Lecture 25 Aquinas and Bonaventure

1. Lecture 25 Aquinas and Bonaventure Dr. Ann T. Orlando 29 October 2013

2. Introduction • Predecessors • Anselm • Lombard • Albert • Aquinas • Bonaventure

3. St. Anselm (1033 -1109) • Archbishop of Canterbury • Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith seeking understanding, which he gets from Augustine) • Ontological argument for existence of God, “that than which no greater can be thought” • Cur Deus Homo (Why God became man) • Advanced theory of satisfaction for Jesus’ death • Based on feudal notion of honor, justice and social status • Only God-man can satisfy the affront to God’s honor due to original sin; as man he has the obligation to satisfy; as God he is able to satisfy

4. St. Peter Lombard (1100-1160) • Professor of theology of Cathedral School of Notre Dame and Archbishop of Paris • Wrote Sentences (1150)as a way to organize teaching of the Church Fathers to explicate Catholic teaching • Most influential text in Middle Ages • Required that all Masters of Theology write a commentary on Sentences • Lombard became was known as the Magister

5. Sentences • Organized in four Books • God and the Trinity • Creation • Incarnation and Redemption • Sacraments • In 13th C Books subdivided into “distinctiones” (breaks in reading)

6. St. Albert the Great (1200 – 1280) and Aristotle • Born in Germany, study in Italy, entered the Dominicans, taught at University of Paris • Life-long study of Aristotle, including development of paraphrases of Aristotle's major works • Keenly interested in natural world and natural theology using Aristotelian methods • Detailed translation and commentary on Aristotle’s Organum • Advanced theory of universals as existing in themselves but also as constructs of human mind • Anthropology and Ethics based on Aristotle • Teacher of Thomas Aquinas

7. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) • Born in Italy, studied in Italy and Paris • Dominican • Student and professor at University of Paris • Key Influences • Albert the Great • Church Fathers • Aristotle • Earlier Aristotelian commentators, especially Averroes and Maimonides

8. Thomas AquinasAngelic Doctor • Developed systematic approach to theology using Aristotelian methods (Aristotle as the Philosopher in the Summa) • Relied on newly available Greek works from Jewish and Moslem sources; Moses Maimonides, Averrhoes • Very different from theological approach; Aristotelian rather than neo-Platonic • Emphasis on causes • Emphasis on categories • Needed to show that his theological conclusions were consistent with Augustine; • until he did so he was considered radical and suspect • Two great works: Summa Theologica (theological) or Theologiae (theology); Summa Contra Gentiles • But he also wrote beautiful songs, especially in praise of Eucharist (one of which we sing at Benediction, and another during Holy Thursday)

9. The Structure of the Summa Theologiae • Divided into Three Parts; the Second Part further divided Part I and Part II • Each Part divided into Questions • Each Question divided into Articles • Each Article includes a • Statement, • Objections and • Replies

10. Ia IIae Q90 a1(In English: First Part of Second Part, Question 90, Article 1) • Whether law is something pertaining to reason? • Objection 1. It would seem that law is not something pertaining to reason. For the Apostle says (Rm. 7:23)… • Objection 2. Further, in the reason there is nothing else but power, habit, and act. But law is not the power itself of reason… • Objection 3. Further, the law moves those who are subject to it to act aright. But it belongs properly to the will to move to act…

11. Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.) • On the contrary, It belongs to the law to command and to forbid. But it belongs to reason to command, as stated above (17, 1). Therefore law is something pertaining to reason. • I answer that, Law is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting: for "lex" [law] is derived from "ligare" [to bind], because it binds one to act. Now the rule and measure of human acts is the reason, which is the first principle of human acts, as is evident from what has been stated above (1, 1, ad 3); since it belongs to the reason to direct to the end, which is the first principle in all matters of action, according to the Philosopher (Phys. ii). Now that which is the principle in any genus, is the rule and measure of that genus: for instance, unity in the genus of numbers, and the first movement in the genus of movements. Consequently it follows that law is something pertaining to reason.

12. Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.) • Reply to Objection 1. Since law is a kind of rule and measure, it may be in something in two ways…. • Reply to Objection 2. Just as, in external action, we may consider the work and the work done, for instance the work of building and the house built; so in the acts of reason, we may consider the act itself of reason, i.e. to understand and to reason, and something produced by this act… • Reply to Objection 3. Reason has its power of moving from the will, as stated above (17, 1): for it is due to the fact that one wills the end, that the reason issues its commands as regards things ordained to the end…

13. Example: Definition of Virtue ST Ia IIae Q55 • Reconcile two very different definitions of virtue • But both Aristotle and Augustine start their discussion of virtue with how man can be happy • Aristotle: Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it. Nicomachean Ethics • Virtue is a balance, as determined by a prudent man • Virtues divided into intellectual and moral • Virtue can (with difficulty) be acquired through the practice of good habits • Augustine: Virtue is a good quality of the mind, by which we live righteously, of which no one can make bad use, which God brings about in us, without us. On Free Will • Virtue is a gift of God (grace) • All virtues are derived from Christian charity • Aquinas (see ST Ia IIae 55.4 on definition of virtue) • Infused and acquired virtue ST Iae IIae Q 63 • Importance of prudence ST IIa IIae Q 47 – 56

14. Example: TransubstantiationST IIIa Q75 a 1-8 • Relies on Aristotle’s TheCategories • Philosophical idea of substance, accidents • Substance: what things really are, their essence • Accidents: how they appear to senses, properties that are incidental, weight, color, taste • Augustine has bad things to say about The Categories in Confessions (IV.28-31) • According to Aquinas Christ becomes fully present in the Eucharist when • the material substance of bread and wine is transformed into His own spiritual substance • only the accidents (color, texture, taste) of the bread and wine remain • Explains doctrine of transubstantiation from Lateran IV (1215)

15. Adoro Te Devoteby Thomas Aquinas Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art. Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived; How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true. From CCC translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins

16. Bonaventure (1221-1274) • Student and professor at University of Paris when Aquinas was there • Becomes head of Franciscans shortly after Francis • Describes Franciscan way of life in philosophical terms • Very dependent on Augustine

17. Itinerarium or Journey of the Mind to God • Written for a student retreat • Details steps of spiritual progress • Mimics pilgrimage itinerary • Approach God by leaving world behind • Franciscan spirituality in an apophatic key

18. Later Opposition to Scholasticism • 14th and 15th C Nominalism and Linguistics • Philosophical rejection of scholasticism, primarily from Franciscans • Renaissance scholars who want to return to original sources and a study of language over philosophy • 16th C Reformation • Rejection of doctrines derived from Scholastic theology • Return to ‘only’ source: Scripture • 17th C Scientific Revolution • Reject Aristotle-Ptolemy astronomical model • Reject Aristotelian methods in favor or new methods , Bacon and Novum Organum

19. Assignments • Aquinas, http://www.newadvent.org/summa/ , either • Natural Law, IaIIae Q90 – 97 • Virtue, IaIIae Q55 and IIaIIae Q23 • Bonaventure, Itinerariumhttp://web.sbu.edu/theology/apczynski/courses/CLAR%20101%20Intellectual%20Journey/Itinerarium/Table%20of%20contents.htm