Lecture 26 Aquinas and
Bonaventure
Dr. Ann T. Orlando
10 November 2015
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Introduction
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Predecessors
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Anselm
Lombard
Albert
Aquinas
Bonaventure
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St. Anselm (1033 -1109)
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Archbishop of Canterbury
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Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith seeking
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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)
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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
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St. Peter Lombard (11001160)
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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
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Required that all Masters of Theology write a
commentary on Sentences
Lombard became was known as the Magister
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Sentences
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Organized in four Books
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God and the Trinity
Creation
Incarnation and Redemption
Sacraments
In 13th C Books subdivided into
“distinctiones” (breaks in reading)
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St. Albert the Great (1200 –
1280) and Aristotle
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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
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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
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St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
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Born in Italy, studied in Italy and
Paris
Dominican
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Student and professor at University
of Paris
Key Influences
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Albert the Great
Church Fathers
Aristotle
Earlier Aristotelian commentators,
especially Averroes and Maimonides
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Thomas Aquinas
Angelic Doctor
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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
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Needed to show that his theological conclusions were consistent
with Augustine;
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Emphasis on causes
Emphasis on categories
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)
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The Structure of the Summa
Theologiae
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Divided into Three Parts; the Second
Part further divided Part I and Part II
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Each Part divided into Questions
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Each Question divided into Articles
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Each Article includes a
 Statement,
 Objections and
 Replies
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Ia IIae Q90 a1
(In English: First Part of Second
Part, Question 90, Article 1)
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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…
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Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.)
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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.
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Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.)
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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…
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Example: Definition of Virtue
ST Ia IIae Q55
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Reconcile two very different definitions of virtue
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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
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But both Aristotle and Augustine start their discussion of virtue with how man can be
happy
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
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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)
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Infused and acquired virtue ST Iae IIae Q 63
Importance of prudence ST IIa IIae Q 47 – 56
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Example: Transubstantiation
ST IIIa Q75 a 1-8
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Relies on Aristotle’s The Categories
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Philosophical idea of substance, accidents
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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
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Substance: what things really are, their essence
Accidents: how they appear to senses, properties that are
incidental, weight, color, taste
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)
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Adoro Te Devote
by 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
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Bonaventure (1221-1274)
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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
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Itinerarium or
Journey of the Mind to God
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Written for a student retreat
Details steps of spiritual progress
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Mimics pilgrimage itinerary
Approach God by leaving world behind
Franciscan spirituality in an apophatic key
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Later Opposition to
Scholasticism
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14th and 15th C Nominalism and Linguistics
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16th C Reformation
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Philosophical rejection of scholasticism, primarily from
Franciscans
Renaissance scholars who want to return to original sources
and a study of language over philosophy
Rejection of doctrines derived from Scholastic theology
Return to ‘only’ source: Scripture
17th C Scientific Revolution
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Reject Aristotle-Ptolemy astronomical model
Reject Aristotelian methods in favor or new methods , Bacon
and Novum Organum
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Assignments
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Aquinas, http://www.newadvent.org/summa/
, either
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Natural Law, Ia IIae Q90 – 97
Virtue, Ia IIae Q55 and IIa IIae Q23
Bonaventure, Itinerarium
http://web.sbu.edu/theology/apczynski/cours
es/CLAR%20101%20Intellectual%20Journey/
Itinerarium/Table%20of%20contents.htm
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