什么是圣托马斯.阿奎那

Thomas Aquinas, St.

天主教会首席哲学家和神学家。双亲为义大利贵族，他在那不勒斯大学就读，加入道明会，并任教於巴黎大学一家多米尼克学校。他在巴黎的时间正好是亚里斯多德哲学（阿拉伯译文中的新发现）来临之时，他的伟大成就是把亚里斯多德哲学的活力融入基督教思想，就像早年教会的牧师在基督教早期调和了柏拉图的思想。他坚持，理智能在信仰之内运作；哲学家仅仅仰赖理智，神学家则把信仰当作起点，然後藉着理智达成结论。这种观点具有争议性，他对自然之宗教价值的信仰亦然，为此他辩称，减损创造物的完美就贬低了造物者。他遭到圣波拿文都拉的反对。在他死後的1277年，巴黎的宗教大师公开谴责219条陈述，其中12条属於圣托马斯.阿奎那。不过，他仍在1323年被追諡为圣徒，1576年被尊为教会博士，19世纪末现代派危机期间被奉为正统的提倡者。身为多产作家，他写过八十种以上的作品，包括《反异教大全》（1261～1264）和《神学大全》（1265～1273）。亦请参阅Thomism。

1224/1225～1274年

Thomas Aquinas, St.

Foremost philosopher and theologian of the Roman Catholic church. Born of noble parents at Roccasecca, Italy, he studied at the University of Naples, joined the Dominicans, and taught at a Dominican school at the University of Paris. His time in Paris coincided with the arrival of Aristotelian science, newly discovered in Arabic translation; his great achievement was to integrate into Christian thought the rigors of Aristotle's philosophy, just as the early church fathers had integrated Plato's thought in the early Christian era. He held that reason is capable of operating within faith; while the philosopher relies solely on reason, the theologian accepts faith as his starting point and then proceeds to conclusion through the use of reason. This point of view was controversial, as was his belief in the religious value of nature, for which he argued that to detract from the perfection of creation was to detract from the creator. He was opposed by St. Bonaventure. In 1277, after his death, the masters of Paris condemned 219 propositions, 12 of them Thomas's. He was nevertheless canonized in 1323, named a Doctor of the Church in 1567, and declared the champion of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis at the end of the 19th century. A prolific writer, he produced more than 80 works, including Summa contra Gentiles (1261-64) and Summa theologica (1265-73). See also Thomism.