Thomas Aquinas

Alvin Plantinga and Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility of Natural Knowledge of God

Traditionally Aquinas is considered as the leading representative of the position that natural theology is the king road to the knowledge of God by means of human reason alone. Nevertheless, Alvin Plantinga cites him along with John Calvin among the two main predecessors of his famous idea of sensus divinitatis. According to this idea, human reason can have natural knowledge of God via special cognitive mechasnism, which is closer to the functioning of human perception, than to the proofs along the line of traditional theologia naturalis.

Thomas Aquinas. On Faith and Religion

According to Thomas Aquinas, the question about the relation between faith (fides) and religion (religio) is a question about the relation between content of revelation (beliefs) and external religious practice. In addressing this question, Thomas partly demonstrates his dependence on the legacy of his predecessors (Lactantius, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius), and partly shows considerable originality, connected mainly to the new ideas he has introduced into Catholic theology.