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Which ideas from Aristotle had the strongest influence on Thomism?
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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.
Thomism is fundamentally a synthesis of Christian theology and the philosophy of Aristotle, adapted to explain the natural world and its relationship to God. Several key Aristotelian concepts exerted a profound influence on the system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas:12
- Hylomorphism: Aquinas adopted this metaphysical doctrine, which posits that every natural body is composed of two intrinsic principles: matter (the potential principle) and form (the actual, determining principle).3
- Causation and the Prime Mover: Aquinas utilized Aristotleās theory of efficient causes to argue that there must be an ultimate, uncaused first cause of all change, which he identified as God. Similarly, he drew upon the Aristotelian concept of the prime mover to demonstrate that the series of motions in the universe requires an unmoved source.24
- Teleology: Aquinas incorporated Aristotleās view that all things in nature possess a final cause or purpose. He argued that because natural bodies lack intelligence, their movement toward these ends must be guided by an intelligent being, namely God.24
While Aquinas assumed the general correctness of Aristotleās interpretation of natural phenomena, he integrated these ideas into a Christian framework, ultimately asserting that human reason and faith are consistent and complementary.15