Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas: Reason, Faith, and Knowledge
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo was born in Tagaste to a pagan father and Christian mother, St. Monica, who greatly influenced his conversion to Christianity. He lived a busy life, experiencing various intellectual stages. Cicero’s Hortensius deeply impacted him, leading him to Manichaeism, which posits two principles: good and evil. Disappointed, he moved to Rome to teach rhetoric, then embraced skepticism. In Milan, he heard St. Ambrose’s sermons and, influenced by his mother and Ambrose, converted to Christianity after encountering the Neoplatonic philosophy of Plotinus. He left his wife and child, choosing a chaste and ascetic life, and was baptized. He returned to Africa in 388 and was ordained a priest in 391. He died in 430 during the Vandals’ siege of Hippo.
His works include: Contra Academicos, Soliloquies, Confessions, On the Trinity, On Free Will, The City of God.
Reason and Faith
Augustine’s aim was the pursuit of truth, leading to happiness and wisdom. The process involved: Internalization (searching within oneself, finding the soul and eternal truths), Transcendence (going beyond oneself to God, the source of all truths), and Illumination (truth resides in God and radiates to us). The method used is the cooperation between reason and faith.
In Search of Truth
Augustine’s philosophy begins with intimate reflection, a process of internalization. It starts by focusing on oneself, one’s conscience (the truth lives within). It acknowledges limitations, the mutability of our nature. Doubt is the first step, recognized as an echo and a source of truth. “Si enim fallor, sum” (City of God). Despite our consciousness’s limitations, truths exist in our minds. Since these truths are unchanging and cannot come to us, we must elevate ourselves through self-transcendence. Eternal and immutable ideas exist, grounded not in us but in God, the source of truth residing within the human soul.
Knowledge as Divine Illumination
Augustine explains knowledge as an act of divine illumination. God enlightens our souls. He presents an a priori epistemological framework, similar to Platonic ideas, with God as the archetype of mutable realities. A supernatural light, graspable only by Christians, illuminates every human being, allowing them to discover eternal, immutable, and necessary truths. Behind the imperfect lies the perfect, behind the human, the divine.
Reason and Faith
The relationship between reason and faith is one of mutual cooperation. There is no separation; Augustine uses philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism and Cicero, as a tool, but he is primarily a theologian. Divine revelation, obtained through faith, is the ultimate truth, but reason aids in its discovery. Tainted by original sin, humans cannot grasp revealed truths without divine grace. Reason helps find faith, which then guides and enlightens reason, contributing to a clearer understanding of faith’s contents. Both work together towards the ultimate goal: encountering God. Augustine is not a philosopher proving God’s existence through reason but a theologian using reason to expound revealed truth.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 at Roccasecca Castle, a descendant of the powerful Counts of Aquino. At five, he entered the monastery of Monte Cassino, intended to become abbot. However, he joined the Dominican order, studying in Paris under Albert the Great, who greatly influenced him. He moved to Cologne, then returned to Paris to teach. He later served as a theologian of the papal curia. He returned to Paris a second time, finding the college divided by doctrinal struggles, where he combatted Averroism and currents opposing Franciscan and Augustinian Aristotelianism. He died of illness in 1272. His theological and philosophical works are marked by his ability to synthesize and their logical structure. Some of his works include: De Veritate, De Ente et Essentia, De Potentia, commentaries on Aristotle, Summa Theologica, and Summa Contra Gentiles.