St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Series: Your Philosophy Minute with Prof. Andrew Pessin
From: Andrew Pessin
Length: 00:02:00
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- St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
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- Andrew Pessin
A century before the Black Death swept through Europe another crisis was brewing. The long-lost works of Aristotle were suddenly rediscovered. A lot had happened since they'd disappeared -- mainly, Christianity, and Aristotle's works seemed to contradict its key tenets, including that one about a God who created the cosmos. Someone needed to find a way to reconcile Aristotle and Christianity, and no one did more towards that task than Thomas Aquinas.
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Piece Description
A century before the Black Death swept through Europe another crisis was brewing. The long-lost works of Aristotle were suddenly rediscovered. A lot had happened since they'd disappeared -- mainly, Christianity, and Aristotle's works seemed to contradict its key tenets, including that one about a God who created the cosmos. Someone needed to find a way to reconcile Aristotle and Christianity, and no one did more towards that task than Thomas Aquinas.
Transcript
A century before the Black Death swept through Europe, a crisis of another sort was brewing. The long-lost works of Aristotle were suddenly rediscovered. A lot had happened in the meanwhile. Mainly, Christianity. And Aristotle’s works seemed to contradict its key tenets, including that one about a God who created the cosmos. Not surprisingly, the Church initially banned Aristotle’s works.
But we know what happens when you ban books. Before long everyone was reading Aristotle -- and the Church tried a new strategy: to embrace him -- by finding ways to reconcile him with Christian beliefs. And no one was better at that than Thomas Aquinas. By the 14th-century, Aristotle had become required reading at the universities!
Aquinas wrote prolifically, culminating in his great Summa Theologica, a massive work summarizing all of Christian doctrine. He did not, however, complete this wo...
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Music by Arthur Kreiger
