The Failure of Natural Theology: A Critical Appraisal of the Philosophical Theology of Thomas Aquinas
- ISBN-10
- 1952599377
- ISBN-13
- 9781952599378
- Category
- Natural theology
- Pages
- 266
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-09-15
- Publisher
- New Studies in Theology Series
- Author
- Jeffrey D Johnson
Description
Aristotle's cosmological argument is the foundation of Aquinas's doctrine of God. For Thomas, the cosmological argument not only speaks of God's existence but also of God's nature. By learning that the unmoved mover is behind all moving objects, we learn something true about the essence of God-principally, that God is immobile. But therein lies the problem for Thomas. The Catholic Church had already condemned Aristotle's unmoved mover because, according to Aristotle, the unmoved mover is unable to be the moving cause (i.e., Creator) and governor of the universe-or else he would cease to be immobile. By seeking to baptize Aristotle into the Catholic Church, however, Thomas gave his life to seeking to explain how God can be both immobile and the moving cause of the universe. Thomas even looked to the pantheistic philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysius for help. But even with Dionysius's aid, Thomas failed to reconcile the god of Aristotle with the Trinitarian God of the Bible. If Thomas would have rejected the natural theology of Aristotle by placing the doctrine of the Trinity, which is known only by divine revelation, at the foundation of his knowledge of God, he would have rid himself of the irresolvable tension that permeates his philosophical theology. Thomas could have realized that the Trinity alone allows for God to be the only self-moving being-because the Trinity is the only being not moved by anything outside himself but freely capable of creating and controlling contingent things in motion.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology
By Michael SudduthMichael Sudduth examines three prominent objections to natural theology that have emerged in the Reformed streams of the Protestant theological tradition: objections from the immediacy of our knowledge of God, the noetic effects of sin, and ...
-
Saving Natural Theology from Thomas Aquinas
By Jeffrey D. JohnsonIs natural theology compatible with presuppositional apologetics?
-
A Theology of Failure: Žižek against Christian Innocence
By Marika RoseThe tensions generated by this are central to Dionysius’s legacy, visible not only in subsequent theological thought but also in much twentieth century continental philosophy as it seeks to disentangle itself from its Christian ancestry.
-
God and Evil: In the Theology of St Thomas Aquinas
By Herbert McCabeThis book is the sixth to appear. McCabe was deeply immersed in the philosophical theology of St Thomas Aquinas and was responsible in part for the notable revival of interest in the thought of Aquinas in our time.
-
Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith
By J. V. FeskoChallenging the dominant Van Tillian approach in Reformed apologetics, this book by a leading expert in contemporary Reformed theology sets forth the principles that undergird a classic Reformed approach.
-
The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology
By Russell Re ManningThe Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology is the first collection to consider the full breadth of natural theology from both historical and contemporary perspectives and to bring together leading scholars to offer accessible high-level ...
-
Theology's Epistemological Dilemma: How Karl Barth and Alvin Plantinga Provide a Unified Response
By Kevin Diller74The representatives of evidentialist internalism highlighted by Plantinga are Earl Conee and Richard Feldman. See especially Earl Conee, “The Basic Nature of Epistemic Justification,” Monist 71, no. 3 (1988): 389-404; and Earl Conee ...
-
History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology
By Nicholas Thomas Wright, N. T. WrightN. T. Wright argues that this can indeed be done, and in this ground-breaking book he develops a distinctive approach to natural theology grounded in what he calls an 'epistemology of love'.
-
After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism
By Fergus KerrThis guide to the most interesting work that has recently appeared on Aquinas reflects the revival of interest in his work.
-
Debating Christian Religious Epistemology: An Introduction to Five Views on the Knowledge of God
By John M. DePoe, Tyler Dalton McNabbFeaturing a wide range of different philosophical positions, traditions and methods, this introduction: - Covers classical evidentialism, phenomenal conservatism, proper functionalism, covenantal epistemology and traditions-based ...