Faith, Theology, and Contemplation

Abstract How does Aquinas conceive of the connections between faith and theological contemplation? How does he defend the scientific nature of theology? What is the role of the assent of faith, and is Aquinas guilty of voluntarism? Aquinas’s espousal of the notion of theology as a science sub-alternated to divine scientia allowed him to defend a non-charismatic notion of theology (i.e. one that does not depend on the cognitive gifts of the Holy Spirit to assist us in grasping the articles of faith). The chapter further argues that all rational disciplines (with the exception of those that operate with principles that are known per se) rely on first principles that cannot be argued for within the relevant discipline itself. Finally, the chapter argues that Aquinas’s view that we cannot both know and believe something at the same time actually softens the boundary between theology and philosophy, which is of considerable importance when we address the perennial question as to how Aquinas conceives of the relation between theology and other disciplines.