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ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Etienne Gilson Elements of Christian Philosophy ETIENNE GILSON Member of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas Rome Director of Studies in the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Toronto DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. Garden City, New York Nihil obstat: Armand Maurer, C.S.B., Censor Deputatus Imprimatur: James C. Cardinal McGuigan, D.D., Archbishop of Tor onto Date: 14 November 1959 A cknonxle dgmen ts: The author wishes to thank the following publishers for permission to use materials under their copyright: Doubleday & Company, Inc., for permission to quote from St. Thomas’ On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, Book I, tr. A. C. Pegis, and Book II, tr. J. F. Anderson (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955 and 1956); B. Herder Book Co., for permission to quote St. Thomas’ Compendium of The¬ ology, tr. C. Vollert, S.J. (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1947); Random House, Inc., for permission to quote many passages from Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas, tr. A. C. Pegis, (New York: Random House, Inc., 1944 and 1948). All Rights Reserved Copyright (C) i960 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America Designed by Faith Nelson ONULP FOREWORD The words “Christian philosophy” do not belong to the language of St. Thomas Aquinas, but they are the name under which, in his En¬ cyclical Letter Aeterni Patris, Pope Leo XIII designated the doctrine of the Common Doctor of the Church in 1879. Such as it is described in this epoch-making document, Christian philosophy is that way of phi¬ losophizing in which the Christian faith and the human intellect join forces in a common investigation of philosophical truth. The study and the teaching of Christian philosophy are both beset with many difficulties. Lirst of all, in the form it has been given by St. Thomas, it presupposes for its understanding an elementary knowl¬ edge of the philosophy of Aristotle. The study of the Philosopher takes time, and when the moment comes for the student to tackle the doctrine of Thomas himself he still needs to be trained in the art of uniting the light of faith and the light of the intellect. As often as not, he has been warned to be careful about keeping his faith out of philo¬ sophical research in order to preserve whole and entire its rational purity. It is then too late for any student to adopt a new approach to St. Thomas, and it is to be feared that the very nature of Thomism will remain thereafter unknown to him. Another difficulty arises from the theological method followed by St. Thomas in those very works in which his own philosophical views are found in their purity, namely, the two Summae and the long series of his Disputed Questions. As a theologian, Thomas felt perfectly free to draw arguments from many and diverse philosophies and to confirm his conclusions by means of all sorts of reasons whose very multiplicity is liable to embarrass beginners. This complex situation is the problem to which the present book seeks to bring, if not a solution, at least a working introduction. Its author’s experience suggests that students often fail to find their way in the teaching of the Common Doctor for lack of a proper mastery of fundamental principles or elements. We call here “elements” those key notions and doctrinal positions that are not always explicitly stated in the discussion of each particular problem, but whose knowledge is re¬ quired for a complete understanding of St. Thomas’ answers. Such are: 5 Foreword, first and foremost, the specific nature of the way in which the theolo¬ gian uses philosophy according to the view of St. Thomas; second, the Thomistic notion of being, including the consequences it entails for the doctrine of the transcendental; last, not least, the impact of this same notion on the many philosophical problems in whose data it is included —God, substance, efficient causality, creation, the structure of finite being, the nature and unity of man, the soul, the human intellect and its object. These and other key notions are so many basic doctrines that need to be correctly understood before the student attempts to face the colossal array of particular questions and answers, objections and re¬ plies, that make up the body of the Christian philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. The detailed study of St. Thomas really has no end, but this fact is one of the charms of a life spent in the company of the Common Doctor of the Church. Something new is always there to be learned from him. The real danger is that the student may spend years pondering St. Thomas’ doctrine without realizing that he has not yet even begun to grasp its meaning. This is bound to happen every time the student misses the only true gateway there is to the proper understanding of Thomism, namely, a certain metaphysical notion of being tied up with a certain notion of the Christian God. To describe these two notions, and to show them at work in a small number of capital problems, such has been our main concern in writing the present book. Elements of Christian Philosophy does not pretend to replace any other book. We would rather like to think that it will help to confer upon other interpre¬ tations of St. Thomas the fullness of their own religious meaning. 6 CONTENTS FOREWORD j PART I: REVELATION AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER u Chapter i. The teacher of Christian truth u Chapter 2. Sacred doctrine 22 PART II: GOD 44 Chapter 3. The existence of God 44 I. The existence of God is not self-evident 44 II. The existence of God is demonstrable 48 hi. Demonstrations of the existence of God 46 A. The way of motion 48 a. The language of the proof pp b. The meaning of the proof 61 c. Interpretation of the first way 64 b. The way of efficient causality 68 c. The way of possibility and necessity 72 d. The way of the degrees of perfection 74 e. The way of purposiveness 78 F. The meaning of the five ways 80 Chapter 4. Metaphysical approaches to the knowledge of God 88 I. Materialistic scientism p/ II. The Cause of substantial mutations pp hi. The Cause of being pp a. Being and unity pp b. Being and perfection pp c. Being and existence 101 Chapter 5. The essence of God 104 I. Whether the human mind can arrive at the knowledge of God? 104 II. The simplicity of God m hi. HE WHO IS 124 iv. Reflections on the notion of being 144 7 Contents PART III: BEING 137 Chapter 6. God and the transcendental 133 I. The problem of the divine names 137 / II. Being and unity 145 in. Being and the true 148 iv. Being and the good 133 v. The forgotten transcendental: Pidchrum 159 Chapter 7. Being and creation 164 Chapter 8. Being and causality 184 PART IV: MAN 203 Chapter 9. The human soul 203 Chapter 10. Man and knowledge 220 Chapter 11. Man and will 241 Chapter 12. Man and society 261 NOTES TO THE TEXT 281 PART I 281 Chapter 1. The teacher of Christian truth 281 Chapter 2. Sacred doctrine 283 PART II 291 Chapter 3. The existence of God 291 Chapter 4. Metaphysical approaches to the knowledge of God 301 Chapter 9. The essence of God 303 PART III 308 Chapter 6. God and the transcendentals 308 Chapter 7. Being and creation 316 Chapter 8. Being and causality 321 PART IV 323 Chapter 9. The human soul 329 Chapter 10. Man and knowledge 330 Chapter 11. Man and will 333 Chapter 12. Man and society 339 BIBLIOGRAPHY 339 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 343 SUBJECT INDEX 349 8 ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY