Research Article


DOI :10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415   IUP :10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415    Full Text (PDF)

The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas

Muhammet Saygı

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the prevailing Christian interpretation of religious faith during the medieval period, using Augustine’s and Aquinas’ corpora as primary sources. This study is distinct in that it explores the reasoning behind why an act of faith by a Christian is regarded as morally praiseworthy. To this end, the paper begins with a preliminary investigation into the nature of faith as understood by these two thinkers. Following that, the question of whether reason should precede or follow faith will be scrutinised in a theoretical sense. The study will also explore the impact on human free will of God’s intervention in the act of faith, and whether faith can be considered an act of man or of God. The study will also consider whether it is possible to reconcile these perspectives or avoid conflicts between them. The findings of this study show that, according to the Christian interpretation, conclusive reasons cannot be used to justify religious faith, as they undermine or eliminate human free will. If evidence were to exist, it would no longer be a matter of free choice for an individual to believe but rather a matter of necessity. For faith to be considered morally praiseworthy, it must be caused by one’s own free will, not by conclusive evidence. 


PDF View

References

  • Aquinas, Thomas. De Veritate. Translated by Robert W. Mulligan, James V. McGlynn and Robert W. Schmidt. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1952-54, available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/ QDdeVer.htm. Accessed Sept. 27, 2022. google scholar
  • ———. Aquinas, Thomas. The Pocket Aquinas: Selections from the Writings of St. Thomas. Edited by Vernon J. Bourke. New York: Washington Square Press, 1968. google scholar
  • ———. Summa Contra Gentiles. Translated by Fr. Marietti Shapcote, 1961 edition. Aquinas Institute’s translation of Summa Contra Gentiles, available at: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~SCG1. Accessed Sept. 11, 2022. google scholar
  • ———. Summa Theologiae. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Benziger Bros. edition, 1947), The Thomistic Institute, available at: https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute. org/st-index. Accessed Sept. 27, 2022. google scholar
  • Bauerschmidt, Frederick Christian. Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason, and Following Christ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213146.001.0001. google scholar
  • Cushman, Robert E. “Faith and Reason in the Thought of St. Augustine.” Church History 19, no. 4 (1950): 271-94. https://doi.org/10.2307/3161161. google scholar
  • Davies, Brian. “Thomas Aquinas.” In A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia and Timothy B. Noone, 643-59. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central. google scholar
  • Guzie, Tad W. “The Act of Faith According to St. Thomas: A Study in Theological Methodology.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 29, no. 3 (1965): 239-80. doi:10.1353/tho.1965.0014. google scholar
  • Hick, John. Philosophy of Religion. 2 ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1973. google scholar
  • Hippo, Augustine of. The City of God. (For all of Augustine’s works, I used “A Select Library of the Christian Church: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” edited by Philip Schaff, 8 vols., 1887-1902, reprinted edition of the American edition (New York: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995.) Christian Classics Ethereal Library, available at: https://ccel.org, Accessed Sept. 22, 2022. google scholar
  • ———. The Confessions. google scholar
  • ———. The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love. google scholar
  • ———. Expositions on the Book of Psalms. google scholar
  • ———. On Christian Doctrine. google scholar
  • ———. On Grace and Free Will. google scholar
  • ———. On the Gift of Perseverance. google scholar
  • ———. On the Spirit and the Letter. google scholar
  • ———. On the Trinity. google scholar
  • ———. Soliloquies. google scholar
  • ———. A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace. google scholar
  • ———. A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. google scholar
  • Jordan, Mark D. “Theology and Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, edited by Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump, 232-51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521431956.010. google scholar
  • Kenney, John Peter. “Faith and Reason.” In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, edited by David Vincent Meconi and Eleonore Stump, 2nd edition., 275-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139178044.022. google scholar
  • Kenny, Anthony. What is Faith? Essays in the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. google scholar
  • King, Peter. “Introduction.” In Augustine: On the Free Choice of the Will, On Grace and Free Choice, and Other Writings, edited and translated by Peter King, ix-xxxii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511844720.001. google scholar
  • Mascall, E. L. “Faith and Reason: Anselm and Aquinas.” The Journal of Theological Studies 14, no. 1 (1963): 67-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23954328. google scholar
  • Niederbacher, Bruno. “The Relation of Reason to Faith.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, edited by Brian Davies, 338-46. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780195326093.013.0026. google scholar
  • Pawl, Timothy. “The Five Ways.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, edited by Brian Davies, online edition, 116-26. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780195326093.013.0010. google scholar
  • Penelhum, Terence. “The Analysis of Faith in St Thomas Aquinas.” Religious Studies 13, no. 2 (1977): 133-54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500009938. google scholar
  • Pessagno, J. Meric. “Intellect and Religious Assent.” The Muslim World 69, no. 1 (1979): 18-27. google scholar
  • Price, Henry H. The Gifford Lectures Delivered at the University of Aberdeen in 1960. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1969. google scholar
  • Rist, John. “Faith and Reason.” In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, edited by Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, 26-39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. doi:10.1017/ CCOL0521650186.003. google scholar
  • Rist, John M. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511520228. google scholar
  • Saygi, Muhammet. “Accounts of Religious Faith: Abu Al-Mu'm Al-Nasafi and the Predominant Christian Understanding of Faith in the Middle Ages.” PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2023. google scholar
  • Stump, Eleonore. Aquinas. London, New York: Routledge, 2003. google scholar
  • ———. “Augustine on Free Will.” In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, edited by David Vincent Meconi and Eleonore Stump, 2nd edition, 166-86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139178044.014. google scholar
  • ———. “Augustine on Free Will.” In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, edited by Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, 124-47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521650186.011. google scholar
  • Tennant, Frederick R. Philosophical Theology. II vols. Vol. I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968. google scholar
  • Wawrykow, Joseph P. “The Theological Virtues.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, edited by Brian Davies, 288-305. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780195326093.013.0023. google scholar
  • Williams, Thomas. “Human Freedom and Agency.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, Brian Davies, online ed., 200-8. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780195326093.013.0016. google scholar

Citations

Copy and paste a formatted citation or use one of the options to export in your chosen format


EXPORT



APA

Saygı, M. (2023). The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. darulfunun ilahiyat, 34(1), 211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


AMA

Saygı M. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. darulfunun ilahiyat. 2023;34(1):211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


ABNT

Saygı, M. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. darulfunun ilahiyat, [Publisher Location], v. 34, n. 1, p. 211-242, 2023.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Saygı, Muhammet,. 2023. “The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.” darulfunun ilahiyat 34, no. 1: 211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


Chicago: Humanities Style

Saygı, Muhammet,. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.” darulfunun ilahiyat 34, no. 1 (May. 2024): 211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


Harvard: Australian Style

Saygı, M 2023, 'The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas', darulfunun ilahiyat, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 211-242, viewed 10 May. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Saygı, M. (2023) ‘The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas’, darulfunun ilahiyat, 34(1), pp. 211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415 (10 May. 2024).


MLA

Saygı, Muhammet,. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.” darulfunun ilahiyat, vol. 34, no. 1, 2023, pp. 211-242. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


Vancouver

Saygı M. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. darulfunun ilahiyat [Internet]. 10 May. 2024 [cited 10 May. 2024];34(1):211-242. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415 doi: 10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415


ISNAD

Saygı, Muhammet. The Predominant Christian Interpretation of Religious Faith in the Middle Ages: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas”. darulfunun ilahiyat 34/1 (May. 2024): 211-242. https://doi.org/10.26650/di.2023.34.1.1230415



TIMELINE


Submitted06.01.2023
Accepted01.03.2023
Published Online18.04.2023

LICENCE


Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.


SHARE




Istanbul University Press aims to contribute to the dissemination of ever growing scientific knowledge through publication of high quality scientific journals and books in accordance with the international publishing standards and ethics. Istanbul University Press follows an open access, non-commercial, scholarly publishing.