Posts Tagged ‘ Aquinas ’

Trent and the Gospel: A Reply to Tim Challies

May 7th, 2014 | By | Category: Blog Posts

On April 16, Tim Challies, a Reformed pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, and co-founder of Cruciform Press, published a post titled “The False Teachers: Pope Francis.” That generated much discussion, as one might imagine. I responded to it in comment #335 of “Does the Bible Teach Sola Fide?” One of the criticisms […]



True Happiness and God’s Grace

Mar 27th, 2014 | By | Category: Blog Posts, Catholic Life and Devotion

St. Thomas writes the following about attaining true happiness: [M]an cannot attain his end of Perfect Happiness by his own powers, but only by God’s grace. [ST I-II q.5 a.5] The Throne of Grace Why? Because for man, perfect happiness comes only through seeing God Himself. Aquinas refers to what St. Paul writes in 1 […]



St. Thomas on Sacramentalism

Mar 7th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Protestants often caricature the Catholic doctrine on sacramentalism as if it taught that a sacrament was something like a magic wand waved over the recipient regardless of his disposition. But this is not an accurate description of the Catholic doctrine.   In this short article, I will explain why. On this day, March 7, 1274, St. […]



Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas: the Mystery of God and the Mystery of the Eucharist

Jan 28th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Today, January 28th, is the feast day of one of the Church’s greatest theologians, Thomas Aquinas (c.1224-1274). For his penetrating syntheses of faith and reason, nature and grace, and speculative, practical and spiritual theology, he is known as the doctor communis, the Common Doctor among the bright and God-consumed minds of the Catholic tradition.



Unity and Beauty

Jan 20th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

According to St. Thomas, integrity (or perfection) is one of the three marks of beauty. The other two are harmony (or proportion) and radiance (or brightness). The term ‘integrity’ is closely related to and directly implies unity; for without unity, integrity is impossible. We derive the word ‘integrate’ from the word integrity, and integration is […]



The Church Fathers on Transubstantiation

Dec 13th, 2010 | By | Category: Featured Articles

This article is intended to be a resource showing the support for the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Church fathers, and not a robust defense of the doctrine as defined by the Council of Trent. The Church fathers did not believe in a mere spiritual presence of Christ alongside or in the elements (bread and […]



Christ Alone is the Head of the Church

Jul 22nd, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

In the third part of the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas asks the question whether it is proper to Christ to be the Head of the Church and answers in the affirmative. Protestants often claim that the Catholic Church has set the pope as the head of the Church instead of Christ. But St. Thomas […]



Why are There Prohibitions Against Covetousness?

Jun 7th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Catholics, following St. Augustine, differentiate between coveting a neighbor’s wife and between coveting a neighbor’s goods. Protestants follow Judaism and Origen in combining both types of covetousness into the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” Now the species of a sin is defined by its object (Summa 2a.72.1) just as an action takes its species […]



Why Does Evil Exist?

Apr 5th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

“O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” – The Exsultet, Traditionally Sung at the Easter Vigil A simple answer of why God allowed the Fall of man runs like this. God did not desire man’s sin but He respected man’s free will by allowing him to […]



Aquinas and Trent: Part 7

Mar 7th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

On this day, March 7, in the year 1274, seven hundred and thirty six years ago, St. Thomas Aquinas departed from this life, and thus today is his traditional feast day. Last year, on this day, I began a series of posts intending to show how St. Thomas’s theology helps explain the soteriology set forth […]