The Reason Of Coming Into Theology On Aquinas's Natural Theology In Summa Theologica Vol.One

Natural theology is a kind of knowledge about God that is acquired by human's reason, without appealing to the sacred revelation and traditional authority. Its basic feature is to explore the themes related to theology through using philosophical methods, such as God's existence and essence, and the like. It therefore forms an investigative realm that is related to philosophy and theology. Thomas Aquinas was the first thinker who systematically and completely expounded contents, features and methods of natural theology in the western history, especially his five ways of arguments for the existence of God have been a classical narration of natural theology, and thus have produced an epoch-making influence on the western history of Christian theology.As natural theology explores theological problems by rational means and philosophical methods, it refers to the relation of philosophy to theology, or the problem that philosophy whether can study theological questions and how to know theological questions. It is a very old problem, as early as in ancient Greece period, it had entered into the field of vision of philosophers, for example, Aristotle called his first philosophy, namely metaphysics, the science of "being as being"; it regarded "the Ultimate Reality" as God, so it was called "theology". Since Christianity came into being, the relation of reason (philosophy) and belief (theology) had been a basic problem that was concerned by Christian theologists of all times. And many people, such as Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, Boethius, Erigena, Anselmus, etc., discussed the problem from the different point of view. In the 13th century, along with the rise of the university and the large-scale dissemination of Aristotelian thought, the relation between philosophy and theology became the focus that people paid attention to again, causing a vehemence dispute between Latin-Averroism and Bonaventure's Theory. It was on foundation of such historical tradition and the background of ages, that Thomas Aquinas absorbed adequately Aristotelianphilosophy, and carried on the overall integration of philosophy into theology, and constructed a systematical theory, natural theology.Aquinas's natural theology included the main contents such as God's existence, God's essence and property, God's relations to the world and the mankind, etc. The philosophical argument for the existence of God is the core and foundations part of Aquinas's natural theology, and is the premise that the other parts can be launched out. Setting out from sensible experience, and passing through the five aspects-thing's change or motion, causal relations, possibility and necessity, things' varying degrees of perfection, and final cause, Aquinas made arguments for the existence of God. Aquinas thought, these five ways were the demonstrations "a posteriori"-deducing the cause from the effect, and it was the most fitting to human's existent mode and understanding mode. If we want to consider the problem that explains God's existence on the foundation of experience, for human's natural reason, it is necessary and therefore possible path to infer the infinite cause from the finite effect. On the research course of nature theology, God's existence once was made sure, so next is to consider "the manner of God's existence", namely his essence and his property. For accounting for God's essence and property on the level of natural reason, Aquinas mainly adopted the way of negation and the way of analogy. The way of negation is a "way of remotion". In the investigation of "How God is not", it does away with a series of "imaginations" and fault knowledge concerning God, and finally comes to an affirmation toward "what God is". Analogy method is "a way of excellence". Through a kind of resemblance of effect (creatures) to cause (God), people can get to understand God's essence and property. If the way of remotion is to go to the affirmation through negation, and its aim is removing the veil covered to what God is; the way of excellence then attains the infinite affirmation from the finite affirmation, constructing an active picture concerning God. Through these two methods, Aquinas elaborated and explained God's essence of simplicity, perfection, infinity, immutability, unity, and God's existing mode and act mode of intellect, will,life, power, etc., and therefore posed a relatively all-sided knowledge about God the ultimate reality.Taking the complete picture of this kind of God as the foundation, Aquinas further elucidated and elaborated these problems such as the world of creation and its creatural features, distinction of things, human's nature, the relation of soul and body, knowledge and will, and final end...etc. These elaborations were deployed surrounding God, and they mainly had an eye on the relations of God to the world and the mankind. If God's simplicity, infinity, intellect, and will embody his inside essence and existential mode, then the relations of God to the world and the mankind express his exterior operation and activity, and the relations show his essence. Therefore, the understanding of the world and the human being constituted the indispensable contents of Aquinas's natural theology.Taking God as the center, experience as the foundation, and philosophy as the means, Aquinas's natural theology overall investigated tow aspects both in the infinite and in the finite. This kind of investigation changed the process of Christian theology of the, earlier period on a huge degree, and formed Thomistical tradition that differed from Augustinism, so it formed the cosmological type that stood up ontological type as an equal in Christian philosophy. The natural theology, as concentration in embodying to this kind of cosmological type, not only enlarges the depth of the Christian theology, but also enriches its expressive form. From then on, about the treatises concerning the relation of theology and philosophy, and about the investigations concerning the nature theology, Aquinas occupies a position that can't neglect, and plays an example role and pushes the development of natural theology. Although the natural theology of Aquinas causes the disaffection of the theology as well as encounters the animadversion of the philosophy because of involving the relation between theology and philosophy, in the way of the nature theology the attempt that he integrated theology and philosophy, then brought about profound influence on the Christian theology and the development of the philosophical history,and stirred up a thorough thinking and investigation that relates to the philosophy and theology, thus pushes the development of the philosophy and theology.Aquinas's natural theology not only bring about lasting influences on the development of philosophy and theology in history, and still plays a positive rules in realms such as religious philosophy, natural theology, the Catholic theology and the like in the modern west. Especially after 1960's, along with the broader senses and diversification of the conception of natural theology, and along with natural theology permeating into the learning currents of thought of analytical philosophy, pragmatism, the existentialism, and phenomenology, Aquinas also acquires a kind of new and more extensively epistemological meaning in the contemporary. It could be said, as long as the relation between philosophy and theology is still problem that interests people, the value that Aquinas' natural theology includes will not lose.Generally, Aquinas played a very important role on the history of Christian theology and of philosophy, and founded a new system that differs from the traditional Augustinism. Its influence is profound. The full accepting of Aristotle, the afresh evaluating of the value of the nature and human's reason, and the completely elaborating to the thought of natural theology, all these give his thought with a kind of special worth. However this does not mean that his system is completely satisfactory. Seeing up from the position of the modern and the contemporary, human reason that he narrates is a kind of very limited reason, on the end meaning it belongs to the faith. Even though his philosophy takes theology as the research object and the research contents, but the natural theology that is constructed so doesn't open thoroughly like other philosophical investigations, and his philosophical arguments ultimately take God who has already been "existence" as the prior condition, and make his philosophy be not to go to more "detect" the new truth, but only be to "verify" the conclusion that has already been. And his depending on ancient philosophy excessively, seeing up from the position of development of history, is not completely believable. However, the natural theologyof Aquinas expresses a kind of attempt, hoping on the one hand to establish a kind of thinking principle for the philosophy and reason on the ultimate meaning, on the other hand trying to express that theology in the dimension of reason can walk how far. This is all a full of challenge whether to theology or to philosophy.