the statement is not self-evident to us because God’s essence is not something we can comprehend fully.

Scholasticism, the philosophical systems and speculative tendencies of various medieval Christian thinkers, who, working against a background of fixed religious dogma, sought to solve anew general philosophical problems (as of faith and reason, will and intellect, realism and nominalism, and the provability of the …

Anselm of Canterbury

Scholasticism is a medieval philosophical and theological system used to reconcile faith and reason. Its main goal was to harmonize Christian teachings with the works of the Greek philosophers.

St. Augustine

Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Catholic Church in Europe had a heavy influence during the High Middle Ages, the period from about 1000 to 1300 C.E. The Church was the center of life in medieval western Europe. During the Middle Ages, the Church was a daily presence from birth to death. It provided education and helped the poor and sick.

It is rational to believe in God and spirits and other religious claims. Reason and Faith are compatible with one another as is Science and Religion because there is but one truth. The basic religious beliefs are compatible with reason. There are rational supports for those beliefs.

Science and religion are closely interconnected in the scientific study of religion, which can be traced back to seventeenth-century natural histories of religion. Natural historians attempted to provide naturalistic explanations for human behavior and culture, for domains such as religion, emotions, and morality.

It is helpful to consider the components of faith (variously recognised and emphasised in different models of faith) as falling into three broad categories: the affective, the cognitive and the practical.

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are always included in the list, being known as the “Big Five”. Some scholars also include other religions, such as Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, or the Baháʼí Faith, in the category.

six stages

Having faith is having trust. You have to trust with your entire being that God has your back that he will help you and take care of you. He knows what is best, but to truly embrace what he has planned for you, you have to fully trust. Our trust is not foolish, for our God is both faithful and good.