* Perhaps this celebrated text simply means that mindless chaos. Things may come to this final far- there shall be no further delay in the coming of the passe, or they may not, science cannot tell. But there judgement. Time and motion could only cease together, remains God's promise to re-establish (&vaKi<j>a\ai- Science has sometimes dreamt of a final condition «*u<r0ai, gather up under a new bead) all things in of things in which the machinery of the universe shall Christ (Eph. i, 10). "Hence it is said," quotes St be completely run down, the energies of nature so Thomas: they are the last words of his book: "/ dislocated as no longer to furnish any potentiality of saw a new heaven and a new earth (Apoc. xxi, i): organic life, a uniform temperature established every- / will create new heavens and a new earth; and the things where, suns cooled, planetary revolutions stopped, — that were before shall not be in memory, neither shall they the realisation in facl of the opov iravra xpfifiaTa, or rise into thought; but ye shall be glad and rejoice for ever universal deadlock, which was the Greek notion of a (Isai. lxv, 17, 18)." " So be it," says Aquinas.
Baian and Jansenist controversies (B. Ill, Chap, L): finally, an over-cultiva- tion of genera and species, that is, of logical classification, issuing in a ten- dency to dedu6tive argument from essences downwards to effe&s, as though whatever is most valuable in human knowledge could be had by the Aristo- telian method of c demonstration/ with comparatively slight regard to obser- vation and experiment, to critical, historical, and a posteriori methods generally.
It may be asked: Seeing that St Thomas is so often at fault in matters where his dodlrines have come under the test of modern experimental science and criticism, what confidence can be reposed in him on other points, where his conclusions lie beyond the reach of experience? To a Catholic the answer is simple enough; and it shall be given in St Thomas's own words: " Our faith reposes on the revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who have written the Canonical Books, not on any revelation that may have been made to other Doctors " (Sum. Theol. i, q. 8 ad 2, — the context is worth reading). Our confidence is limited in conclusions of mere reason, by whomsoever drawn: our confidence is unlimited in matters of faith, as taught by the Church (B. I, Chapp. III-VI). The praftical value of the Summa contra Gentiles lies in its exposition of the origin, nature, duty, and destiny of man, according to the scheme of Catholic Christianity. That scheme stands whole and entire in the twentieth century as it stood in the thirteenth: in that, there is no- thing to alter in the Contra Gentiles: it is as pradtical a book as ever it was. The debris are the debris of now wdrn-out human learning, which St Thomas used as the best procurable in his day, to encase and prote6t the stru&ure of faith. Or, to express myself in terms of the philosophy of our day, dogma has not changed, but our c apperception ' of it, or the 6 mental system 9 into which we receive it. So the Summa contra (gentiles stands, like the contem- porary edifices of Ely and Lincoln: it stands, and it will stand, because it was built by a Saint and a man of genius on the rock of faith.
The Summa contra Gentiles is an historical monument of the first impor- tance for the history of philosophy. In the variety of its contents, it is a perfeft encyclopaedia of the learning of the day. By it we can fix the high- water mark of thirteenth-century thought: for it contains the le6tures of a Do6lor second to none in the greatest school of thought then flourishing, the University of Paris. It is by the study of such books that one enters into the mental life of the period at which they were written; not by the hasty perusal of Histories of Philosophy. No student of the Contra Gentiles is likely to acquiesce in the statement, that the Middle Ages were a time when mankind seemed to have lost the power of thinking for themselves. Mediaeval people thought for themselves, thoughts curiously different from ours, and profitable for us to study.
Lastly, the Summa contra Gentiles is p(ya racrfpiov,— considering the ravages of six and a half centuries of time upon what was once the most harmonious blending of faith with the science of the day, — it is a fa6t of solemn admoni- tion to all Doctors and Professors of Philosophy and Theology within the Church of Christ, that they should be at least as solicitous as an English Dean and Chapter now are, for the keeping in yearly repair of the great edifice given over to their custody; that they should regard with watchful and intelligent eyes the advance of history, anthropology, criticism and physical science; and that in their own special sciences they should welcome, and make every sane endeavour to promote, what since 1 845 has been known as the Development of Dodtrine.
INDEX An Asterisk added after the number of a page refers to a Note on that page.
AbstraB Being, not God, 19*, 20, 21, 30, 88* Accident, none in God, 18; nature o(, 38* ABion, ultimately subordinate to contemplation, 2 1 2 A Quality y prior to potentiality, 1 5; God pure actua- lity, or act, 1 5; first and second, 1 26*, 1 37, 302 Alexander of Apbrodisios, 129, 135*, 13 7*, 148, 214*, Algazel, 156* Analog, of God and creatures, 26 •/sjr/r, as subsistent forms, 33*, 113, 176*, 214*, 159*; their place in creation, 108, 172, 173, 248, 251, 252; free will oi, 109, no; their will fixed after volition, 376, 418*; incorporeal, ill; imperishable, 112, 113, 114; each a species by himself 173; their manner of under- standing, 174-179; have neither active nor potential intellect, 175; have innate ideas, 1 79*; their knowledge of God, 221 sq.; angels and miracles, 266; fall of angels, 270-273 Anselm, St, his argument for existence of God, 9, 1 o ApoWtnaris, 362 Aristotle, on the soul after death, 122*, 128*, 135*, 153*, 219, 404*; on the active intellect, 151, 152; carelessness of his style, 1 34* Arius and Arianism, 344-348, 362 Atonement, the, 378 Attribntes of God, involve one another, 28* Augustine, St, his theory of knowledge, 2 1 5-2 1 7; on nature, 264 Avempace, 214* AVicebron, 239 Bains (Le Bay), 223* Beatific Vision, 122-2$$ Blosins (Lewis of Blois), 101* 'Body, spiritualised in the resurrection, 406-41 1; risen bodies of the lost, 41 2 Body of Christ, its conception and development, 373, Brain, function oC, 134*, 137* Causation, Thomist view o£ 221* Cauterised Conscience, 332* Celibacy, clerical, 290*, 306, 307 Concurrence, of God with creatures, 242, 250 Confession, necessary, 395 ContaB, quantitative and virtual, 115, 116 Contingent, the, 49, 50, 63, 244, 254*, 256, 257, Contra Gentiles, lack of final revision o£ 99*, 127*, oi, 141*; historical value of, 420 Corporeity, 404* Counsels of perfection, 297, 298 Creation, no change in God, 62*, 82, 83, 97; out of nothing, 85, 86; not a change, 86; not succes- sive, 87; a work of will, 90, 261; and of intelli- gence, 91; involves conservation, 236, 237; creation a divine language, 260* Creation from eternity, not philosophically impossible, 32, 96, 97*, 104; nor philosophically evident, Cycles, recurring, 406 Decisio (tamfioky) seminis, 166* Definition, impossible of God, 19, 20 Design, in nature, 12*, 32*, 90, 91 Determinare, 165* Development of Doctrine, 373*, 377, 383*, 420 Devils, not evil by nature, 269; manner of their tin, Dumb animals, their powers, 131*; their limitations, S9*> *72*t *75*» their souls, 159; killing and Equality, delusion o£, 108* Essence of God, is God, 16; identical with His exis- tence, 17; type of all things intelligible, 39, Essence and Existence, distinct in creatures, in, 112 Eternity of God, 14, 48 Ethics, not theology, 4*, 283* Eutyches, $66, 367 EYtl, known to God, 54, 55; problem of, 94*, 1 86- Existence of God, not self-evident to us, 9, 10; capable of proof, 1 1; proof from motion, 11, 12,15*; from collocation and design, 1 2*, 3 2*, 3 5*, 36* Extreme Unction, 396 Faith, a duty, 278; a work of grace, 323; faith and imagination, 339* Fate, 254 First Cause, 84, 85 Form, doctrine of, 116*, 117, 132 sq.; forms filling the whole potentiality of their matter, 198, 199, Fortune, distinct from chance, 187, 253 General consequences, scholastic principle of, 284, 288 Genus, not predicable of God, 19, 20 state of grace, 31 1-323; grace of perseverance, 326; recovery of grace, 327, 328 Gratia gratis data, 324, 325 Greek, St Thomas unfamiliar with, 127* Happiness, of God, 73-75; of man in God, 202, 203, 211, 218-220, 224; not any aft of will, 204- 207; not pleasure, nor honour, nor riches, nor power, 208-2 1 o,cf. 75, 234; nor moral virtue, 210; natural and supernatural, 223, 224-226; happiness eternal, 232, 233; adequate to desire, 233, 234; tower of happiness, 312*; final for- feiture of, 314, 315 Hatred, divine, 71, 72 Hearten, locality of, 410* Holiness of minister not essential to sacrament, 401 Holy Orders, 397-399 Idolatry, 281 Imagination in Wordsworth's sense, 140*, see Phantasy Immanent and transient alts, 79 Incarnation, explained and vindicated, 369-372; fruits of, 375; evidenced by miracles, 376, 377 Incomprehensibility of God, 227, 228 Individual, the, known to God, 35, 36, 45, 46, 47; and willed by Him, 58; how intelligible to pure intelligences, 178, 179, 23 1; individual and race, God's care of, 275, 276 Infinite, known to God, 51,52, 53, 93; how far pos- sible in creation, 104, 105 Infinity of God, 30, 3 1; consistent with personality, 31* Intellect, distinct from sense and phantasy, 131, 132; ' separate,' as having no bodily organ, 1 1 7, 1 1 8, 126, 127*, 133, 137*, 154; not one in all men, 135 sq.; 'passive,' 'potential,' 'active,' 122*; 125, 126; Averroes's theory of the potential intellect, 123-141, 144 sq.; Avicenna on the active intellect, 141 -144, 148, 149; transcends time and space, 175; intellect and the individual, 178, 179; intellect and sin, 270-273 Intention, 186-189; intention and attention, 294 Intermediate intelligence, 252* Intuitions, 44* Justice, in God, 70; in man, 29 1; justice and charity, 339; negative aspect of God, 13, 221* Knowledge of simple understanding and Knowledge ofpision, Law, divine, 276-278,286*; not arbitrary, 283, 291, 292; reaches the individual and the heart, 293 LiberaRty in God, 69 Life of God, 72, 73; life everlasting, 232 sq. Light of glory, 225 Love, attribute of God, 67, 68; in man not formally happiness, 204-207;commandmentof love, 276, Macedonius, 354 'Many in one* the, object of divine cognition, 36-40; and volition, 58 {Matter {materia signata), principle of individuation, 45*, 146; matter fully actuated, 96*, 173, 184*, 412*; inertia of matter, halfknown to St Thomas, 1 2*, 7 2*; primordial matter (materiaprima), 86*, Miracles, in the spread of Christianity, 6; definition of, 264; division o£, 264, 265; not wrought by angels in their own power, 266; beyond nature, 376*; mystery not miracle, 104* Names, predicable of God, 23-27 Nature of things, 7*, 62*, 261-263, 264*; in the moral order, 291, 292 Nestorianism, 363-366 Newton, his services to philosophy, 183*, 201 *f 254* Non-existent, the, known to God, 48, 79 Notations, 393 Omnipotence, not arbitrary or irrational, 62, 63, 89, 'One in many,7 problem o£, solved in God, 36-40, 83, Original sin, consequences ot, 378; apparent in man- kind, 380, 381; essence ot, 379*, 381, 382; transmission of, 382, 383 Papacy, 400 Passions, 65-68 Paternal government, 293 Personality of God, 31*, 257* Physical Science, a preliminary of philosophy, 79*, 240*; limitations of, 103*; deals with necessi- ties, 113* Place, Aristotelian definition ot, 100*, 390* on sin, 270; his theory of reminiscence, 1 39, 143 Prayer, part of providence, 257, 258; why not al- ways heard, 259, 260 Predestination, 334 Presence, modes of, 352* INDEX Prime moVer, 12*, 201* ProbabiBty, St Thomas often content with, 8* Progressive {Morality, 288, 289* Providence, 235, 251; extends to individuals, 246, 247, 275, 293; fixed and indefectible, 255; chiefly oyer rational creatures, 273, 274; super- natural providence, 293* Turgatory, 415 Quod and quo in the theory of perception, 145, 224 Racial, not personal ads, 275* Reason, not in contradiction with faith, 7, 278 Relations, none real in God, 82, 83 HeRpons, why so called, 298; religious vows, 298 sq. Resurrection, of Christ, 403*; general, 161*, 403 sq. Revelation, convenience of, 4, 5, 6, 338, 339; mode SabeOus, 343*345 Sacerdotalism, 398* Sacramental system, part of the Incarnation, 383 Satisfaction for sin, 378 Science, meaning of term, 79* Scripture, when it speaks figuratively, 360, 361; c£ 4H Semen, function of, physical, 163-172; moral, 283- Sensus compositus etdtvisus, $0*, 92, 392* SimpBcity, a sign of perfection, 199, 337* Sin, how incident to intelligence, of men, 193, 194; of angels, 270-273; mortal sin, 295, 310, 311, 3'4» 33!t 33*» venial, 296, 314; sins not all equal, 309, 310; conversion from sin, 328; satisfaction for sin, 329, 378, 394-396; sin punished by loss, 314-316; punished by pain of sense, 317; sacramentally forgiven, 393-39$ Solicitude for temporals, 296, 297, 301, 304 Soul, form of the body, n 5-1 20, 132 sq., 371; the one form actualising the body, 116*, 117*; immortality of, 113, 1 14, 1 19*, 1 52 sq.; souls of plants, 72*; of dumb animals, 159; human soul not entirely immersed in matter, 1 1 7, 1 1 8, 127*, 133; specially created, 164, 165; pro- portioned to body, 144, 156*; transmigration impossible, 1 36; not corporeal, 1 30, 131; triple division, not making three souls, 120; three souls successively in man, 168, 169; real dis- tinction between soul and its faculties, 134*; manner of activity after death, 1 57, 1 58, 161*, 318*, 404*, 414; no pre-existence of souls, 159-162; soul's knowledge of itself 215; soul in risen body, 409* Space, 239* Species impressa et expressa (intentio), 38, 122* Spiritualism, 267-269 Stars, their influences, 252; see corpus coekste State of pure nature, 223*, 380* Subconsciousness, 151*, cf. 41; 197* Sui causa, 353* Sumptuary laws, 297* Syllogum, 42 Temperance, a negative virtue, 307* Theodore of (Mopsuestia, 363 Theology, in the advance of science, 260*, 289*, 338, Tbeotokps, 365, 374 Time and place, transcended by intellect, 1 7 5 Traducianism, 163-172 Transubstantiation, 387-389, 391* Truth, final end of the universe, 1; God is truth, Types, doctrine of; 39, 40, 177* Ubiquity of god, 238, 239 Unity of God, 29, 30 the concrete universal, 176-179, 231*, 272* Universe, system of, general and particular, 2 57, 258; see Perfection University, Catholic, function of, 338* Virtue, how predicable of God, 68-70; condition, not essence of happiness, 210; the State's care Volition, three ads of; 188* Voluntary poverty, defence of; 298-300; modes of, Vows, religious, 298 sq.; defence of; 307-309 Will, in God, 56; God's will not irrational, 63, 64, 261-263, 264*; men's wills known to God, 5 1; and dependent on Him, 250; will a spiritual faculty, 1 26, 1 27; will fixed in death, 415-418; see free mil Wonder, 263* Worship, 279-281 DigrtizecHoy Google