On this day in 1274, Thomas Aquinas (he was only canonised by Pope John XXII in 1323) died. He was forty-nine years old, but his impact far exceeded his years.
Born into a wealthy family, Aquinas studied in Naples, where he was struck by the newly-founded Dominican monastic order which emphasised theological scholarship alongside pastoral work. Perhaps the most profound intellectual influence upon the young Aquinas was that of Albert the Great of Cologne, whom Aquinas met in 1248. Albert exposed Aquinas to the work of Aristotle, the bulk of whose work had only just been translated into Latin. Aristotle would prove fundamental to Aquinas’s work.
Despite only being active for two decades, Aquinas left behind eight million written words across approximately one hundred works. Of these, the most notable is the Summa Theologiae which is an attempt to apply Aristotelian philosophy to Catholic theology. Across three parts, it discusses the nature and existence of God; examines ethics and moral theology developing Aquinas’s Natural Law as a normative ethical theory; and explores the nature of Christ.
Aquinas sought to demonstrate the existence of God through natural reason. Looking to Aristotle, he posited that everything in the world had a cause (akin to the Aristotelian prime mover). The result of the inquiry was his claim that that God is the first cause of the universe, and without Him there could be no universe.
The lengthy discussions of morality in the Summa Theologiae demonstrate the importance which Aquinas attached to moral issues within the discipline of theology. Aquinas’s ethical theory is known as natural law because, as he saw it, it was a distinctive way for humans to engage with the law set forth by God within the Bible, a law which stems from the observable world. To Aquinas, this law and the associated ethics of virtue were to govern the entirety of human affairs.
While undeniably seminal, the Summa Theologiae was not Aquinas’s sole influential work. His eleven commentaries on Aristotle reveal a deep admiration for his antecedent, even if at times they attempt to force Aristotle into a Christian framework. Returning to the idea of the first cause, the idea of a creator as the first cause of the universe is an overstep from the Aristotelian prime mover, which instead focuses on the nature and purpose of objects within the universe. Nonetheless, the role of Aquinas in developing the Aristotelian tradition was massively significant.
The greatest intellectual achievement with which is it possible to credit Aquinas is that of bringing faith closer to reason, giving rise to later philosophical work which attempts to explain God rationally. His argument that reason itself was a divine gift allowed such developments. Aquinas’s enduring influence is exemplified by the continuing interest in his work, with articles discussing various aspects of his positions continuing to feature in modern publications, and his work remaining fundamental to any modern course in Theology or Philosophy.
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Bibliography
McInerny, R. and O’Callaghan, J. (2022). Saint Thomas Aquinas (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Stanford.edu. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/.
Führer, M. (2020). Albert the Great. Summer 2020 ed. [online] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/albert-great/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2021].
Fehr, R.A. (2021) ‘Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and The Third Man Argument’, New Blackfriars, 102(1100), pp. 517–533. doi:10.1111/nbfr.12560.
Smith, T.L. AQUINAS ON ARISTOTLE AND CREATION USE OR MISUSE? (n.d.). Available at: https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/bitstream/123456789/12769/1/aquinas-on-aristotle.pdf [Accessed 4 Mar. 2026].