Faith and reason, proofs for God, the problem of evil, universals, Islamic and Jewish philosophers.
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- What did Augustine mean by his claim that 'faith seeks understanding'?
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That reason and rational investigation are proper tools for the believer to deepen and explain their faith, though faith itself comes first.- How did Augustine argue for God's existence from eternal truths?
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He observed that mathematical and logical truths exist eternally and unchangingly; these cannot reside in temporal minds, so they must exist in an eternal mind, which is God.- What is Augustine's 'problem of evil' and his proposed solution?
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If God is omnipotent and all-good, why does evil exist? Augustine answered that evil is the absence or privation of good, not a positive substance, and that free will is necessary for genuine goodness.- What role does grace play in Augustine's theology?
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Grace is God's freely given gift that enables human beings to turn toward God and achieve salvation; it works with or against human free will depending on God's predestining purpose.- How did Augustine reconcile his Neoplatonic philosophical training with Christian theology?
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He adopted Neoplatonic ideas of a transcendent, non-material ultimate reality but reinterpreted them through Christian doctrine, seeing the Neoplatonic One as compatible with the Christian God.- What are the Five Ways in Aquinas's theology?
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Five arguments for God's existence: from unmoved motion, causality, contingency, degrees of being, and purposive order in nature.- Explain Aquinas's First Way: the argument from unmoved motion.
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Everything in motion is moved by something else; tracing back this chain cannot go infinitely, so there must be a first unmoved mover, which is God.- Explain Aquinas's Second Way: the argument from causality.
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Everything has an efficient cause; an infinite regress of causes is impossible, so there must be a first cause that causes itself or is uncaused, which is God.- Explain Aquinas's Third Way: the argument from contingency.
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Some things exist and some do not; what exists need not exist (contingent things). Not all things can be contingent; there must be a necessary being on which contingent beings depend, which is God.- Explain Aquinas's Fourth Way: the argument from degrees of being.
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Things have properties in greater or lesser degrees; there must be a maximum standard of perfection that other things approach, and this maximum is God.- Explain Aquinas's Fifth Way: the argument from design.
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Natural things show purposive order despite lacking knowledge; an unintelligent agent cannot direct things to an end without a directing intelligence, so God must exist as the universal director.- What is Aquinas's distinction between essence and existence?
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Essence is what a thing is; existence is that it is. In all creatures, essence and existence are distinct (a creature's nature does not guarantee it exists), but in God they are identical.- How did Aquinas use the concepts of act and potentiality?
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Act is actuality or fulfillment; potentiality is the capacity to become something. Everything that passes from potentiality to act is moved by something in act; ultimately this traces to God as pure act.- What is natural law in Aquinas's philosophy?
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Natural law is the rational creature's participation in eternal law; it is knowable by reason and inclines us toward good and away from evil, and it forms the basis for human and divine law.- How did Aquinas reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology?
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He adopted Aristotle's metaphysics, logic, and natural philosophy but subordinated them to Christian revelation, showing that reason rightly used and faith are compatible, not contradictory.
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