Reflections on the Relation between Philosophy and Theology

Abstract

The following pages present in summary fashion some of the fruits of a larger piece of research into the relationship between philosophy and theology, as conceived by St. Thomas, who in this matter has justly been considered the outstanding master. In studying the relationship between theology and philosophy we are faced not with one problem but with two: (1) the relation between theology and philosophy as the handmaid of theology, and (2) the relation between theology and philosophy as a purely natural and autonomous wisdom. As St. Thomas never developed a metaphysic in independence of and separate from theology, let us limit the investigation in St. Thomas to the relationship between theology and philosophy as the handmaid of theology. The Summa theologica provides an excellent laboratory for this investigation. There we have theology: look at the questions in the Summa which treat of the Blessed Trinity. There too we have philosophy as the handmaid of theology: look at the five ways of proving the existence of God, and also at the treatise on the human soul which to a great extent forms the backbone of the course on the philosophy of human nature as given in Catholic colleges. Are the five ways as presented in the Summa philosophy or are they theology? And then, what about the Summa itself? Does it present one science and is that one science theology? Or is it a neatly arranged mixture or combination of theology and philosophy?