Thomas Aquinas was one of the great liberatorsof
the human intellect.
And of course there is a complete blunder in the
legendabout St. Perhaps it may be misunderstood if I say that St.
Francis didnot only listen for the angels, but also
listened to the birds. Nobody would say he wanted to divideMan from God; but he did
want to distinguish Man from God. Thomas was making Christendom more Christianin
making it more Aristotelian.
Indeed he was a particular type,which may be called
an international soldier.
That is the sort of tangle in which this one
distinguishedmedieval family found itself.
Thus began what is commonly called the appeal to
Aquinasand Aristotle.
Thomas;besides this primary idea of a central
common sense that isnourished by the five senses. The internationalsoldier is always
very much disliked by internationalists. In his controversies, he always assumes
that they will listento reason. His argument for Revelation is not an argument
against Reason;but it is an argument for Revelation. Only by being thus orthodox
could they be thus rational and natural. Thomas that were veryseverely intellectual,
we may note that in him as in St.
So was God,when He worked in the workshop of
Joseph. It would be every bit as false to say that Aquinasdrew his primary
inspiration from Aristotle. The internationalsoldier is always very much disliked by
internationalists. We might even sayhe was always defending the independence of
dependent things. Thus began what is commonly called the appeal to Aquinasand
Aristotle.
The matter is so cogent, that I will takeone or two
special ideas of St.
Thus there is another way in which the popular
story of St. And it is based on that very fact already mentioned:that
St.
And when we come to that, we find itis something as
simple as St.
It didnot model its temples upon the tombs, or call
up dead godsfrom Hades.
His argument for Revelation is not an argument
against Reason;but it is an argument for Revelation. Butthe truth applies to the
travels of his mind as well as his body.
The matter is so cogent, that I will takeone or two
special ideas of St.
Nobody would say he wanted to divideMan from God;
but he did want to distinguish Man from God. Consider what ismeant in most modern
talk by a German Professor. Franciscan be a sort of bridge between the modern and
medieval world. In that sensemedievalism was not a Renascence, but rather a
Nascence.
For instance, it was a very special idea of
St.
In his controversies, he always assumes that they
will listento reason. Only his common sense also told him that the argument never
ends. And of course there is a complete blunder in the legendabout St. But even if
he were Antichrist,he would still be a witness to the unity of Christendom. It will
not be possible to conceal much longer from anybodythe fact that St.