The Philosophy of
Christianity
Scholasticism
Thomas Aquinas
(1225 – 1274)
 Dominican Monk
 Primary work was
Summa Theologica
 Wanted to make a
science of faith
 Christian
philosophy:
“Reason does not
destroy faith but
perfects it”
Thomas Aquinas
(1225 – 1274)
 Combined medieval
theology and
Aristotelian
philosophy
 Aristotle explained
what things are
 Aquinas explained
how they got that
way
 God did it
God’s Divine Attributes
 Omnipotence:
 God is perceived
doctrinally as allpowerful.
 God created the
world ex-nihilo
(from nothing)
 Immutability:
 God is unchanging.
 Eternally:
 God exists at any
and all moments of
time.
 Omniscience:
 God is all-knowing.
 God knows in a way
beyond human
understanding.
 Omni-benevolence:
 God is all good.
Summa Theologica
 631 Questions on
Christian Philosophy
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Existence of God
Creation of women
Economics/Charity
Free will
Natural Law
Evil
The Problem of Evil
 If the Cosmic Designer is the theistic,
omnipotent and benevolent God, then why is
the world so full of evil?
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Mass destruction/War
Disease
Creatures torturing and killing other creatures
Disco
Pain
Illness
 Why would a benevolent God let such things
happen?
 Why would an omnipotent God create a
world where such things have to happen?
Does God Exist?
 At the beginning of Summa
Theologica, Thomas Aquinas admitted
that the existence of evil is the best
argument against the existence of
God.
So?
Either God exists and Evil doesn’t
or
God doesn’t exist and Evil does
Objections & Responses
 Objection 1:
There is evil so God can’t exist.
 Objection 2:
Nature and Will explain everything.
 Response 1:
Evil exists to produce good.
 Response 2:
Nature needed something to start it.
Will needs a direction.
“The existence of God can be
proved in five ways”
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Argument from Motion
Efficient Cause
Possibility and Necessity
Gradation to be Found in Things
Governance of Things
Argument from Motion
 Something set the universe in motion
 Sounds like Isaac Newton “borrowed”
from Aquinas
 For Christians, that something was
God
 “Prime Mover” Theory
Efficient Cause
 Aristotle, Aquinas and the causal
argument
 If A causes B, and B causes C, then A
causes C
 But what happens if A does not occur?
Neither B nor C will occur either
 The causal chain must, therefore, have a
beginning, and that beginning is God
 God is A
From Possibility to Necessity
 In Nature things that are possible are either,
to be - they are created, or not to be, they
are destroyed
 If at one time nothing was in existence, it
would have been impossible for anything to
have begun to exist
 Big Bang Theory?
 Every necessary thing is caused by another
 God caused everything to exist
 “Creator” Theory
Argument of Perfection
 Things in the world are in gradations
of less or more: good, noble, hot
 Therefore there must be something
that is best, or perfect and that is…
 Mr. Kelly
Argument of Perfection
 Things in the world are in gradations
of less or more: good, noble, hot
 Therefore there must be something
that is best, or perfect and that is…
 God
Governance of Things
 Things that lack being are imperfect
 Natural/imperfect bodies act for an end, to
obtain the best result
 They achieve their goal not by chance, but
by design
 Who ordered things to their end, directed
them, God, in the same way that “the
arrow is directed by the archer”
 “Intelligent Design” Theory