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    Comparative Essay Augustine and Aquinas

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    Princess Mae Macalaguing
    This comparative essay examines the views of faith and reason held by philosophers Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Augustine believed faith and reason had an interdependent relationship in understanding God, but faith was the truest way, accessible only through divine grace. Aquinas did not see faith and reason as conflicting, believing all truth comes from God, including some truths attainable only through faith. While both aimed to reconcile philosophy with Christianity, Augustine followed Plato whereas Aquinas was guided by Aristotle, leading to some differences in their philosophies of faith, reason, the soul, and knowledge, though they agreed God is the ultimate object of human understanding.

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    Comparative Essay Augustine and Aquinas

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    Princess Mae Macalaguing
    206 views3 pages
    This comparative essay examines the views of faith and reason held by philosophers Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Augustine believed faith and reason had an interdependent relationship in understanding God, but faith was the truest way, accessible only through divine grace. Aquinas did not see faith and reason as conflicting, believing all truth comes from God, including some truths attainable only through faith. While both aimed to reconcile philosophy with Christianity, Augustine followed Plato whereas Aquinas was guided by Aristotle, leading to some differences in their philosophies of faith, reason, the soul, and knowledge, though they agreed God is the ultimate object of human understanding.

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    This comparative essay examines the views of faith and reason held by philosophers Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Augustine believed faith and reason had an interdependent relationship in understanding God, but faith was the truest way, accessible only through divine grace. Aquinas did not see faith and reason as conflicting, believing all truth comes from God, including some truths attainable only through faith. While both aimed to reconcile philosophy with Christianity, Augustine followed Plato whereas Aquinas was guided by Aristotle, leading to some differences in their philosophies of faith, reason, the soul, and knowledge, though they agreed God is the ultimate object of human understanding.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    206 views3 pages

    Comparative Essay Augustine and Aquinas

    Uploaded by

    Princess Mae Macalaguing
    This comparative essay examines the views of faith and reason held by philosophers Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Augustine believed faith and reason had an interdependent relationship in understanding God, but faith was the truest way, accessible only through divine grace. Aquinas did not see faith and reason as conflicting, believing all truth comes from God, including some truths attainable only through faith. While both aimed to reconcile philosophy with Christianity, Augustine followed Plato whereas Aquinas was guided by Aristotle, leading to some differences in their philosophies of faith, reason, the soul, and knowledge, though they agreed God is the ultimate object of human understanding.

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    Lourdes College

    (Integrated Basic Education)


    SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
    Capistrano-Hayes St. Cagayan de Oro City
    S.Y. 2019-2020

    COMPARATIVE ESSAY:
    AUGUSTINE AND AQUINAS

    Submitted to:
    Mrs. Juliet Villanueva

    Submitted by:
    Princess Mae A. Macalaguing

    ABM- ST. GREGORY THE GREAT

    (January 27, 2019)


    Back in the late fourth to early fifth and thirteenth century, Saint Augustine and
    Aquinas are both famously known for their philosophical and theological explorations.
    This two philosophers are known for attempting to reconcile the ancient philosophy with
    Christianity, but wither way they went about this task in different ways. Saint Augustine
    follow the theories of Plato, whereas Aquinas was in Aristotle. The two explored deeper
    into the faith and reason dichotomy, the nature of the soul and knowledge. Since they use
    different philosophers as a bases for their exploration, a paralleled opinions was made.

    Faith and reason. With the Middle Ages came the rebirth of the idea that religious
    belief did not only stem from faith, but also from reason. This idea was no stranger to
    ancient thinkers, but it reappeared with Augustine. To be clear on what the two are; faith
    is seen by the two philosophers as a trust in scripture and one’s own personal belief that
    God exists. Reason would be a more rational approach to the proof of God, with appeal
    to evidence and logic. St. Augustine believed that faith and reason had an interdependent
    relationship in understanding God, but also that faith would always be the truest way to
    God. Additionally, both faith and reason were only accessible due to divine grace of God.
    As stated before, Augustine was very much a Neo-Platonist. He believed because the
    Platonists studied the eternal and unchanging that these ideas were beneficial to
    understanding and clarifying the Christian faith. On the other hand, Aquinas did not make
    as clear a distinction between faith and reason, as Augustine did, but did believe that all
    creation and truth is emanated from God. Aquinas did not believe that reason and faith
    conflicted, though there are truths that reason cannot attain that faith can. Aquinas called
    this idea a “two fold truth”. He held that something can be true of faith, false or
    inconclusive in philosophy, but never the other way around. This idea supports the idea
    that while reason can lead one to a greater understanding of the world, it cannot lead to
    attainment of the higher truths that faith can. Aquinas believed that faith and reason, are
    essential and not contradictory, in fact, knowledge is essential in the act of faith. He
    asserts that faith is the intellectual act, and its object is truth. Thus, any truth will
    necessarily lead to faith. Aquinas claimed that while people cannot comprehend God as
    an object, the intellect can grasp his existence indirectly, and this grasp comes through
    reason. Both Aquinas and Augustine agree upon the fact that God is the object of ultimate
    knowledge. The philosophers would see eye to eye on the fact that one can know God
    through reason, while no one can know or understand God fully because man is but God’s
    creation.

    While both of these philosophers maintained ideals greatly influenced by


    Christianity, they both reconciled their beliefs in very different ways. Augustine was very
    much influenced by Plato, whereas Aquinas was guided very intensely by Aristotle. The
    ancient philosophers had extreme sway on both Augustine and Aquinas, and it showed
    in their philosophies of faith and reason, the soul, and knowledge greatly. One concept
    the two were in agreement on, despite the many differences they had, is that God was
    the object of human all three of these topics.

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