14.7 Magic and Demons (SCG 3,104–110)
14.7 Magic and Demons (SCG 3,104–110)
In SCG 104–110 we find chapters that, I suspect, would be of no interest to contemporary philosophers and theologians. For in them Aquinas solemnly discusses how magicians might be empowered by bad immaterial substances to bring about what they do. In this context, Aquinas is obviously not thinking of magicians as the conjurers we applaud as their quickness of hand or their use of physical objects deceives our eyes. He is thinking of them as able to bring about effects in the world by incantations or rituals, and as helped in their “art” of magic by demonic forces. Since I take SCG 104–110 to be mostly of historical interest, I am not going to try to follow through its somewhat convoluted reasoning. Instead, having noted that Aquinas feels moved to write about magic and demons while talking about God’s providence, I shall proceed to what he says about rational creatures as subject to providence in a special way—his concern in SCG 3,111–163. This is the topic of the following chapter. Before concluding this one, however, I would like to make some comments on the reasoning of SCG 3,64–110.