Who Was St Thomas Aquinas?

Kelly Monroe Kullberg is the founder of Veritas Forum, a forum that seeks to help students raise and explore the hardest questions of the world in relation to the person of Jesus and the biblical worldview. Author of Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas, Kelly Monroe Kullberg co-authored and edited an award-winning book, Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Christian Thinkers.

Veritas Forums at times explore questions of natural law and divine revelation in which references are made to Thomas Aquinas, a foremost medieval Christian scholar and thinker. Deriving his thoughts from Aristotelian philosophy, Aquinas was able to develop ideas in the metaphysics of providence, creation, and personality.

His works, the Summa Theologiae and the Summa Contra Gentiles are key in the systemization of Latin theology. In the Summa, Aquinas explores demonstrative and probable arguments, often drawn from philosophers to persuade skeptics. In the fourth book he appeals to the authority of the Bible for insights and truths which surpass the capacity of human reason.

He also wrote some of the church’s most hauntingly beautiful eucharistic songs. The term “Thomism’’ refers to his theological philosophy as well as the justifications and advancements made by his adherents.

Further, St. Thomas is acknowledged by the Roman Catholic Church as its most important Western philosopher and theologian, even though many contemporary Roman Catholic theologians do not find him very agreeable.

Thomas’ close textual comments on Aristotle represent a cultural resource that is now receiving more attention. The Catholic Church has repeatedly acknowledged the relevance of Thomas’s writings in the development of Christian theology today.