I have been on this long 800+ page journey with St. Thomas Aquinas and his writings, which mingle philosophy and theology from his perch in history (1225 - 1274). It has been a fruitful and intellectual journey, one that has deepened my understanding and challenged me because I am no theologian and I barely know philosophy (my reading stack is always growing with philosophy books). I had never read anything of Aquinas and when I learned that he drew from Aristotle and saw the importance of philosophy as a necessary tool for a deeper understanding of faith, I knew I had to get introduced to him. Now that we have been introduced, and I have completed this book of his selected writings, I thought I'd share a brief summary, though by no means do I feel well versed as I have only scratched the surface, and this summary will be woefully incomplete.
As with any long journey, you want to have plenty of liquids to keep you going, so Thomas became my coffee companion in the mornings. I like to read philosophy in the morning, preferably when my mind is most awake and sharp (coffee surely helps with that). Accompanied by a cup of coffee I would read a few pages from Thomas Aquinas, exploring his ideas, which often had their origins in Aristotle, but not to copy or conform to his ideas, but as a spring board into deeper understanding of the Christian faith, showing how God reveals himself to us through images and likenesses. A reminder that there is truth to be gleaned in the ancient philosophers, though not all is true.
Reading a few pages at a time was ideal, for Thomas is a deep intellectual and much above my head. He would often pose a question and then proceed to answer both sides of the argument. It is amazing to read as it guides you through the process of a debate. It strengthens his argument by already laying out the counter-argument before he proceeds. This aspect of his argument style writing is already stretching me in how to build a better argument. Instead of asking what I think or know is correct, asking what would the opposite reply be as well. It does draw out the reason of an argument if you lay out a reply and a contrary reply. Then you conclude with the response. That's what Thomas does, and I am learning from it.
He poses the questions and responds on all ponderings of life - About happiness, truth, goodness, evil, science, conscience, God's existence, divine nature, the soul, words, the ultimate end.
...happiness is a good exceeding created nature. Hence is it impossible that it came about the action of any creature, but a man becomes happy solely through the agency of God, if we are talking of perfect happiness.
I read these arguments about happiness and how it is so counter from our culture and its total embrace of "do whatever makes you happy", which is never going to fulfill because doing what makes you happy, i.e. selfish desires, will leave you empty as it excludes God, and fleeting desires will satisfy for a short moment, at best, but will always leave an emptiness because it's not letting that good thing lead them to something deeper, that is, God. Some enjoyment or pleasure is not true happiness, and if it doesn't lead one to reach deeper to desire the true end of that desire (the ultimate good of God), one will be left wanting and empty. Even going back to Medieval time in history these issues were around in culture. It isn't anything new, and yet how we have not learned from this, and grown even more robustly ignorant of this truth. Hence the consistently rising mental health issues, broken families and relationships, and people walking away from church in general.
It's difficult to quickly list or quote from Thomas because he builds these arguments in steps and cherry picking is not ideal. It's best to read the whole of a question at least, to get both sides of the argument and his conclusive reasoning. I am just dipping into Thomas and his writings (800 pages is a dip). To gain a better understanding and meditate on such ideas, which he draws from those such as Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius. It leads me to want to re-read those authors, who I am already friends with, but would like to hear more of their thoughts. One author leads to another - it's one of those great joys of reading.
What are you reading that has been challenging you lately?
No comments:
Post a Comment