Thomas Aquinas Research Paper

In order for potential motion to become actual motion, something in actual motion had to convert the potential motion into actual motion (Gracyk). Saint Thomas Aquinas is well known for his explanation of faith and reason. Aquinas was born into a noble family and received a vast education. Through his strict studies he was able to help his community see that faith and reason are directly related and that they both come from God. Saint Thomas Aquinas took his knowledge of Aristotle and combined theological principles of faith with the philosophical principles of reason, thus creating his five proofs of God’s existence. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in Naples, Italy. Ironically, before he was born, a hermit came to his mother, Theodora, with a prediction about her unborn son. He told Theodora that her son would one day enter the Order of Friars Preachers and become a great learner who achieved sanctity (St. Thomas Aquinas). At the age of five, Aquinas was sent to the Abbey of Monte Cassino to train with Benedictine monks. He was described as a “witty child, who had received a good soul” (Wisdom 8:19). At thirteen, Aquinas left the Abbey. In 1239 Aquinas attended the University of Naples, and

People found things in nature that were possible to exist and not exist such as contingent beings. Every contingent being was created out of possibility and chance. For every being, it was assumed that there was a time period when nothing existed, but there had to be something that put these beings into existence. Once again Aquinas said that this being had to be God (CATHOLIC). His fourth proof was from the argument of gradation of beings. Everything had to be compared to a degree of perfection. Something was compared to the most perfect being because that was the maximum amount of perfect that a single thing could have. The most perfect thing to which perfection was measured was God