Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox

An accessible way to meet two great minds in Church history at once!

As a scientist and a Christian, the Thomistic approach to nature and humanity's ability to learn about nature using our senses and Reason has had tremendous value for me. Whenever I have some kind of metaphysical question, I look to Thomas and his Dominican brothers for guidance, especially on the relationship between science and faith. I don't quite know enough philosophy to properly understand the tensions between Plato and Aristotle that come up in the book from time to time, but Chesterton makes it all very accessible without feeling like he's “dumbing it down” too much. And the handful of stories we do have about his background and youth add a significant amount of color to the picture, like the radicalness of his refusing his family's expectations to become a friar, and his resolute, life-long humility. As now, the messenger IS the message. Chesterton also takes a few swings at “contemporary” philosophers (written in the 1930s), which feels very prescient to our own age of relativism and nihilism.

St. Francis of Assisi makes a few appearances, and I loved learning about how different the two men were (a wild, mystical missionary and a mild, intellectual professor) in pursuing the same goal (a renewal of orthodox Christianity). As CS Lewis says, all the tyrants are monotonously alike, and all the saints are gloriously different.

After taking a class on Aquinas in seminary, I had the feeling that I'd just read all of the answers in the back of the Universe's textbook. A few details aside, that impression has only deepened with time, and I've tried to adopt his entire framework of virtues, the goodness of creation, and ends/”telos.” We aren't used to thinking this way in today's world, but Aquinas has given me an intellectual stability in my faith and I'm very glad I took the time to explore his life and mind.