The Summa theological
The Summa theological
Aquinas lived only 48 years, but his productivity was legion. He produced over sixty works; the authenticity of some of those works was questioned since he had scribes and secretaries and disciples whose work was sometimes attributed to Aquinas. The ground laying for his Summa theologica was his debates with colleagues over the compatibility of philosophy and theology. Could the unseen world be reconciled with the observable physical world?
As a master at the University of Paris he held disputations every two weeks and once a year during Advent and Lent, the seasons of penance, when the audience could choose the topic. His disputations “On Truth,” “On the power of God in the creation and conservation of things,” “On Evil,” “On Spiritual Creatures,” “On the Soul” were among his many works.
When not writing as theology professor, he wrote for outside purposes. Dominican missionaries serving in the Moslem world requested an apologetic for Catholic faith. Aquinas’ response was one of his two great Summae, Summa contra gentiles, in which he illuminates “the truth of the Catholic faith.” In this Summa he begins to lay the structure for his magnum opus, The Summa theologica. In the former he established his schema for proof of the existence God, creation, and its ordering to God as its end. He also wrote of matters that elude reason, but could be known by revelation, certain aspects of God like the Trinity.
It was while he was in Italy from 1259 to 1269 that his culminating work, the Summa theologica was composed. Along the same pattern of the disputation, he constructed it as a series of questions and sub-questions with answers affirmative and negative, followed by two arguments. In large part, he designed his questions based on those of his favorite sources, philosophers like Averroes whom Aquinas refuted, Dionysius the Areopagite, whom Aquinas believed was a Biblical character, a famous jurist of Ancient Rome, Peter Lombard, author of The Sentences, and of course Aristotle the philosopher and Augustine the theologian.
Other scholars are mentioned, one a Jewish rabbinical scholar and Islamic philosophers. Each question consists of four parts, each beginning with a fixed formula, the first two authoritative in nature, the second two based on rational argumentation, a device that brought theology into the realm of systematic theoretical inquiry. On the question of the existence of God, article one begins with his counter-argument, “It seems it is not so.”
Here he argues against the existence of God, using the well-worn atheist argument that a loving and powerful God would not permit evil. The second article offers, “On the contrary” arguing the other side. The third component begins, “I reply that it must be said that...” which begins the reply he favors. Here is where he presents his Five Proofs for the existence of God. Here he counters again the objections raised at the beginning. As illustration, below is an excerpt from the Summa’s 38 treatises, 612 questions, subdivided into 3,120 articles where about 10,000 objections are proposed and argued. The work has been in constant use for seven-hundred years. The first edition was printed in Basle in 1485, and is among the most published of all works; it exists in many translations, and a complete manuscript can be obtained online. “Whether God Exists” Question 2, Article 3 from The Summa theologica.
Whether God exists?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.
Objection 2: Further, it is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many. But it seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist. For all natural things can be reduced to one principle which is nature; and all voluntary things can be reduced to one principle which is human reason, or will. Therefore there is no need to suppose God’s existence.
On the contrary, It is said in the person of God: "I am Who am." (Ex. 3:14)
I answer that, The existence of God can be proved in five ways. {Here he enumerates The Five Ways which is omitted here for the sake of brevity}
Reply to Objection 1: As Augustine says (Enchiridion xi): "Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil." This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.
Reply to Objection 2: Since nature works for a determinate end under the direction of a higher agent, whatever is done by nature must needs be traced back to God, as to its first cause. So also whatever is done voluntarily must also be traced back to some higher cause other than human reason or will, since these can change or fail; for all things that are changeable and capable of defect must be traced back to an immovable and self-necessary first principle, as was shown in the body of the Article.