9

the beginner. Under the heading De Veritate, the question of knowledge and of God are handled in detail.

The Compendium Theologiae was written for his dear companion, Bro. Reginald. Its original plan was to embrace briefly all theology, in three books, based on the virtues, faith, hope, and charity. The first book alone, containing two hundred and forty-six chapters, was completed. The chapters are short and concise. "The whole work is an intelligible and succinct summary view of the system of St. Thomas.' This is strikingly true on the points of God, man's nature, and man's relation to the First Cause. "The doctrine of one God and the necessity of thinking of the condition of His existence, is derived in a strong and continuous series from the proof of a first highest mover of the world.""

99 10

The problem of God occupies the first place in all the works of Aquinas. "There is not a single one of St. Thomas's works that does not begin with the discussion of the existence and attributes of God."12 This statement shows the

9 A. Portmann, Die Systematik in den Quaestiones Disputatae des hl. Thomas von Aquino, Jahr. f. Phil. u. Spek. Theol., 1892, pp. 127-150.

10 Werner, loc. cit., p., 389.

11 Ibid., loc. cit., p., 388.

12 Jourdain, La Philosophie de St. Thomas d'Aquin, v. 1, p. 184.

importance attached to the question of God in our author's system; a glance at any of his greater writings will suffice to make this evident. God, for him, is the creative and sustaining Power of all things, and He is also their last end. Creation in all its forms gets meaning only when viewed in relation to Him. In the development of our subject we shall see how all comes from the hand of God, how everything bears some trace of His operation, and how He is the unifying element in the variety about us. A knowledge of Him, no matter how meagre, is worth more than a thorough knowledge of all that is less than Him, for He is the greatest object that the human intelligence can consider and seek to know. "Among all the perfections found in created things, the greatest is to know God." In a proem to the second question of the Summa Theologica, part I, St. Thomas gives his attitude on this question: "Since the principal intention is to give a knowledge of God, and not only as He is in Himself, but also as He is the Source and End of things, especially of rational creatures, we shall first treat of God, secondly, of the tendency of the rational creature toward God, and thirdly, of Christ who is our way in tending toward God." Here we have his

13

13 C. G., 1 1, c. 47.

principal work outlined, and its basic thought is God.

In both Summae, God is the all-embracing, allimportant problem. The Idea of God is the pivotal idea in these works. The subsequent developments and deductions are so intimately bound up with it that all stands or falls together with it. This is seen very strikingly in the fact that St. Thomas considers God as the cause of all things and likewise as their last end-thus comprising the whole realm of the actual and the possible under all aspects. It is not an arbitrary measure on the part of Aquinas to give this prominence and preeminence to the God-question, for it arises from the very nature of the subject itself, from the very content of the Idea of God. The introductory remarks to the main divisions of the questions in the first part of the Summa Theologica show this clearly; the same is evident in the other Summa where he devotes a chapter (1. 1, c. 9) to outlining his order and method, saying, he will first treat of God in Himself, then of God as Creator, and finally of the relation of creation to God as an end.

It is natural to ask in view of the detailed presentation of this problem in St. Thomas, how much of this delicate net-work is due to his workmanship. Is he responsible for all, or is he only a systematizer? Neither, exactly. He

inherited an Idea of God that showed signs of the thoughts of some great minds, and which had been growing and becoming richer under the guidance of a solicitous tradition; but this Idea was fully grasped by him and set forth in a way that combined all previous thought, and yet evidenced a selection that proclaims the master mind and gives title to originality. A cursory view of the principal authors he drew from, and the condition of philosophy at his time, will give his position more accurately.

Among the Greeks, the influence of Aristotle and Plato is unmistakable. His proofs for the existence of God are taken from them. God as Prime Mover and Intelligence are found in Aristotle, and "Thomas derived the most incisive proofs for the existence of God and for many of the divine perfections from Plato."' 14 That Aquinas went beyond the Conception of God arrived at by these two philosophers is no matter for surprise, for their Conception had been enriched by modification and addition long before the days of our author. In the Christian era, St. Augustine, and Dionysius the Areopagite, and Boethius are largely utilized. They are quoted frequently, and some of their statements are taken as a

14 Schneider, Jahr. f. Phil. u. Spek. Theol., 1893, p. 470.

basis for the development of the particular aspect of God he is considering. It is true, St. Thomas quotes from other writers both before and after Christ, yet there is not the same practical intimacy betrayed as in the case of the writers just mentioned. He considered of sufficient importance the De Divinis Nominibus of Dionysius and the De Trinitate of Boethius to write a commentary on them. His presentation however, is rather the outcome of his assimilating the various elements that attended the growth of the Conception of God than a conscious borrowing from different sources; he brought his synthetic and selective mind to bear on the materials the past had gathered, and threw these into the form that Christian Philosophy has recognized as its own since his time. The synthesis is partly due to the stimulation of his age, and partly to the actuality of certain problems at that epoch. Werner points out that the fundamental thoughts or axioms in the questions 2-26 of the Summa Theologica are derived from some philosopher, some philosophical writing, or Father of the Church, and thus concludes the acquaintance of Aquinas with the learning of the past and his leaning toward tradition; we might add, it is a characteristic of the work of St. Thomas to assimilate all the good he knew of in the