Thomas Aquinas: Contributions And Influential Thinkers In The Medieval World

Thomas Aquinas, was one of the most important and influential thinkers in the western, medieval world. His numerous works strove to reconcile and unify religion with reason. Aquino was a noble family. Unsurprisingly, this allowed him to gain knowledge at a very young age. At the age of only fourteen, Aquinas began studies at the university of Naples. During his years studying, the Dominican tradition had peaked Thomas ' interest and, in 1243 he secretly joined the order. When his family discovered this, they felt betrayed that Aquinas, who was supposed to become a powerful church man, gave up all of his worldly possessions to live a life of strict self denial. The family went even as far as capturing and imprisoning him for

Although the family disagreed, they saw that Thomas was resolute and wouldn 't abandon the Dominicans so they released him. In 1245, they sent Aquinas to study under the acknowledged, academic Albert, or better known as, Albert the Great, at a university in Cologne. Under his tutoring, Thomas was often ridiculed for being quiet and was called, “Dumb as an ox.” Albert however, saw the intellect of Aquinas and said,” You call him the dumb ox, but in his teaching he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world.” Truly Thomas ' teachings did produce a major impact on the history and future of western civilization. Aquinas who labored incessantly, has too many works to be mentioned in this short paper, but I will explain some of his most renowned ideas. First, there 's the Quinque Viae. According to this writing, Thomas believes that we can sense God through reason alone and he states five ways to do this. He starts it

The first is that God is one. Thomas first made the argument that there are two or more gods. But earlier we saw that God is pure act, this would be impossible since to determine between the two of them, one would have to lack or gain what the other doesn 't have. Meaning that they would have an unrealized potentiality. Another, is the attribute that he is immaterial. We go back to our first argument and see that being material involves being changeable. Since God isn 't changeable he can 't be material. Being all powerful is a common attribute given to God and how does Aquinas prove this through reason? First, we have to look at two characteristics in an objects potentiality or change. Formally is the first, this is where something can directly give a quality to something else. For example, a torch that is on fire can light a stack of papers. An eminent characteristic could be described as a lighter. The lighter has the ability to produce fire without showing it at all times. Since God is the source of all changes, he must also have the attributes and abilities of all things. This argument has lead to controversy, saying that if God is the source of everything, then he