什麼是聖托馬斯.阿奎那

Thomas Aquinas, St.

天主教會首席哲學家和神學家。雙親為義大利貴族，他在那不勒斯大學就讀，加入道明會，並任教於巴黎大學一家多米尼克學校。他在巴黎的時間正好是亞里斯多德哲學（阿拉伯譯文中的新發現）來臨之時，他的偉大成就是把亞里斯多德哲學的活力融入基督教思想，就像早年教會的牧師在基督教早期調和了柏拉圖的思想。他堅持，理智能在信仰之內運作；哲學家僅僅仰賴理智，神學家則把信仰當作起點，然後藉着理智達成結論。這種觀點具有爭議性，他對自然之宗教價值的信仰亦然，為此他辯稱，減損創造物的完美就貶低了造物者。他遭到聖波拿文都拉的反對。在他死後的1277年，巴黎的宗教大師公開譴責219條陳述，其中12條屬於聖托馬斯.阿奎那。不過，他仍在1323年被追諡為聖徒，1576年被尊為教會博士，19世紀末現代派危機期間被奉為正統的提倡者。身為多產作家，他寫過八十種以上的作品，包括《反異教大全》（1261～1264）和《神學大全》（1265～1273）。亦請參閲Thomism。

1224/1225～1274年

Thomas Aquinas, St.

Foremost philosopher and theologian of the Roman Catholic church. Born of noble parents at Roccasecca, Italy, he studied at the University of Naples, joined the Dominicans, and taught at a Dominican school at the University of Paris. His time in Paris coincided with the arrival of Aristotelian science, newly discovered in Arabic translation; his great achievement was to integrate into Christian thought the rigors of Aristotle's philosophy, just as the early church fathers had integrated Plato's thought in the early Christian era. He held that reason is capable of operating within faith; while the philosopher relies solely on reason, the theologian accepts faith as his starting point and then proceeds to conclusion through the use of reason. This point of view was controversial, as was his belief in the religious value of nature, for which he argued that to detract from the perfection of creation was to detract from the creator. He was opposed by St. Bonaventure. In 1277, after his death, the masters of Paris condemned 219 propositions, 12 of them Thomas's. He was nevertheless canonized in 1323, named a Doctor of the Church in 1567, and declared the champion of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis at the end of the 19th century. A prolific writer, he produced more than 80 works, including Summa contra Gentiles (1261-64) and Summa theologica (1265-73). See also Thomism.