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Journeying with Thomas Aquinas — Transcript

by Bishop Robert Barron · 6,359 words · 1,093 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:03there is no sacrifice of the Mind
0:06required to be religious Thomas quain is
0:09really more than anybody else in the
0:11tradition boldly asks all the questions
0:15if you got a theologian who says whether
0:18there's a god well that means anything's
0:20open that means any questions possible
0:22good good we have nothing to be afraid
0:25of Reason poses no threat to religion
0:28when both reason and religion are
0:29authentically understood that's what Ain
0:32has got and see without him we'd be I
0:35think in a much more confused State of
0:40[Music]
0:43[Laughter]
0:46[Music]
0:58Mind
1:05[Music]
1:42[Music]
1:50[Music]
2:28all
2:34[Music]
2:55Thomas acquaintance's contribution to
2:57the church and to Western culture in
2:59general is has been so massive it's
3:01difficult even to get a grip on him he
3:04was philosopher scientist biblical
3:07commentator Theologian Mystic and above
3:11all a saint is that last description
3:13which is at the same time the most
3:15overlooked and the most
3:17clarifying if you read Thomas simply as
3:20a rationalist philosopher you'll miss
3:22the point of almost anything he wrote
3:25Thomas was a saint deeply in love with
3:28Jesus Christ he was a spiritual master
3:31and the whole purpose of all his writing
3:33was to place us on the road to
3:36[Music]
3:44Christ toward the end of his life Thomas
3:47aquinus was stationed in Naples in fact
3:50I'm standing right now in the cell that
3:52he occupied at the Fri of San Dominico
3:55major during those years Thomas was
3:57working on the last part of the Sumit
3:59theia his theological Masterpiece one of
4:03the texts in that last part dealt with
4:05the Eucharist and Thomas had a very
4:07special Devotion to that Sacrament it's
4:09moving to me to think that in this very
4:11place he was thinking through and
4:13writing that text when he finished he
4:16wasn't entirely satisfied and he placed
4:19the text at the foot of the cross as
4:21though asking for approbation and a
4:23voice came from the cross Thomas you've
4:26written well of the sacrament of my body
4:29what would you have have as a
4:30reward and his Splendid reply was nil
4:34Ney Tay I'll have nothing except
4:39[Music]
4:43you with all his heart Thomas aquinus
4:47wanted nothing other than
4:48Christ nothing more or less than
4:52Christ grasping this is the key to
4:55grasping all that he
4:58wrote
5:03[Music]
5:14Thomas aquinus was born in 1225 in the
5:17family castle of roaa near the town of
5:20Aquino situated about midway between
5:23Rome and
5:26Naples his mother Theodora was descended
5:29from Norman and Neapolitan Gentry and
5:31his father landolph was a minor
5:35nobleman Thomas's family was caught up
5:37in the confusing and shifting politics
5:39of the day which pitted the pope against
5:42the Holy Roman
5:48[Music]
5:58Emperor
6:00[Music]
6:07when Thomas was only 5 years old he was
6:09sent to the benedicted monastery of
6:11Monte Casino not too far from his
6:14home he would stay among the
6:16benedictines for nine very formative
6:20years far too many commentators have
6:23Overlook the importance of Thomas'
6:24sojourn in the benedicted
6:28world and Monte Casino he would have
6:30learned the rudiments of the
6:31contemplative life and he would have
6:34fallen in love with the scriptures
6:36especially the
6:38Psalms in his maturity Thomas would
6:41understand theology as essentially an
6:43elaboration of the sakr pagina the holy
6:47[Music]
6:49page there's a delicious story told
6:51concerning ainus at this early stage of
6:54his
6:55development after hearing his teacher
6:57discourse on God during an ele elentary
6:59catechism
7:01class young Thomas reportedly said but
7:05Master what is
7:09gone he never stopped asking that
7:11question his whole life
7:21long I'm a seminary Rector so I deal
7:24with um people applying to the Seminary
7:26all the time and it's not true in every
7:28case but in a lot cases you have these
7:30young men that say yeah when I was four
7:33five six I wanted to be a priest it was
7:35already in my heart in my mind so that's
7:37not all that unusual something else I'd
7:40say is how many swimmers start at 5 or
7:44six how many skaters start at five or
7:47six how many divers you know I started
7:49diving when I was five you know and we
7:51don't think we're imposing on them or
7:53we're violating their autonomy um they
7:56perceive some excellence in that case
7:58some you know Sports excellence and by
8:01God they want to get at it because they
8:04want to be the best in the world at it
8:06so what's so wrong with saying I
8:07perceive this Excellence of Friendship
8:09with God and I want to get at it right
8:12away um it might be our prejudice
8:14against religion so there's something
8:17psychologically problematic about that
8:19but we don't think it's psychologically
8:20problematic to throw a kid into a
8:22swimming pool when he's 5 years old and
8:24get him up at 5:30 in the morning and
8:25get him going in his practice um so I
8:28don't know that's I think more of a
8:29Prejudice on our
8:31[Music]
8:58part
9:00[Music]
9:04when he was around 15 Thomas left Monte
9:07Casino for political reasons and took up
9:09what we would call undergraduate studies
9:12at the newly founded University of
9:15Naples while in Naples the teenager
9:17became a double
9:19radical under the influence of his
9:22Professor Peter of Ireland Thomas became
9:24a devote of the Greek philosopher
9:26Aristotle whose writings have been
9:27condemned by a number of popes
9:31though some of his texts were known in
9:32the Christian West the bulk of ay's
9:35Corpus including his treatises on God
9:38and metaphysics and the nature of the
9:39Soul were just coming into circulation
9:41at this time many serious Christians
9:44felt that Aristotle's view represented a
9:46threat to Catholic Orthodoxy but others
9:49felt otherwise including Peter of
9:51Ireland who taught here at the
9:52University of Naples they felt Aristotle
9:54represented a breath of fresh air a new
9:57approach to religious questions
9:59more grounded in this worldly
10:02reality in a word aristotelianism was an
10:05exciting even dangerous movement in mid-
10:0713th century Christendom and Thomas
10:10aquinus would become one of its most
10:11enthusiastic
10:13adeps but the aristan radical became
10:16even more countercultural when he
10:18embraced the other great revolution of
10:20his time the mendicant
10:22[Music]
10:25movement while he was still a university
10:27student in Naples Thomas took the habit
10:30of the preaching Friars of St
10:33Dominic like his contemporary Francis of
10:35AI Domingo De Guzman felt that
10:38Christianity needed to be revitalized
10:41through a return to the radicality and
10:43simplicity of the Gospel
10:46message and so he gathered around
10:48himself a Band of Brothers dedicated to
10:51lives of preaching poverty and radical
10:55trust in
10:56God for some the presence of of
10:59franciscans and Dominicans was a sign of
11:01renewal in the
11:03church but for many others it was a
11:09[Music]
11:11scandal Thomas's parents wanted him to
11:13be the Abbot of Monte Casino a respected
11:16position at an established
11:19institution the last thing in the world
11:21they wanted or expected was that he
11:23would join this strange and upstart
11:25group of
11:27Beggars so on his way to Paris to begin
11:29his Dominican formation Thomas was
11:32waylaid by his own brothers who had been
11:34sent by their mother to stop
11:36him though they tried to tear his
11:38Dominican habit from his back The Young
11:41aquinus clung to it desperately until
11:43they
11:45stopped they then locked him away in a
11:47family castle in the hopes of dissuading
11:50[Music]
11:53him it only caused his resolution to
11:57deepen during this time of conclusion he
11:59studied the Bible intensely memorizing
12:02large portions of
12:03it according to a famous Legend his
12:06brothers introduced a cely prostitute
12:08into Thomas's Chambers hoping to coax
12:11him from his celibate
12:14commitment the young Dominican chased
12:16the girl from the room shouting and
12:18brandishing a
12:20torch eventually his family relented and
12:23allowed him to go his
12:25way Thomas traveled with his Dominican
12:27companions to the intellectual capital
12:30of the Christian world at that
12:33[Music]
12:49time in the middle of 13th Century Paris
12:53was a magnet for Scholars from across
12:56Europe young students came Came To the
12:59Left Bank of the sun still called To
13:01This Day LA L the Latin quarter because
13:04of the language spoken by these
13:06International
13:07students they came to hear lectures from
13:10and to argue with the finest Scholars of
13:12the
13:14time the Paris style of theologizing
13:17brash skeptical public even a tad
13:20irreverent represented a departure from
13:23the more conservative monastic approach
13:25when Thomas aquinus arrived here in the
13:27new Athens of Paris in 1245 he found his
13:31intellectual home he also found the most
13:34important of his mentors the Dominican
13:36scientist and philosopher who even in
13:39his own lifetime was referred to as
13:40albertus Magnus Albert the Great under
13:44Albert's tutelage Thomas continued his
13:46underground study of
13:49[Music]
13:55Aristotle in 1248 he followed his mentor
13:59to Cologne becoming the great man's
14:03Apprentice while a student there Thomas
14:06tacit self-effacing and by no means
14:09slender was given the nickname the dumb
14:12Ox of
14:15Sicily when Albert heard of this he
14:18remarked I assure you that the bellowing
14:21of that Ox will one day fill the
14:27world Thomas aquinus was ordained a
14:30priest in Cologne in a predecessor
14:32Church to the great Cologne
14:40Cathedral in 1252 he returned to
14:43Paris in order to commence what we would
14:46call today doctoral
14:48studies and in 1256 the 29-year-old
14:52aquinus became a maist of Theology and
14:56began to
14:57lecture
14:59a maer's tasks were laid out
15:02clearly first he was to preach for
15:05primarily he was a majer sakre pagine a
15:09master of the Holy
15:11page preaching would conduce naturally
15:13toward biblical commentary and biblical
15:16commentary would lead to the searching
15:18out of complex theological
15:21questions these questions the medievals
15:24called them question disput were not
15:27entertained abstract or simply in the
15:30pages of books they were addressed in
15:32the context of very Lively public
15:35debates a master such as Thomas aquinus
15:38would announce an upcoming
15:39disputatio and then students and faculty
15:42and interested Outsiders would gather
15:45the initial part of the discussion was
15:46led by a borius we call him today a
15:49doctoral student he'd entertain
15:51questions objections arguments from the
15:53floor and respond as best he could all
15:56this time the maista the master was
15:58present but he remained silent the next
16:01day the same audience would gather and
16:03this time the majer would give his
16:05literally maerial resolution of the
16:07question then he would respond to what
16:09he took to be the best objections from
16:11the previous
16:18day Thomas aquinus
16:21sumia generally regarded as his
16:24Masterpiece is a literary rendition of a
16:27series of these question
16:30disput a typical article in the Summa
16:32begins with a statement of the issue
16:35like the summoning of the queso
16:38disputa that is followed by a series of
16:41objections like the comments and
16:43questions from the
16:44floor and that is followed by the
16:46magisterial resolution of the matter and
16:49finally by an answer to the
16:52objections it is so important to
16:54remember the Lively background for
16:56Thomas's texts as we make our way way
16:58through
17:00[Music]
17:05them so historically what was so
17:07significant about where we're standing
17:09I'm standing on the Hua which is in the
17:11Latin quarter it's a very short street
17:13but it's referred to is the B that means
17:16the the Cradle of the university the
17:19word fua is an older French word that
17:21has a sense of like bales of hay or
17:24straw because the students would gather
17:26here they put straw on the ground they
17:28would sit and their professors would
17:30lean out the window or lecture them in
17:32the open air so in the very early days
17:35when the students spilled off the island
17:37onto the C you know the university
17:40hadn't fully developed that's how it
17:42started so the the fua gives you the
17:44sense of that also right around the
17:46corner from here is the H Dante street
17:49because Dante came here in the very
17:51early 14th century maybe 1302 or
17:54something and he would have sat on these
17:56bales of hay and would have listened
17:58listen to his professors you look in the
17:59Divine Comedy it's filled with Thomas
18:01acquaintance filled with the
18:03scholasticism he learned here so it's
18:05always very moving to me to come to this
18:07spot and realize you know the whole
18:08university movement which starts in the
18:11in the 13th century where at the at the
18:14very beginning of it
18:21[Music]
18:27here
18:28[Music]
18:31aquinas's literary career lasted only
18:33about 25
18:34years but his productivity was nothing
18:36short of
18:39Staggering his collected works fill 50
18:42double columned folio
18:44volumes Thomas was obviously a genius
18:47but he was also a man of extraordinary
18:49order and
18:51[Music]
18:52discipline his day began with two masses
18:55one that he celebrated and a second at
18:58which she
18:59assisted and it continued almost without
19:02interruption as a cycle of reading
19:04teaching and
19:07writing it is said that he dictated
19:09different Works to as many as three
19:11secretaries at once turning from one to
19:13the
19:14other he would take a brief nap in the
19:16middle of the day and would frequently
19:18dictate arguments in his
19:22sleep he was famously
19:25absent-minded they say that a brother
19:27Dominican was a sign to sit next to him
19:29at meals to make sure he didn't put
19:31anything inedible in his
19:34mouth one of the best known anecdotes
19:37about Thomas aquaintance concerned the
19:38dinner he attended at the table of King
19:41Louis the 9th of France St Louis in the
19:44midst of a rockus conversation Thomas
19:47sat in abstracted silence as usual lost
19:50in thought and then suddenly he brought
19:53his meaty fist down the table shook all
19:56the cups and plates Disturbed all the
19:58diners around him and he said that will
20:01settle the
20:03manes he just formulated an argument
20:05against the dualist heresy of
20:07manism but one of his Dominican Brothers
20:09turned to him and said rather sternly
20:11don't you realize you're at the king's
20:13table but the saintly King far more
20:16concerned with truth than decorum said
20:18no no send a scribe immediately and take
20:21down the Friar's argument lest he forget
20:24[Music]
20:27it
20:28[Music]
20:46no account of Thomas aquin's life would
20:48be
20:49complete without some reference to the
20:51events that immediately preceded his
20:53[Music]
20:55death when he was in Naples December of
20:57the 6th
20:581273 the Feast of St Nicholas Thomas was
21:01saying mass in the presence of his
21:03friend Reginal and something
21:05extraordinary happened during that mass
21:08for afterward Thomas aquinus broke his
21:10routine of 25 years and he said I cannot
21:14write
21:15anymore when pressed on the matter he
21:17simply said I cannot everything I've
21:20written seems like straw compared to
21:23what's been revealed to
21:27me
21:52after filling thousands of pages with
21:55words the Great Master abruptly fell
21:58fell
21:59silent what happened to Thomas aquinus
22:02there's some evidence of a physical
22:04Dimension to the experience he took to
22:06his bed soon after and when his sister
22:08saw him she described him as
22:11staus dazed or out of his
22:14senses that doesn't begin to explain
22:17it Thomas saw
22:20[Music]
22:26something
22:29in January of
22:301274 the pope asked Thomas to attend the
22:33Council of Leon despite his failing
22:36Health he set out on the journey but on
22:39the way he became desperately ill he was
22:42taken first to a castle but Thomas said
22:45I don't want to die in a secular Place
22:48well the closest religious house was
22:50this San Abbey of fosen NOA he was
22:53brought here brought to This Very Room
22:56some say that during his last days he
22:58dictated a commentary on the song of
23:00songs it was here just behind me that
23:03Thomas died on March the 7th
23:07[Music]
23:201274 sometimes I think God does speak in
23:23a much more direct unambiguous way you
23:25see it in Great biblical figures you see
23:27it throughout the history of the church
23:29and yes in people like Katherine of
23:31Sienna and Thomas aquinus now how do you
23:34determine the difference between that
23:36experience and let's say someone was
23:37just schizophrenic or just crazy and
23:39they're hearing voices then you've got
23:41to look at the totality of a person's
23:42life was Thomas aquinus a deeply
23:46troubled strange anxiety filled um
23:50problematic figure no he was by all the
23:53counts a very integrated um centered
23:58balanced person and so you look at the
24:00totality of the life and say well I
24:02don't think this is schizophrenia or
24:04some mental illness I think this guy is
24:07witnessing to a real experience that he
24:08had so I think the the voice of God
24:11issue you can read it a lot of ways more
24:13generically more symbolically and
24:15metaphorically and in some cases very
24:18directly there was a study done some
24:20years ago and the conclusion of it was
24:23America is a nation of Mystics and the
24:25author meant you scratch the surface of
24:27most people's lives you'll find lots of
24:30reports of this kind of strange mystical
24:33encounter with higher Powers so we can
24:36say oh the person's nuts but an awful
24:39lot of people have had these
24:40extraordinary experiences so I think
24:42that's probably the right way to
24:44contextualize
24:46[Music]
24:56it
25:00[Music]
25:07[Music]
25:23we recall the question raised by the
25:25very young Thomas acquaintance but
25:27Master what is God I think it's fair to
25:31say the answering of that question
25:32became the principal Obsession of
25:34Thomas's life a curious feature of his
25:37doctrine of God is how agnostic it is
25:41Thomas is much more likely to tell you
25:43what God is Not than what God is though
25:46we wrote as we saw thousands of pages
25:48about God he always honored St
25:50Augustine's dictum see comprehend n as
25:54deos if you understand that isn't
25:58[Music]
26:06God the great
26:08temptation is to turn God into a supreme
26:11version of a
26:13creature to think of him as one being
26:16however exalted among
26:18many Thomas clarifies that God is not a
26:23being he's not in any genus even that
26:27most generic of J namely
26:32existence rather God is in Thomas's piy
26:36Latin phrase ipsum ESS
26:40subsistence the sheer Act of to be
26:52itself God is not an item in the
26:54universe or alongside it rather he's the
26:58reason why the contingent and even
27:00escent universe exists at
27:03all atheists both old and new rather
27:07consistently missed this
27:09point when they find no evidence for
27:12this Supreme
27:13Being they confidently declare that
27:15there's no
27:18God but they're mistaking God as Thomas
27:21understands him with the gods Supreme
27:24items within the realm of nature
27:28the true God is the answer to the
27:30question why is there something rather
27:33than
27:37[Music]
27:40nothing Thomas sums this up by applying
27:43to God a term that belongs properly to
27:45God Alone namely Simplicity now we tend
27:49to construe this term in precisely the
27:50wrong way think it means something
27:52Elementary or undeveloped what Thomas
27:55means is that God is the sheer Act of
27:58being itself not this or that type of
28:01thing being without restriction and
28:05without
28:08limitation in creatures there's a
28:10distinction between what Thomas calls
28:12Essence what it is an existence that it
28:15is so for example I'm a being but I'm a
28:18human being a being of very particular
28:20type this camera into which I'm gazing
28:23right now is a being of a very definite
28:25technological type this trees around me
28:28are beings of a Botanical type but none
28:31of this obtains in regard to God there
28:34is in God no distinction between Essence
28:36and existence to be God is to be to be
28:42you see how this is just a more
28:43philosophically precise
28:45reformulation of the great answer that
28:47God gave to Moses when the patriarch
28:50asked what's your name and God said I
28:53am who I
28:56am
29:00as the simple reality God is that whose
29:02being is
29:05unconditioned
29:07unrestricted
29:09unlimited this is why T speaks of God as
29:12infinite Without
29:15Borders it's also why he's described as
29:18immaterial it's not as though God is
29:20less than material rather his being
29:23transcends the limits inherent in a
29:26material manner of EX
29:28existence this is also why God is
29:30referred to as
29:32Eternal time conditions material things
29:36but God stands outside of
29:40time Thomas also speaks of God as
29:43immutable or
29:45unchangeable this has nothing to do with
29:47impassivity in the psychological sense
29:50it means that God cannot improve or move
29:54from an inferior to a Superior State
29:57instead he's utterly perfect and
29:59fulfilled in his manner of
30:04being perhaps you've noticed by now that
30:07this procedure is largely
30:09negative thas telling us what God is Not
30:12rather than what God
30:15is what does it mean to be
30:19immaterial
30:21Eternal
30:22infinite
30:25immutable well we really don't know
30:27for nothing in our ordinary experience
30:29is like
30:30that nevertheless real spiritual
30:33insights can be gleaned from these
30:34Reflections to say that God is immutable
30:37is to say that he's reliable he doesn't
30:39pass in and out of emotional states he
30:42doesn't fall in and out of love with the
30:43world that he's made to say that he's
30:46Eternal is to say that he's not stuck in
30:48any particular moment of time and
30:50therefore is present to all moments of
30:52time to say that God is immaterial is to
30:55say he's not restricted any one place
30:57place but can therefore be present to
30:59all
31:05[Music]
31:18places but is the god of Thomas aquinus
31:21personal
31:23yes since he's in possession of all the
31:26Perfection of existence
31:28he must have mind will and
31:31freedom God knows and loves himself
31:34first and then knows and loves all that
31:37participates in his
31:39being his knowledge of the world is not
31:42passive and derivative but rather
31:45creative things exist because God knows
31:48them into
31:50being this is why the 139th Psalm is
31:54Right Lord you search me and you know
31:57know me you know when I sit and stand
32:00you understand my thoughts from afar my
32:03travels and my rest you mark with all my
32:06ways you are
32:10familiar God's love follows from his
32:13knowing for to know something as good is
32:16ipof facto to will it to rest in it to
32:20savor
32:22it God loves his own Perfection with an
32:25absolutely perfect love
32:29this love is so intense that it spills
32:33over creation is nothing but the fruit
32:36of this effervescent
32:39[Music]
32:44love I talked a lot about Thomas's view
32:47of God as not a thing in the world not a
32:51thing at all not a being at all but
32:54being itself this is so important for
32:57the debates going on right now because
32:59you read the great atheists people like
33:01forbach and Marx and Freud and sart and
33:04now read their disciples today you know
33:07the new atheist so-called they all share
33:09this in common they all think of God as
33:12some big
33:13being some say he he exists some say he
33:17doesn't I call it the yeti theory of God
33:19you know some say there's a Bigfoot
33:21others say there isn't let's go find out
33:23let's look for evidence see but the
33:25problem is the question set up in the
33:27wrong way the creator of the universe is
33:30not an item within the universe think of
33:33the Russian cosmat that goes up you know
33:35in the 1950s goes up into space and hey
33:37I've gone up in the heavens and there's
33:38no God well see that's precisely the
33:40wrong way to look for God you don't find
33:42him as one more thing in the universe
33:45rather God is the condition for the
33:47possibility of the existence of
33:48contingent things that's a fancy way of
33:50saying that God is the sheer active
33:53being itself in and through which all
33:55finite things find their exist existence
33:57and so part of the problem with atheism
33:59is it sets up the question the wrong way
34:02if they knew what Thomas aquinus meant
34:03by God they wouldn't ask the question
34:05that
34:10[Music]
34:25way
34:28[Music]
34:55this
34:56[Music]
35:28what makes Thomas aquinus perhaps most
35:30relevant to our time is his approach to
35:33the issue of faith and
35:36reason for many rationalists today faith
35:40is simply credulity or Superstition or
35:43gullibility believing things on the
35:45basis of no
35:49evidence it would certainly be
35:51anachronistic to say that Enlightenment
35:53style rationalism was in Vogue in the
35:5513th century nevertheless a form of
35:58rationalism was indeed prevalent in the
36:00Paris of Thomas's time namely Latin
36:03averroism
36:04this was a westernized version of the
36:07theory of aoiz the Islamic philosopher
36:10who had argued that theology represents
36:13relatively primitive thought appropriate
36:15for the
36:16unsophisticated whereas philosophy is
36:19the speech of the intellectual
36:22Elite what this gave rise to in its
36:24Western Latin form was a double TR
36:27Theory whereby something could be true
36:30theologically but false philosophically
36:32and vice versa trace of this view can be
36:35found in the present day for one of the
36:37upshots of Latin of verism is that
36:40finally faith and reason have nothing to
36:42do with each other at the end of the day
36:45Faith is simply irrational this
36:47precisely what Emanuel Kon has
36:49enlightened colleagues thought and why
36:51they encourage people of Faith to grow
36:53up
36:55intellectually
36:57[Music]
36:59well Thomas aquinus was having none of
37:03this he stood passionately and
37:06resolutely against Latin of heroism and
37:08the double truth
37:10Theory insisting that faith and reason
37:13cannot come into conflict with one
37:14another precisely because they come from
37:17the same
37:18Source The God Who is truth
37:22[Music]
37:25itself
37:28for Thomas faith is not below
37:31Reason Not infra rational rather it
37:35stands above reason Supra
37:39rational it is not opposed to reason but
37:41goes beyond
37:43it its darkness comes not from an
37:45insufficiency of light but from an
37:48excess of
37:50light but this means that reason can
37:52explore the Faith with complete
37:55freedom there's no sacrificium
37:58intellectus no sacrifice of the Mind
38:01involved in authentic religious
38:04[Music]
38:24faith I realize that when you talk about
38:26la a verism it can sound like something
38:28so sophisticated only specialist
38:30historians might be interested but there
38:32is a huge resonance the basic idea was
38:35that faith and reason split apart so
38:38this view had it that something could be
38:40true theologically but false
38:41philosophically true according to Faith
38:44but false according to reason was the
38:46acinus sense right away it's a very
38:48dangerous thing because now Faith and
38:50reason just become
38:51unmowed some people of Faith even to the
38:54present day will accept that view hey
38:57what I believe don't ask me any
38:58questions uh I'm not open to criticism I
39:01know science and reasons say this but my
39:04faith says that it's a
39:07fism on the other side you've got a
39:09rationalism that says well faith is just
39:11a lot of old nonsense a lot of old
39:13Superstition and reason science teach
39:15something else faith and reason have
39:17drifted apart Thomas aquinus back in the
39:1913th century in this city sense the
39:22danger of this because he knew that God
39:25is the truth
39:27Jesus says I'm the way the truth and the
39:28life if God is the truth then anything
39:31true whether it's mathematical truth
39:33scientific truth philosophical truth is
39:36from God and therefore it can't be at
39:38odds finally with faith which is from
39:40God so he kept the two of them together
39:44which I think is enormously important
39:45whenever faithful people are tempted to
39:47say oh don't ask any questions whenever
39:50uh scientific people attempted to say
39:52faith is a bunch of nonsense Thomas
39:54aquinus stands a thwart those two
39:57positions and brings them back
40:02[Music]
40:25together
40:37[Music]
40:48one of the most signal contributions of
40:50Thomas aquinus was in the area of
40:52theological anthropology to give it its
40:54technical description more or simply his
40:57understanding of the human person what
40:59strikes you first about Thomas in this
41:01area is how anti-d duelist he was ainus
41:05was much more at home with the biblical
41:07idea of the unity of the person than he
41:10was with all those forms of platonic
41:12dualism that dominated Christian thought
41:14before
41:17him for Thomas the soul is not an alien
41:20power standing over and against the body
41:23nor an unhappy Spirit imprisoned in the
41:26body
41:27body rather it is the form of the body
41:30the energy that makes a body
41:31distinctively
41:33human this statement from the Suma is
41:37typical the whole human soul is in the
41:40whole
41:42body and also in every part of the body
41:46just as God is present the entire
41:49universe also
41:51this the soul is in the body not as
41:54contained by it but as containing
41:58it one upshot of this unifying view is
42:02that the body should be
42:05reverenced here again from
42:08Thomas we ought to cherish the body our
42:11body's substance is not from an evil
42:13principle but from God and therefore we
42:16ought to cherish the body by a
42:18friendship of
42:20love so Thomas is not a dualist but
42:24didn't he believe in the immortality the
42:26soul well indeed he did because the
42:28Soul's intellectual capacity its ability
42:31to engage in properly abstract thinking
42:34is a sign of its
42:36immateriality nevertheless he was
42:38convinced that in heaven Body and Soul
42:40come together here's his own language at
42:44the Resurrection The Soul resumes not a
42:46Celestial body or the body of some
42:49animal but a human body made up of Flesh
42:52and Bones Heaven is not a place of pure
42:55spirit
42:56it's an embodied place because no human
42:59soul would ever be perfectly happy apart
43:02from a human
43:06[Music]
43:25body
43:33another key dimension of Thomas'
43:35anthropology is his biblically based
43:38conviction that the human being is made
43:40in the image and likeness of
43:43God this has nothing to do with physical
43:45resemblance for God is not
43:48Material it has to do with the curiously
43:51infinite capacity of the mind and the
43:55will
43:59the mind is Never Satisfied by any of
44:01the particular truths of the Sciences or
44:05philosophy it wants to know the truth
44:09itself the will is Never Satisfied by
44:12any particular good it wants the good
44:18itself in a word both mind and Will are
44:21ordered to
44:23God by Nature we are order to something
44:26Beyond nature and from this Paradox
44:29flows much of the drama and poetry of
44:31The Human
44:33Condition the human being is made for
44:37ecstasy for the journey into
44:45God Thomas referred to theology as a
44:47science look at the sciences that begin
44:50you know in the 16th century and of
44:52course we're still asking all kinds of
44:54questions the scientists have a way of
44:56opening up as you answer one question 10
44:59new ones emerge the same is true of the
45:01science of theology so the the best
45:03minds of the time in the Middle Ages
45:05went in for theology as the best Minds
45:08probably today go in for the Sciences
45:10you have the best minds of a given era
45:13looking at these questions they're going
45:14to find all sorts of things to explore
45:16and when you read the text of Thomas
45:18acquaintance they're they're
45:19breathtaking you U you can see the um
45:22the autographs of aus that crabbed
45:23writing of his but the detail of his
45:27mind and the the nature of the analysis
45:30is just extraordinary um he was a genius
45:33he a bit like you know an Einstein or a
45:35Newton or a Kant or a Plato he was a
45:38genius within the structure of his time
45:46[Music]
45:54intellectually
46:01[Music]
46:24all
46:26[Music]
46:47though it's overlooked in most
46:49treatments of time as acquaintance the
46:51great Dominican Saint is best
46:52characterized I think as someone deeply
46:54in love with Jesus Christ you can sense
46:57it in his Devotion to the Eucharist and
46:59to the other sacraments you see it too
47:02in his rather extraordinary mystical
47:04experience but perhaps most clearly in
47:06his writings on Jesus which I think are
47:08the Lynch pin to his whole thought as a
47:12text in the third part of the sum loia
47:14I've always found it very moving and
47:17very clarifying the topic out of
47:19consideration is the appropriateness or
47:21fittingness of the Incarnation Theus
47:24says something is fitting in a measure
47:26that it's congruent with your nature
47:29thus it's fitting for me now to be
47:30speaking to you because I'm a rational
47:32animal well God's nature is to be the
47:35good and as the ancient adage had it
47:38bonum defus sui that means the good is
47:41diffusive of itself it gives itself away
47:44when you're in a good mood you don't
47:46turn inward but rather you overflow you
47:49effres you go out of yourself so we can
47:52see the Supreme goodness of God in the
47:54sheer variety and fund of what he's made
47:57God did not remain in isolated
48:00self-regard but rather he gave himself
48:04[Music]
48:07away but if God is the absolutely
48:10highest
48:11good then it would follow it would be
48:15convenience or fitting that God would
48:17give himself in the fullest possible
48:20Manner and this says Thomas takes place
48:23when God joins to himself a created
48:26nature becoming one with
48:30creation the Incarnation is therefore
48:33the shest and purest indication of God's
48:38[Music]
48:39goodness we could sum this up by saying
48:42that the good God is ecstatic he tends
48:46to stand out from himself ecstasis to
48:50move toward the other in
48:53love but this fits perfectly ly with
48:56Thomas's Reflections on the human person
48:59for we saw earlier that human beings by
49:01their nature tend outward and upward
49:05ecstatically reaching out toward the
49:07good and the
49:10true Jesus
49:12Christ the coming together of divinity
49:15and humanity is accordingly the meeting
49:18of two ecstasies a Divine ecstasy that
49:22reaches down and a human ecstasy that
49:25reaches up
49:28with the icon of Jesus Christ in mind we
49:31can also understand with greater Clarity
49:34one of Thomas's Master
49:36ideas namely that the true God and
49:39Humanity are not in competition with one
49:43another Thomas says with the mainstream
49:45of the Catholic tradition that Jesus is
49:48the hypostatic or personal Unity of two
49:50Natures Divine and human that come
49:53together without mixing mingling or
49:55confusing usion Jesus is not quasi human
49:59quasi Divine like Hercules or Achilles
50:02nor is he merely human like a great
50:03saint nor merely Divine as the dosas
50:06would have it rather he's truly human
50:09and truly Divine neither nature having
50:12to compromise itself to make way for the
50:14other now can you see how this Doctrine
50:18coheres with it indeed gives rise to
50:21Thomas's sense of God as ipsum essay or
50:24being self if God were a Supreme Being
50:28however great he'd still be one finite
50:30nature among many hence would compete
50:33with creatures a Supreme Being could not
50:35become incarnate without compromising
50:38either himself or the Integrity of the
50:40creature he
50:45becomes the God who does indeed give
50:47himself away
50:49utterly becoming a creature but without
50:52undermining himself or the creature he
50:54becomes
50:56cannot be one being among
50:59many what a beautiful and Illuminating
51:02Coincidence of
51:03[Music]
51:11teachings you know Thomas's status as a
51:13thinker is kind of a complicated issue
51:16go back to the early 20th century
51:17Bertrand Russell you know the great
51:18philosopher writes a history of
51:20philosophy and includes Thomas aquinus
51:22but he's a minor character in fact he
51:24closes the chapter by saying I don't
51:27really understand his enormous
51:28reputation because he's just a competent
51:30commentator on Aristotle that would be a
51:32very reductive modern dismissal of
51:36Thomas aquinus at the same time you've
51:38got some on the Catholic side that would
51:40probably so Elevate Thomas as a
51:42philosopher my point is this he was
51:45indeed a philosopher even a great one
51:47but he's best read as a theologian above
51:50all he wanted to use philosophy in
51:53service of a higher end always to move
51:55people to Christ so he's a complicated
51:57intellectual figure that way you can
52:00isolate some of his writing say well
52:01there's his philosophical work and read
52:03it simply that way but I think that
52:05violates his own spirit I would rang
52:08Thomas acquaintance as one of the four
52:10or five greatest thinkers in the western
52:11tradition and that includes Plato
52:13Aristotle Kant and you know some of the
52:16very best um but it's a complicated
52:19thing because he's both philosopher and
52:21theologian but the very best way to read
52:23him is philosopher in service of
52:31[Music]
52:54theology
52:58[Music]
53:33why is Thomas aquinus a pivotal
53:36player he showed as completely and
53:39passionately as anyone in the tradition
53:42that Christians could think deeply about
53:44their
53:45faith for him no question even the most
53:48fundamental was off
53:51limits he demonstrated thereby that
53:54faith and reason are not in opposition
53:56to one
53:58another that being a Believer involves
54:00as we saw no sacrum
54:04[Music]
54:06intellectus in our time when so many
54:08hold that religious people are
54:10simpletons and religious Faith only a
54:13crude
54:15Superstition Thomas aquinus remains more
54:18relevant than
54:20ever he's also pivotal because he
54:23beautifully exemplified a truly Catholic
54:27Mind by which I mean a mind open to
54:30every and any
54:32influence willing to embrace the truth
54:34wherever he found
54:37it Thomas was inspired of course by the
54:39Bible in the great Christian theological
54:42tradition but he also read and cited
54:44with enthusiasm the Pagan philosophers
54:47Plato Aristotle and Cicero the Jewish
54:50rabbi Moses
54:51myones the Muslim Scholars veroes Aisa
54:56aaan even when he disagreed with the
54:58Thinker as he did with origin and ca
55:01braon he always did so with respect and
55:04without
55:05polemics in this he's a wonderful model
55:08for our time when the religious
55:10conversation is sadly so marked by
55:12ranker and
55:15vituperation finally he's pivotal in his
55:18understanding of God as
55:20non-competitively Transcendent the god
55:22of Thomas aquaintance as we saw is not a
55:25threat to human freedom and human
55:26Integrity but the very ground of that
55:28freedom and that Integrity Thomas
55:31aquinus would agree with st erus that
55:33the glory of God is a human being Fully
55:36Alive at a time when so many people see
55:39God's existence as undermining the human
55:42project how liberating and clarifying
55:44this Doctrine is the god of Thomas
55:47aquinus is the god of the burning bush
55:50that power whose proximity makes the
55:52world more beautiful and more radiant
55:55without consuming
55:57[Music]
56:18[Music]
56:23it
56:27[Music]
58:23a
58:29[Music]
58:53n
58:58[Music]
1:00:23oh

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