TANGAZA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA.

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY -DERPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY.

Topic: Compare and contrast the argument of St Augustine

and St Thomas about the existence of God.

Submitted by:

Obiri Vincent Ombati,

Reg. No. 20/0017.

Lecturer:

Fr. Arnord shirima.

“A Assignment paper submitted Tangaza University school theology, Department of Philosophy

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.’’

Nairobi,

April, 2021.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………3
2. St. Augustine Argument……..………………………………………………………………..3
3. St. Thomas Aquinas…………………………………………………………………………..3
4. St Thomas Aquinas Argument……………………………………..………………………..3
5. Similarities and Differences………………………………………………………………….4
6. Conclusion……………………………….……………………………………………………4

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 1. Introduction.

St. Augustine and St. Thomas were two recognized Christian philosophers. St. Augustine lived
between centuries IV and V, studied in Africa and initially was an intellectual who had pagan
religious orientation, adhered to Manichaeism and later under great influence of his mother and
several authors who read converted to Catholicism and considered as belonging to the patristic.
This essay compares the opinions of Augustine with St. Thomas about the existence of God. In
the end, a conclusion is presented which summarizes the discussion.

2. St Augustine argument.

Augustine is one of the main figures through and by whom this merging was accomplished being
s a Christian Neoplatonist, North African Bishop, Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. One of
the decisive developments in the western philosophical tradition was the eventually widespread
merging of the Greek philosophical tradition and the Judeo-Christian religious and scriptural
traditions.
Augustine’s consistent and with his convictions and principles on faith and reason, God‘s
existence, and theory of knowledge as well as the analytical presentation of his essential
philosophical approaches and conclusions and we see that he is influential to the development of
early medieval philosophy. To Augustine the argument of weather God exist or not that I can call
Ideo-Ontological proof, being a Neo-Platist argued on God‘s existence and said that God helps
humans find truth, that is intellectual process from within. St. Augustine shows “reason” as a tool
to second his thoughts and ideologies about the very existence of God, enlightening the existence
of God by developing a comparison of nature’s animate and inanimate forms. We realize that we
as humans having rational minds makes us superior to other forms of nature. He uses creation
that God created out of his goodness and this shows his existence. He says though his
exemplarism that all the created things existed in the mind of God as exemplars that is divine
ideas, and now during creation he used this ideas to create all that we see that is in existence.
Man gets happiness when he gets this God who is the source of happiness.

We also see him responding to the doubt of if God exist that, the doubt is the first proof that God
is in existence, since you can’t doubt something that does not exist so wherever you doubt thus
the doubted this is in real existence.

Augustine constrained people to explore the evidence of existence by analyzing their perception
of reason.

3. St Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the
Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, in the tradition of scholasticism and
the father of the Thomistic school of theology.

4. St Thomas Aquinas’ Argument.

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Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that the existence of God could be proven in five ways, just by
reason he calls it ontological that is prior argument starting from the ideal down to the real. The
five reasons he believes why God exist is the Argument from Motion, Efficient Causes,
Possibility and Necessity, Gradation of Being, and Design.
In other words for Aquinas
1) observing movement in the world as proof of God, the "Immovable Mover";
2) observing cause and effect and identifying God as the cause of everything;
3) concluding that the impermanent nature of beings proves the existence of a necessary being,
God, who originates only from within himself;
4) noticing varying levels of human perfection and determining that a supreme, perfect being
must therefore exist; and
5) knowing that natural beings could not have intelligence without it being granted to them it by
God.
Subsequent to defending people's ability to naturally perceive proof of God, Thomas also tackled
the challenge of protecting God's image as an all-powerful being.

5. Similarities and differences.

What for I can see here that is the most important thing for this is that both philosophers
resolutely believe on the existence of God as they are both part of the remarkable foundation of
the Roman Catholicism. They also agree in patristic thought on the philosophy that God is the
exemplar of all created things likeness; that creation is an imitation of God’s images. Also what
is remarkable to me it that their philosophical thoughts of Aquinas and Augustine also pave the
way in opening the significance of faith and reason in the holistic development of man. Without
faith, understanding of the world may not be considerable as it burns the flame of reasoning with
the basis of the world‘s moral laws. They all assert knowledge and reasoning is futile, without
faith specifically fidelity to God.

Just to not on differences or where they differ we see that whereas Augustine uses an ideal
ontological arguments Aquinas uses a cosmological argument. Augustine was influenced more
by Plato and Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle in his thought that is natural theology based on
reason. St. Augustine believed that logic or reason would only be applicable to a non-Christian
but not applicable to a Christian who has developed their faith which he considered superior.

6. Conclusion.
In denouement I can just end by saying in a sense, both of these theologians are on the same side
of the debates over faith and reason. Appraising the two philosophies of two great philosophers,
Thomas Aquinas and Augustine is such a worthwhile endeavor to execute noting that they do
have similarities and differences in the way they view faith and reason, God‘s existence, their
philosophies are extensively valuable specifically in philosophical development.