Mc Aaron F.

Dalida
BSBA Major in Financial Management – Section A

Act Like a Man: 5 Tips with St. Thomas Aquinas

Reflection Paper

The works of St. Thomas Aquinas are like a never-ending spring. Without a philosophical
foretaste, it is impossible to grasp or comprehend Aquinas’ theological innovations and
discoveries in a coherent manner. Both philosophy and theology are intertwined for Aquinas.
This example allowed him to ponder the fact that philosophy serves as theology’s handmaiden,
which is an ever-superb and unavoidable conclusion. Since they are complementary rather than
in opposition to one another, this would harmonize the radical appreciation of both wings. The
ideas and teachings of Aristotle inspired this fervent rationalist and fideism to overcome the
many religions’ practices by justifying the lived faith and promoting a new, tangible, and
significant rise in both faith and reason. Fame adorned his entire life as a great teacher and a
teacher of truth itself, rather than adding the simple and delicious colors of blue, red, and green
to his crown. St. Aquinas was a unique and unusual presence in the environment created by
rationalism and fideism due to his inevitable and irreconcilable contributions. It is an earnest
attempt to examine his view of God’s existence from the perspective of a student preparing to
study philosophy in this project. The text used for this exercise is Francis John Selman’s St.
Thomas Aquinas, the Teacher of Truth. A better comprehensiveness is provided in the second
chapter, “Commerce with God,” to support the Christian faith that we hold dear.

The five tips by St. Thomas Aquinas prove the idea or theory of God’s existence play a major
role in the fundamental point or approaches that explain St. Thomas Aquinas’ idea. These are the
five arguments he refers to that can be found at the same time in Aristotle’s description to
demonstrate the presence of God.

The first argument he argues for the existence of God is through the motion that exists in this
universe. He contends that what is moved by another must return to the same object that moves
without being moved. For Aquinas, this being that is unaffected by movement is known as God,
which causes him to cry out in faith.

The second method focuses on the idea of one thing being an agent causing another. This serious
of causes examined eventually leads to the target where we reach a cause that has no cause. We
cannot conclude that God is the cause of himself in this case, since God is uncaused.
In his third argument, he adopts the doctrine of contingent objects in order to clarify and
elucidate the existence of God. The word for contingent used by Thomas is “possibles." For a
contingent thing to exist as one more thing in its complete length and core fullness, a required
item must be attached to each and every contingent being. For Aquinas, this necessary being is
God.

The fourth reason is that we cannot speak of things being more or less just; instead, we measure
them by applying them to the balance of justice. More or less, in its grade, all that exists has the
ultimate reason for being and its goodness attached to it in order to exist in that ultimate
goodness at its extreme apex.

His fifth and final argument is sometimes referred to as the teleological argument since it guides
itself to the permissible end result governed by the theory, whereas objects are directed by
another or they direct themselves, on the other hand. For Thomas, this world is not an accident
but the result of a man who sought and planned for it. This goal of God is to return the creatures
to their own place of residence, eventually becoming one with him in spiritual union or
communion.