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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hake on January 24, 2012 at 11:48pm

I have used A Shorter Summa edited by Peter Kreeft. He provides a great intro for teachers and students. (Note: Kreeft is very sympathetic.) I always spend some time talking about Aquinas' understanding of faith vs. reason, contrasting Aquinas with Augustine (who differs substantively on this point) and also bringing up Schaeffer's critique of Aquinas in Escape from Reason. Although I am critical of Aquinas on this issue in some ways, I appreciate his metaphor of philosophy as a handmaiden to theology and always try to read and discuss that passage with students as well.

In many ways, Aquinas is so monumental because his is the first great Christian attempt to baptize Aristotle, and I talk about that at length with students. For example, we look at Aristotle's view of the human soul and consider the persuasiveness of Aquinas' argument for the idea that Aristotle believed in an immortal human soul. I deeply appreciate Aquinas' success in integrating Aristotle into Christian thought but think that Aquinas stretched some points (including Aristotle's understanding of the human soul as, quite possibly, mortal).

All three of the topics/passages that you mention are also excellent choices. As you said, there are many to choose from. It is an important factor that teachers be personally excited about what they decide to spend time discussing.

And Aquinas is always good for some wonderful stories (even if they must be recognized as possibly apocryphal). I love to tell about the time when his teacher (Albertus Magnus) silenced Thomas' teasing peers by saying, "We call him the dumb ox, but in his teaching he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world." I also mention that two of his brothers tried to seduce him with a prostitute (as his father and older brothers all desperately opposed Thomas' desire to become a monk). Finally, I like to tell about the time, near the end of Thomas' life, when he had a mystical vision, leading him to declare all of his monumental writings to be only so much worthless "stubble and straw."

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Douvier on January 25, 2012 at 9:10am

Thanks, Jesse.

I've been talking about faith and reason with them contrasting it with Augustine/Anselm's credo ut intelligam, and helping them see how important the shift away from it was, and also how it opens the door for Descartes' radical cogito ergo sum only a few short centuries later.

I'll have to look into that Kreeft book and maybe even dust off my Schaeffer set and review his critiques.

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Permalink Reply by Katrina J. Combs on March 26, 2012 at 11:14pm

Maybe I'm a little late in the discussion, but I have one claim to stake regarding the seemingly-typical classical 10th grade humanities course: From the many booklists and syllabi that I've seen, it seems that 10th grade medievals go "all theological" (or strictly philosophical . . . i.e., regarding metaphysics) and forget anything political.  I think this is difficult for the students, as they would try to bridge concepts from ancients to medievals to early moderns/moderns.  Sometimes I think what is inadvertently communicated is that medieval thought was just "out there" -- not really fitting in to the rest of western civilization. 

Of course, I don't think this would be accurate treatment of the medievals, particularly Aquinas.  Thus, I recommend reading small snippets of Aquinas's Politics.  Students can read bits of Book I (such as bits of Ch. 1-6), in which Aquinas borrows Aristotle's claim that "man is by nature a political animal."  You get Aquinas's thoughts on slavery, men and women, etc.  Also, students could read Book II, Ch. 5.  There, Aquinas claims a natural basis for property. 

In these readings I've suggested, the text illustrates that Aquinas has a much "higher" view of life here on earth than Augustine seems to have held.  I believe it's critical for students to perceive this contrast.  Plus, as the philosopher of the High Middle Ages, Aquinas serves as the segue to understanding, most generally, the onset of the Renaissance and humanism, or, more particularly, Bacon, Descartes, and Locke.  For example, Locke's emphasis on property would not seem so random if students have seen other great thinkers concerned with it; and then students would be on their way to understanding part of the American experiment.  In contrast, if students over-cariacaturize the medievals as totally "otherworldly" (which, in may ways, admittedly, they were), students will miss the segue, miss the link.  This will not serve them well as they student the Enlightnement era.

Don't get me wrong: I think two main items the students should know by heart (have in their "working" repertoire by the end of the year) are Anselm's ontological argument and Aquinas's 5 arguments for the existence of God (including seeing the Aristotelianism shining through).  But I also can't emphasize enough: Get just a bit of political theory in there!  This will not only help internally in the students' own progressing studies, but it will also help students navigate the very nebulous, ongoing Christian conversation on the interactions of church and state.

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Permalink Reply by Katrina J. Combs on March 26, 2012 at 11:15pm

P.S. Check out the Norton Critical Edition: St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics.  This translation by Paul Sigmund is very straightforward.
 
Katrina J. Combs said:

Maybe I'm a little late in the discussion, but I have one claim to stake regarding the seemingly-typical classical 10th grade humanities course: From the many booklists and syllabi that I've seen, it seems that 10th grade medievals go "all theological" (or strictly philosophical . . . i.e., regarding metaphysics) and forget anything political.  I think this is difficult for the students, as they would try to bridge concepts from ancients to medievals to early moderns/moderns.  Sometimes I think what is inadvertently communicated is that medieval thought was just "out there" -- not really fitting in to the rest of western civilization. 

Of course, I don't think this would be accurate treatment of the medievals, particularly Aquinas.  Thus, I recommend reading small snippets of Aquinas's Politics.  Students can read bits of Book I (such as bits of Ch. 1-6), in which Aquinas borrows Aristotle's claim that "man is by nature a political animal."  You get Aquinas's thoughts on slavery, men and women, etc.  Also, students could read Book II, Ch. 5.  There, Aquinas claims a natural basis for property. 

In these readings I've suggested, the text illustrates that Aquinas has a much "higher" view of life here on earth than Augustine seems to have held.  I believe it's immensely for students to perceive this contrast.  Plus, as the philosopher of the High Middle Ages, Aquinas serves as the segue to understanding, most generally, the onset of the Renaissance and humanistm, or, more particularly, Bacon, Descartes, and Locke.  For example, Locke's emphasis on property would not seem so random if students have seen other great thinkers concerned with it; and then students would be on their way to understanding part of the American experiment.  In contrast, if students over-cariacaturize the medievals as totally "otherworldly" (which, in may ways, admittedly, they were), students will miss the segue, miss the link.  This will not serve them well as they student the Enlightnement era.

Don't get me wrong: I think two main items the students should know by heart (have in their "working" repertoire by the end of the year) are Anselm's ontological argument and Aquinas's 5 arguments for the existence of God (including seeing the Aristotelianism shining through).  But I also can't emphasize enough: Get just a bit of political theory in there!  This will not only help internally in the students own progressing studies, but it will also help students navigate the very nebulous, ongoing Christian conversation on the interactions of church and state.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Douvier on March 27, 2012 at 2:07pm

Thanks, Katrina!

I also teach 9th grade humanities and have more or less decided to add Aristotle's Politics to the curriculum next year. That seems like it would set up well an Aquinas reading as you've suggested. The humanities teachers at my school (all two of us this year) both have backgrounds and training in philosophy, but we're trying to compensate for that and stress more of the literary developments too.

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Permalink Reply by Katrina J. Combs on March 31, 2012 at 12:13am

Well, I'm partial to philosophical training myself :)  It has done wonders for me.

As for Aristotle's Politics: Yes, yes, yes!!  I had my 9th graders read it last year, and I think, for them, it has served as a framework for assessing many traditional historical events (traditional history meaning political history).

This year, I have one of those former 9th grade student studying ancients a second year but with a nuanced curriculum.  So, after Easter, while the "new" students are reading Aristotle's Politics, she will be reading Cicero's Republic.  One convenient aspect of teaching the Aristotle text in particular (and which is obvious regarding the Cicero text) is that it can be read while studying ancient Roman history -- the fall of the Republic, etc.  (Originally I strugged with this because I wanted to fit Aristotle into the Greeks . . .  but since we spent such substantial time and energy on Plato, it seemed we just need to move forward in the chonology of events.)

Both texts, by the way, dove-tail very nicely with one of the earlier chapters in Herodotus' Histories, in which the 3 Persian men debate the three basic types of government: monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy.  In fact, this is one of the thematic organizers of my 9th grade history/philosophy/government portion of the integrated humanities courses.  (So Aristotle's Politics follows suit.) 

I'd be eager to hear any feedback from your trial run through Aristotle's Politics when the time comes!!

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Permalink Reply by Robert M Woods on May 26, 2012 at 1:13am

I'm new to this site and late to the discussion, but would echo much of the earlier comments.  I have used Peter Kreeft's Summa of the Summa for years in our undergraduate honors program (Freshmen/Sp semester) where we read and discuss most of this work over the semester.  Also, Kreeft edited A Shorter Summa that might be a good fit.

Peace, 

Robert

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Douvier on May 26, 2012 at 9:58pm

Robert,

Thanks for suggesting Kreeft. One of my friends recently recommended his version of Pascal'sPensees. I should look into it and as well as these Aquinas editions.

Regards,

Jacob

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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Trumbo on June 23, 2012 at 7:23am

I don't have the reference handy this weekend, but there is a piece of the Summa which I use with my students in which Aquinas discusses whether there would be government if man had not fallen.  It is great for teaching the Scholastic Method in arguing a thesis, it addresses Aquinas on politics (I waws an AP government teacher at a former school), and the kids find the question engaging.  It also has the merit of being short enough that we can spend a couple of sessions on it and then move on to other topics--the students have been introduced to Aquinas and Scholasticism without being bogged in it.  We did, as well, go through his 5 proofs, which the students found interesting and different from modern approaches to apologetics.

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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Trumbo on June 26, 2012 at 9:07am

The passage which I referenced previously is part 4 (I think) of Question 96 of the Summa, the issue posed as,

"Whether men were equal in the state of innocence?"    This is a great spot to address both Aquinas' method and the issue of government in his views.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Douvier on June 26, 2012 at 11:04pm

Thanks Richard!

That's a good idea, since the nature of man is one of the key themes I like to emphasize.

Richard L. Trumbo said:

The passage which I referenced previously is part 4 (I think) of Question 96 of the Summa, the issue posed as,

"Whether men were equal in the state of innocence?"    This is a great spot to address both Aquinas' method and the issue of government in his views.

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