Posted on 11/03/2016 7:55:13 AM PDT by fishtank
Aquinas Is Not A Safe Guide For Protestants
Reading Aquinas with care and caution.
Written by Dewey Roberts | Sunday, October 16, 2016
In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas clearly stated his view that the sacraments perform their work through a virtue in themselves. He also stated unequivocally that the sacraments confer the new birth, justification, the grace of the Holy Spirit, sanctification, inward enlightenment, the washing away of guilt, and forgiveness of sins on every person who partakes of them.
From time to time, I come across articles by Reformed authors wherein they encourage the reading of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas. Their rationale is that Aquinas is an excellent guide for making fine distinctions on theological points. Au contraire. As one who spent several weeks at a nearby university library reading through the unabridged three volume set of the Summa Theologica while writing Historic Christianity and the Federal Vision, I must respectfully dissent from that position. Thomas Aquinas is no safe guide for Protestants. He might be the favorite Schoolman of many Reformed authors, but he should not be in my opinion.
Someone might ask why I was reading Aquinas in my research concerning the errors of the Federal Vision. For one thing, many of the Federal Vision authors (e.g., Peter Leithart, Steve Wilkins, and Doug Wilson) refer to the help they received from Aquinas’ writings in developing their false system.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaquilareport.com ...
St Thomas Aquinas was right.
Yes, by all means preserve your prejudges by isolating yourself from contrary arguments. How strong can the Protestant position be if it needs to be protect through ignorance of one of the great theologians of Christianity?
It’s not a “safe space”. People need to be protected from the Summa. It’s actually a hilarious article because the Summa’s questions are all disputed questions. Each question begins with all the objections to the question, is followed by a position based on citation of authority, and ends with replies to the objections. Fear disputes!
Aquinas is a mixed bag. I still think his classical apologetic arguments hold quite well despite claims they were refuted by Kant. I do believe, however, that most of the original reformed scholars rejected the traditional Tomistic rationalist approach to theology.
Someone’s writing is never unsafe. What’s unsafe is to never consider the possibility that your premises are false, never to consider that you might be mistaken.
Aquinas is impeccable. Spoken as a Protestant Ph.D in Theology
Aquinas is impeccable. Spoken as a Protestant Ph.D in Theology
This comes as a tremendous surprise to those who have previously been certain that Catholicism was invented out of whole cloth at the Council of Trent.
/s
You hit the nail on the head.
WELL put.
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