False Gods

[Slopeshoulder]

[ThatGirlAgain]

Here is an interesting essay about Aquinas and Dante. (And Abelard! And Luther!) It is too big to quote in its entirety. Here are a few little tastes.

Aquinas studied Aristotle like no other man had before or since and he used Aristotle to justify his entire thinking. Aquinas' theory of knowledge is not a vision of divine truth -- you might expect that coming from this very Christian saint. Rather, his theory of knowledge is a sober statement of how men know the world. Man is a rational animal and the world can be understood by human reason. A being endowed with reason, man can understand the universe. But as an animal, man can know only that which he can experience with his senses.
…
We have reached the first principle of Aquinas or, as Aristotle called it, the prime mover. Here Dante receives an angelic vision -- it is a vision of man made in God's image. So, for Dante, the way to God is found in human life. This was Abelard's message. It was the message of Aquinas as well. There are two roads to truth, not one.
…
Abelard, Aquinas and Dante helped to construct a world view which placed reason and faith at the center of man's quest for truth. That truth was God and God's will.

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html

[Burninglight]

Here is an interesting essay about Aquinas and Dante. (And Abelard! And Luther!) It is too big to quote in its entirety. Here are a few little tastes.

Aquinas studied Aristotle like no other man had before or since and he used Aristotle to justify his entire thinking. Aquinas' theory of knowledge is not a vision of divine truth -- you might expect that coming from this very Christian saint. Rather, his theory of knowledge is a sober statement of how men know the world. Man is a rational animal and the world can be understood by human reason. A being endowed with reason, man can understand the universe. But as an animal, man can know only that which he can experience with his senses.
…
We have reached the first principle of Aquinas or, as Aristotle called it, the prime mover. Here Dante receives an angelic vision -- it is a vision of man made in God's image. So, for Dante, the way to God is found in human life. This was Abelard's message. It was the message of Aquinas as well. There are two roads to truth, not one.
…
Abelard, Aquinas and Dante helped to construct a world view which placed reason and faith at the center of man's quest for truth. That truth was God and God's will.

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html

I'd be happy having anyone of those truths fully operational in my life

[TomD]

I can thoroughly recommend Deny Turner — especially his Darkness of God — it knocks a lot of contemporary notions about 'mystics' and 'mysticism' for six!

Aquinas studied Aristotle like no other man had before or since and he used Aristotle to justify his entire thinking.

Steady! His method was Aristotelian, but he did not see the world as Aristotle saw it. And Aquinas' major influences — Augustine and the pseudoDionysius — are Christian Platonists through and through.

Aquinas' theory of knowledge is not a vision of divine truth ...

Oh, I rather think it is ... look at how he organised his materials in the Summa:
"PRIMA PARS:
Sacred Doctrine. The One God. The Blessed Trinity. Creation. The Angels. The Six Days. Man. The Government of Creatures."
Where else does he get his data from, other than Divine Revelation?

God bless.

TomD

[Burninglight]

Aquinas' theory of knowledge is not a vision of divine truth ...

Oh, I rather think it is ... look at how he organised his materials in the Summa:
"PRIMA PARS:
Sacred Doctrine. The One God. The Blessed Trinity. Creation. The Angels. The Six Days. Man. The Government of Creatures."
Where else does he get his data from, other than Divine Revelation?

God bless.

TomD

He got his knowledge and divine revelation from the Word of God in the Bible.
Jesus is the truth; He is the Word of God, and all things are held together by the word of God's power who is Jesus Christ. When I say all things I even mean logic and reason!

[TomD]

I see that I made something of a monumental omission in my above post. What I should have said, of course, is:
Where else does he get his data from, other than Scripture and Tradition?

Mea culpa,

God bless.

TomD

[Burninglight]

Here is an interesting essay about Aquinas and Dante. (And Abelard! And Luther!) It is too big to quote in its entirety. Here are a few little tastes.

Aquinas studied Aristotle like no other man had before or since and he used Aristotle to justify his entire thinking. Aquinas' theory of knowledge is not a vision of divine truth -- you might expect that coming from this very Christian saint. Rather, his theory of knowledge is a sober statement of how men know the world. Man is a rational animal and the world can be understood by human reason. A being endowed with reason, man can understand the universe. But as an animal, man can know only that which he can experience with his senses.
…
We have reached the first principle of Aquinas or, as Aristotle called it, the prime mover. Here Dante receives an angelic vision -- it is a vision of man made in God's image. So, for Dante, the way to God is found in human life. This was Abelard's message. It was the message of Aquinas as well. There are two roads to truth, not one.
…
Abelard, Aquinas and Dante helped to construct a world view which placed reason and faith at the center of man's quest for truth. That truth was God and God's will.

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html

These are two different paths to truth and none of them will get man to the truth. These world views will as the Scriptures state have man forever learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth!

[TomD]

These are two different paths to truth and none of them will get man to the truth. These world views will as the Scriptures state have man forever learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth!

I rather think the opposite. Listen to the Shema Israel:
"Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind."
(cf Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

It's what the parables of the sower and the seed, the talents, etc., are all about.

God bless

Thomas

[Burninglight]

These are two different paths to truth and none of them will get man to the truth. These world views will as the Scriptures state have man forever learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth!

I rather think the opposite. Listen to the Shema Israel:
"Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind."
(cf Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

It's what the parables of the sower and the seed, the talents, etc., are all about.

God bless

Thomas

Even the article states they are not divine truths. The parables of the sower is just about reaping what you sow and Loving God with all our heart mind and soul and our neighbor has nothing to do with reconciling faith and reason. The Scriptures state we should trust God and obey Him and that we should not lean to our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths. Moreover, there is away that seems right to a man but that way leads to death. These guys allow too much secularism to creep into their thinking. When you think, think, think you sink, sink, sink then you stink, stink, stink

[TomD]

Even the article states they are not divine truths.

No, they reveal them.

The parables of the sower is just about reaping what you sow and Loving God with all our heart mind and soul and our neighbor has nothing to do with reconciling faith and reason.

Of course it has.

The Scriptures state we should trust God and obey Him and that we should not lean to our own understanding...

But that's precisely what you are doing ... what you claim is based on your own understanding!

Look at Acts 8 — it states quite plainly that you won't understand Scripture unless it's explained (Philip's discourse with the Ethiopian).

God bless,

Thomas