The Filioque, Thomas de Aquino Byzantinus, and Ps.-Basil’s Contra Eunomium: Mark Eugenicus and John Montenero, OP, at the Council of Florence (1439) (Pre-Print Copy) (original) (raw)
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Understanding Scholastic Theology of St Thomas Aquinas
For many the idea of combining Aristotle philosophy with Christian Theology seems to be diametrically opposed but what Aquinas does successfully is to incorporate the external world of God’s glory revealed in nature which manifests by and through the attributes of God with scriptures. The sheer brilliance of using their (pagan, sects, and controversialists) philosophy of Greece and Rome and their methods of reasoning produced sound apologetics. Aquinas’s work Summa Theologica, a main staple of Roman Catholicism theology, becomes a strong starting point for the acolyte. This paper examines the origins and characteristics of Scholasticism as used by St. Thomas Aquinas who adapted Aristotle’s philosophical framework to build a working theology in defense to it. Further it will examine Aquinas’s concept of God and how that framework was used to arrive at his conclusions, and examine the strengths and weakness of his adoptive methods.
Never the Twain Shall Meet? Latins and Greeks learning from each other in Byzantium, 2017
Relying on Demetrios Kydones´ translations of Aquinas´ works, a number of so-called "Byzantine Thomists" claimed that reading the Fathers according to Gregory Palamas´ real distinction between divine Ousia and Energeiai was mistaken. This led the disciples of Palamas to reject Aquinas in order to safeguard their own reading of the Fathers. But does upholding the faithfulness of Aquinas to the Greek Fathers necessarily exclude an identical faithfulness on Palamas´ side? If it does not, how should we then account for the difference between the two approaches to the same literary and theological legacy? There is a difference between a text in its original version and the result of its retro-version. To the extent in which Kydones was attempting to re-interpret Aquinas´ interpretation of the Fathers in a Greek key, his work came to reflect the understanding of the Greek tradition that developed in the Latin world of the 13th century. As I examine the metaphysical tenets of Aquinas´ interpretation of the Fathers in the light of 13th century´s cosmological debates, I will argue that the shaping of a Western hermeneutics of Greek Patristic tradition explains the tense encounter between the two approaches- the Byzantine "original" one and the Latin "translative" one- in the following century.
A Dispensational Look at Thomas Aquinas: A Review Article
Journal of Dispensational Theology , 2019
This extended review is on volume 49 of Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, comprised of Questions 7–15 titled, "The Grace of Christ." It is this particular tome where Aquinas best extols the mystery of Christ’s humanity, much of which is supported by his theological, rather than literal, interpretive approach. Accordingly, while much of the volume is certainly commendable, this review of Aquinas’ work will not conclude without first evaluating The Grace of Christ from a dispensational perspective, as it is particularly in the realm of hermeneutics that dispensational thought has much corrective light to shed several on some of Aquinas’ thought-provoking, but erroneous conclusions.