G.K. Chesterton notes Saint Thomas Aquinas' philosophy to be one of "a central common sense that is nourished by the five senses" (p. 13). His "argument for Revelation is not an argument against Reason; but it is an argument for Revelation. The conclusion he draws from it is that men must receive the highest moral truths in a miraculous manner; or most men would not receive them at all" (p. 19).
St. Thomas' philosophy is deeply needed in today's world with its distorted thinking. For St. Thomas, "a man is not a man without his body, just as he is not a man without his soul" (p. 17). Indeed, "a Christian means a man who believes that deity or sanctity has attached to matter or entered the world of the senses" (p. 23). St. Thomas' philosophy is deeply optimisitic: "nobody will begin to understand the Thomist philosophy, or indeed the Catholic philosophy, who does not realize that the primary and fundamental part of it is entirely the praise of Life, the praise of Being, the praise of God as the Creator of the World" (p. 81).
By contrast, Manicheanistic thinking "is always a notion in one way or another that nature is evil; or that evil is at least rooted in nature....Sometimes it was a dualism, which made evil an equal partner with good; so that neither could be a usurper. More often it was a general idea that demons had made the material world, and if there were any good spirits, they were concerned only with the spiritual world" (p. 83). Chesteron tells us that "if we wanted to put in a picturesque and simplified form what he [St. Thomas] wanted for the world, and what was his work in history, apart from the theological and theoretical definitions, we might well say that it really was to strike a blow and settle the Manichees" (p. 79).
Early on, Chesterton notes that "the sixteenth century schism was really a belated revolt of the thirteenth century pessimists" (p. xvi). "Thomas Aquinas had struck his blow, but he had not entirely settled the Manichees" (p. 161). "It was the very life of the Thomist teaching that Reason can be trusted: it was the very life of the Lutheran teaching that Reason is utterly untrustworthy" (p. 14).
St. Thomas' philosophy is deeply needed in today's world with its distorted thinking. For St. Thomas, "a man is not a man without his body, just as he is not a man without his soul" (p. 17). Indeed, "a Christian means a man who believes that deity or sanctity has attached to matter or entered the world of the senses" (p. 23). St. Thomas' philosophy is deeply optimisitic: "nobody will begin to understand the Thomist philosophy, or indeed the Catholic philosophy, who does not realize that the primary and fundamental part of it is entirely the praise of Life, the praise of Being, the praise of God as the Creator of the World" (p. 81).
By contrast, Manicheanistic thinking "is always a notion in one way or another that nature is evil; or that evil is at least rooted in nature....Sometimes it was a dualism, which made evil an equal partner with good; so that neither could be a usurper. More often it was a general idea that demons had made the material world, and if there were any good spirits, they were concerned only with the spiritual world" (p. 83). Chesteron tells us that "if we wanted to put in a picturesque and simplified form what he [St. Thomas] wanted for the world, and what was his work in history, apart from the theological and theoretical definitions, we might well say that it really was to strike a blow and settle the Manichees" (p. 79).
Early on, Chesterton notes that "the sixteenth century schism was really a belated revolt of the thirteenth century pessimists" (p. xvi). "Thomas Aquinas had struck his blow, but he had not entirely settled the Manichees" (p. 161). "It was the very life of the Thomist teaching that Reason can be trusted: it was the very life of the Lutheran teaching that Reason is utterly untrustworthy" (p. 14).
