HIST-338 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Summa Theologica, Secular Clergy, Summa Contra Gentiles

• School: MacEwan University
• Department: History
• Course: HIST-338
• Professor: dr. forth

Document Summary

Since the summa contra gentiles was meant to be a sort of handbook that evangelists could carry with them and consult whenever they disputed matters with non-christians it is a shorter and elementary work. But it makes fascinating reading not least for the way it illustrates the extent to which christian scholars truly understood the subtleties of the other faiths: the summa theologica by contrast is an immense work of synthesis. Aquinas" aim was literally to prove every tenet of catholic christianity without recourse to. Biblical authority papal decree conciliar pronouncement or appeals to trust in faith. His method could hardly have been more thorough. He begins with a question does god exist? and offers an array of every possible logical argument that might prove the existence of a deity. He then offers every logical argument against his initial propositions.