[Read more…] about Episode 19: David Haines on Reformed Thomism and Natural Knowledge
Thomas Aquinas
Episode 3: Ryan Hurd on Thomas Aquinas
Heaven & Earth features conversations between myself and another person who knows something fascinating. In these conversations, I play the role of the listener and ask questions to learn more about a topic.
Why should you know about Thomas Aquinas? Because he provides us with precise and true language to worship the triune God. [Read more…] about Episode 3: Ryan Hurd on Thomas Aquinas
What Did Thomas Aquinas Believe about Scripture?
Sometimes we think of church history as a pattern of discontinuity. First, the New Testament church births a pure church. Then it goes south. Then in 1518, Martin Luther and the rest return the church to its pristine form (or at least start a reform in that direction).
Yet many have pointed to key continuities between the medieval and the reformed churches (e.g., Richard Muller, Heiko Oberman). The reformed movement did not make a clean break from the medieval church. Instead, the reformed churches cleaned the pollutions of 15th century Romanism to restore the church to its biblical foundation.
And this biblical foundation finds continuity with much of the medieval (and the patristic) church. One such example of this is Thomas Aquinas’s view of Scripture. His view of Scripture has many continuities with the reformed faith and some discontinuities.
[Read more…] about What Did Thomas Aquinas Believe about Scripture?
What Does “Pure Act” Mean, and Why Should I Care?
Sometimes Christians talk about God as being pure act. While such language sounds good and wholesome, it is unlikely that even those who use the phrase know what it means. To define God as pure actuality is abstract, obscure, and strange.
And also very true.
God is pure act. If he was not, he would not be God and we would be of all people most to be pitied. For God’s promises may not be sure, his desires in process, and his goals merely a possibility.
The basic idea behind God’s pure actuality follows from God’s eternity. Since God exists eternally and so has no beginning, cause, or potentiality, then he is pure act (Thomas, Sum. Cont. Gent. 1.16). Let me try to unfold what this means. [Read more…] about What Does “Pure Act” Mean, and Why Should I Care?
Review of Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics by J. Budziszewski
Thomas Aquinas was a brilliant biblical exegete whose theological writings work outward from the Sacred Text. In Thomas’ Summa Theologiae, we find a comprehensive summation of biblical theology. Unfortunately, Thomas’ biblical commentaries have gathered dust while his Summa has become a primary textbook. This oversight not only prevents one from appreciating Thomas, but it also would shock the Angelic Doctor since his primary textbook was the Bible. [Read more…] about Review of Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics by J. Budziszewski