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What starting points did Thomas Aquinas say philosophers and theologians use in their work?
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Thomism
St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
In his work, St. Thomas Aquinas distinguished between philosophy and theology based on their different starting points, even though both are rational enterprises guided by a search for truth through reason.1
- Philosophy: Aquinas held that philosophy begins from general first principles about the natural world that any reflective person would accept. It relies solely on the natural light of reason to investigate reality.12
- Theology: In contrast, theology starts with truths about God or the divine as revealed in Scripture. These truths are accepted on the basis of religious faith rather than through purely rational derivation from natural observation.21
While the theologian accepts authority and faith as a starting point, they then proceed to conclusions using reason, integrating the rules and structures of rational activity in the light of faith. Aquinas viewed this as a systematic method where reason operates within faith according to its own laws.2