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Thomas Aquinas
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Although Thomas Aquinas is perhaps known best for his natural theology and arguments for the existence of God, he thought that there were manifold ways of knowing God available to human beings. This chapter distinguishes and identifies within Aquinas’s thought seven such ways. One can know God (1) by a general and confused knowledge, (2) by a philosophical wisdom, (3) by divine revelation, (4) by faith, (5) by mystical wisdom, (6) by theological wisdom, and (7) by beatific vision. The chapter discusses the epistemic nature, properties, and limits of all seven. The main point is that Aquinas’s thought is rich enough to accommodate and account for all seven ways of knowing God. Such a comprehensive overview of Aquinas helps move past polemical contexts in which Aquinas is charged with reducing the knowledge of God to natural theology or failing to prioritize the Word of God.
Title: Thomas Aquinas
Description:
Although Thomas Aquinas is perhaps known best for his natural theology and arguments for the existence of God, he thought that there were manifold ways of knowing God available to human beings.
This chapter distinguishes and identifies within Aquinas’s thought seven such ways.
One can know God (1) by a general and confused knowledge, (2) by a philosophical wisdom, (3) by divine revelation, (4) by faith, (5) by mystical wisdom, (6) by theological wisdom, and (7) by beatific vision.
The chapter discusses the epistemic nature, properties, and limits of all seven.
The main point is that Aquinas’s thought is rich enough to accommodate and account for all seven ways of knowing God.
Such a comprehensive overview of Aquinas helps move past polemical contexts in which Aquinas is charged with reducing the knowledge of God to natural theology or failing to prioritize the Word of God.
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