The Concept of Faith and Reason According to Saint Thomas Aquinas' Theological Philosophy (Essay Sample)

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The Concept of Faith and Reason According to Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Theological Philosophy
The school of philosophy has always been associated with morality and metaphysical understanding of the material universe. Thomas Aquinas,’ however, involved theological understanding of both the material and immaterial existence. He is renowned through time of his theological writings. Aquinas to date is arguably the most respected and recognized philosophical theologian of all times. One of his most recognized works provided an unlimited illumination on the Christian doctrine. His breadth, wisdom, and influence on the concept of faith and reason shaped a core part of his philosophical writings and teachings, which provided a more vivid comprehension between divine truth and intellectual credibility.
Reason and faith at the heart of Christian doctrine, and from Aquinas’ perspective, is the application of philosophical reasoning on divinity – as a tool in a divine and spiritual service of theology. Divine nature effects more on philosophical reasoning than the latter would account of divinity. Whereas Aquinas’ was never oblivious of this fact, he insisted that the co-existence of both doctrines determines the core value of Christian faith. Even though reason and faith works in harmony, reasons are declarations, which can be inclined by individual perception and ways of civilizations (Albi 110). He understood both faith and reason in a single, yet twofold construct whereby coming to know God entails sacred teaching and individual reason.
Whereas reason majorly lies within the confines of individual rationality, faith observes divinity and trusting in God. To defend and explain the central Christian doctrines of incarnation and trinity, one has to consider the employment of philosophical reasoning. Reason, by naturally including an effective putative account of God reveals his existence and nature. To know about God through acquired reasoning and with divine understanding begets faith, which is core to the Christian faith.
The concretize the relationality between faith and reason, and from Aquinas’ perspective, having an acute understanding that faith integrates, consolidates, and illumines the truth’s heritage that reason acquires is prerequisite. The trust that endows these two instruments: reason and faith, lies in the conviction that they stem from a common source of every truth, the logos of divinity, which proclaims activity in both contexts: of redemption and creation. In this agreement, faith and reason avail themselves of mutual yet different cognitive procedures.
Reason normally receives that which is true by an intrinsic evidence’s virtue, unmediated or mediated. On the contrary, faith complies with the truth based on God’s authority, and His revealed truth. According to Saint Aquinas&rsq...