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Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1224 - 1274)

Text

In the Summa Contra Gentiles, Thomas attempted to reconcile faith and reason, or religion and science.

Look over the table of contents of the work to get some idea of the topics he covered.

Now study one brief section, Book I, Chapter VII, "That the Truth of Reason is not contrary to the truth of Christian faith."

Study Questions

Consider these questions as you read in order to gauge your understanding of the text. Hint: You may want to print this page and mark the key words and phrases relevant to these questions.

1. How does the first sentence of this chapter show that Aquinas intended to defend the legitimacy of reason or science?
2. How does the argument of the second paragraph affirm the exercise of natural reason?
3. In the last paragraph, which does Thomas say reaches farther, faith or reason? Does this imply that they are contrary to each other?
4. With which church father does Thomas see himself in agreement concerning the validity of reason or science?
5. Why does Thomas' argument result in an optimistic attitude about the role of reason in defending faith?

	HSCI 3013. History of Science to 17th century Kerry Magruder, Instructor, 2004-14 Brent Purkaple, TA Report typos or broken links	Go to this course at Janux spellcheck.net | wordcounter.net Many thanks to the pedagogical model developed in Mythology and Folklore and other online courses by Laura Gibbs, which have been an inspiration for this course.	Academic Calendar
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