Q U E S T I O N S

Is it possible to create an education method where we could include the Thomism method but also let the
students have different beliefs and religions?
Is the idea of hierarchy necessary for a successful education method?

R E F L E C T I O N

Aquinas was influenced by all the circumstances that surrounded his environment (the feudalism, the church and a Greek and Roman inheritance). Thanks to this,
his world of ideas formed a synthesis in which everything was related and ranked, and where the spiritual and physical dimensions of life was the church, the
guardian of religious truth and morals. For him, the life of the mind was directed to the spirituality that permeated the medieval worldview.
Besides, he had to overcome the challenge of connecting the religion with all the knowledge he got from the classical philosophy, which I think is still hard and
have a lot of obstructions. In this reading, I admire the way he come through it in “Sunima Theologiae” where he integrated into the Christian intellectual heritage
the importance of divine revelation as the ultimate source of truth and the validity and efficacy of human reason.
As Aquinas, I believe each person has an individual soul and an individual intellect. Moreover, I agree with him when he concludes that it was possible to frame
general educational goals. Even though he based his idea of education on religious and theological studies that cultivated human spirituality, I think human
spirituality doesn’t need to be taught by a religion, but by teaching the minimum values to coexisting harmoniously with the society. To Aquinas, the human person
was a spirit or soul within a body and this body had the ability of communication. For that reason, it was important for him the study of different languages and I
truly believe communication is a skill usually forgotten in our actual education system. We overlook the fact that what makes us more advanced than animals is
that we have developed social skills and we can make complex reasoning. I also agree with him when he says family, and society play educative roles. As he
thought, “teaching means that the teacher possesses a body of knowledge and the instructional skills to transmit it to students” and in this case, this knowledge
doesn’t have to be found in a book. This kind of knowledge is acquired by experience and helps people to survive in this prejudiced world. The students must be
ready to receive, study, and appropriate knowledge and for that reason, not all knowledge should be taught at any time but when the person is prepared to take a
critical position and decide whether exploited it.
Finally, related to the last reading a conclusion I got was that unlike the Roman or Greece imperial, where education was used to teach the citizens how to
participate fully into the city civics’ life; during the Middle ages the purpose of education was to teach how to live on Earth (loving God and each other) and always
remembering behavior had an eternal reward on the supernatural life that came after the body's death.
 T H O M A S A Q U I N A S

He was a prominent Dominican theologian and philosopher who incorporated Christian doctrines in the of
classical philosophy, especially Aristotle's natural realism. Aquinas lived during the Middle Ages (500-1400
C.E), which gave him a medieval psyche related with the reformulation of Christianity, the new economic
and political system (feudalism) and the importance of the church in the education and the behavior of the
people. He was the 7th son of the wealthy feudal Landulf and was born on Roccasecca, near Naples in Italy

RELIGION FEUDALISM EDUCATION

Education based on Gospels of the New
Testament, sermons and letters.
Christians possessed an educational heritage that
had been articulated by philosophers, which was
sometimes accepted but others rejected because
it could “confuse the faithful”.
The church was the most prominent and often
most powerful institution. It and dominated the
medieval thought based on establishing a
hierarchy and ranking reality, ideas and people.
It also exercised control over education and
schools.
-Aquinas constructed his theological and
philosophical synthesis on the foundations of
Augustine's earlier work, another philosopher who
argued that the liberal arts, inherited from classical
Greece and Rome, should be part of the intellectual
formation of the educated Christian.
It  was a huge change into the social and The medieval university was the immediate
economic life. In this new decentralized context of Aquinas's scholarly and
political system, the local rulers-kings, dukes, educational activities.
and counts became overlords to vassals who This Universities represented the
owed them fealty and support. Related to the institutionalization of the major intellectual
economic field, the production and currents of the XII-XIII centuries. They were
consumption became self-sufficient. cosmopolitan and international and, their
development was stimulated by the
increased contact with Arabic scholars, who
made important contributions to math’s
and medicine; and by the revival of urban
society and economy.
He published:
The university professors were organized
On being and essence.
into faculties of liberal arts, law, medicine,
Summa Contra Gentiles, which
and theology. Each faculty was empowered
defended Christian doctrines against
to teach, conduct examinations, and grant
opposing views.
degrees.
Sunina Theologiae,  his most
Aquinas had an excellent education in arts,
comprehensive theological work,
philosophy and other disciplines, thanks to
where he found a relation between the
his privileged family.
religion and the classical philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY
Like Aristotle, Aquinas conceived of reality in two
dimensions: supernatural and natural orders.
Based on these dualistic conceptions, human
nature has a spiritual dimension located in the soul
and a physical dimension grounded in the body.       society.
He said that the human being was endowed by
God with free will (the power to make choices) and
that the power of intellect enabled human beings
to frame, weigh, and choose and act on
alternatives. However, he also believed human
beings who believed in Christianity had immense
assistance in making correct choices from
illumination provided by divine revelation and the
guidance of the church.
For Aquinas, human life and destiny were
purposeful in that there was meaning to existence
in this God-created universe. Aquinas agreed with
Aristotle that reason was a highly important
distinguishing human power that inclined one to
the truth. However, reason needed faith, which
endowed human beings with the acceptance of
revealed and doctrinal truth.
THOMISM Thomism dominated the philosophy of Roman Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, and
&USA generations of their students were intellectualized and socialized in the world view it provided.
PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION & THOMISM
What emerged in the Thomistic curriculum was a hierarchy of studies, with religious studies at the
summit, moving gradually downward to those that cultivated rationality and finally reaching those
bounded by space and time that dealt with earning a livelihood and the economic sustenance of
1. Education, like life itself, is purposeful; it is a means to an end. Human beings' ultimate destiny is the
beatific vision of God, and education should contribute to realizing that goal.
2. Reality exhibits two dimensions: one spiritual and one physical. Education relates to both dimensions
of human nature: the soul and the body. It should prepare the human being for what needs to be done
on Earth and what will contribute to the salvation of the soul.
3. Reality—both supernatural and natural—is hierarchically structured, as is society, both secular and
religious. Because not all things are equal, education, especially the curriculum, should be structured
hierarchically with the most important areas of study receiving the greatest priority.      
Aquinas referred to formal education, or schooling, as discipline, when a teacher teaches some
knowledge or skill to a learner. This teaching involves three necessary elements: a skill or body of
knowledge, a teacher, and a learner.    
In the Thomistic conception of instruction, teachers needed to possess rhetorical skills so that they
could use language with facility; they also needed logical skills to organize their instruction
according to the premises that organized the body of knowledge.      
Teaching has as its proximate or earthly end the education or formation of students.    
The Thomistic school, resting on definite theological and philosophical foundations, would
emphasize structured teaching and disciplined learning. The school's climate would be charged with
religious elements that reflected Christian faith and doctrine. Schooling would have amoral purpose
in nurturing the habits, dispositions, and outlooks that inclined students to a purposeful life of faith
and reason. In such an environment, teachers were to be models of virtue, that students could
imitate.