Notes

Aristotelianism a school of thinking that relies on scientific or pragmatic experiences; followers believe humans perceive reality through physical objects and experiences with those objects
Scholasticism philosophical teachings based on Aristotle and the Church fathers, such as Thomas Aquinas; followers believe humans should use reasoning and inference to analyze reality
Saint Thomas Aquinas was a medieval philosopher and intellectual. He was born in his father’s castle near Naples, Italy. By the age of nineteen, Thomas Aquinas decided to become a monk. He joined the Dominican Order and was educated at a monastery. He received his doctorate in theology, and taught in Paris until 1259. Afterward, he spent years studying at Dominican monasteries near Rome, Italy. Unlike Augustine who focused on the world, Aquinas desired to understand the individual soul. To find the answers to his questions, whom did Aquinas study?

Aristotle! Aristotle was born in Greece and studied philosophy with Plato in Athens in 367. He defined reality through his experiences with physical objects. Aristotle was influential; he even tutored Alexander the Great.

Medieval philosophers agreed with Aristotle's ideas and confirmed that his ideas did not contradict the Bible; so, the philosophers, many of whom were also Church Fathers, merged Aristotle's ideas with Christian principles. This newly created philosophy came to be called Scholasticism.came to be called "The Philosopher."
Aquinas believed that man did have a soul and focused on understanding man in these terms. Using Aristotle's logic of knowing reality through experiences, Aquinas recognized that man could only know a reality of the material world-reflecting on one's experiences led to a deeper insight of reasoning. Can man know faith by means of reason? Is the soul real? Can man know of and understand his soul through reason?

Aquinas soon realized that reason could not provide all the answers he sought. Therefore, Aquinas proposed that faith could provide the answers where reason fell short. According to G.K. Chesterton, an English essayist from the 1800s who wrote about "The Philosopher," Aquinas constructed a very simple, yet foundational idea to prove God's existence: Long before he knows that grass is grass, or self is self, he knows that something is something. Perhaps it would be best to say very emphatically (with a blow on the table), "There is an Is." That is as much monkish credulity as St. Thomas asks of us at the start. Very few unbelievers start by asking us to believe so little. And yet, upon this sharp pin-point of reality, he rears by long logical processes that have never really been successfully overthrown, the whole cosmic system of Christendom.
Because Thomas helped establish Scholasticism in medieval Europe, ideas that reconciled reason and faith into a synthesis of Roman Catholic Church ideals, he was formally recognized as a saint in 1323.

anthropology the study of human development of humans, including Christian theology on humans in contrast with God
G.K. Chesterton was a famous 20th century essayist who wrote St. Thomas Aquinas - The Dumb Ox. His prolific work includes criticisms and commentaries that live on today.

In Chapter 7 "The Permanent Philosophy Summary and Analysis," Chesterton details how Aquinas accepted reality as "it is what it is." Chesterton contrasts Aquinas’ idea of looking at man as a whole with thinkers (anthropologists and philosophers) who see man as a beastly animal.

St. Thomas insisted that it was lit by five windows, that we call the windows of the senses. But he wanted the light from without to shine on what was within. He wanted to study the nature of Man, and not merely of such moss and mushrooms as he might see through the window, and which he valued as the first enlightening experience of man. And starting from this point, he proceeds to climb the House of Man, step by step and story by story, until he has come out on the highest tower and beheld the largest vision. (p. 1, "The Permanent Philosophy")
Aquinas was known as the Angelic Doctor due to his discussion of them in his Summa Theologica. The words translate to mean “whole theology.” Applying our knowledge of a theologian, we can determine that theology is the study of God and religious beliefs. Therefore, the Summa Theologica is intended to be a complete resource of theology.

Aquinas was able to connect his philosophical ideas with the founding ideals of the Church. According to Aquinas, faith came first and foremost; reason explained the remaining questions that faith could not. By having such a theological balance, Aquinas's works have remained prominent in the realms of philosophy and Christianity.