Structure of The Work
The Summa contra Gentiles is split roughly into two sections, books I-III (which cover truths that naturally are accessible to the human intellect), and book IV (which covers truths for which natural reason is inadequate, like the Trinity, Incarnation, Sacraments, and the Resurrection). More specifically, the first part of the work treats truths about God that are known by the natural capacities of the human intellect. Thomas argues that we can know that God exists, that God is one, that God is good from the power of unaided reason. Each of the three first books embodies a different way of exploring humanity's natural knowledge of God. Book I treats God in himself (his knowing and willing). Book II treats God in his so-called transitive action (action that goes out from him) and thus is a study of creation. Book III shows how, for Thomas, all created things have their end in God. Book IV can be seen to mirror the basic structure of books I-III, although it treats the issues from the perspective of revelation. Thus the first part of book IV treats God in himself (the Trinity), then God in his transitive action (the Incarnation and Sacraments), and then God as the end of all things (the Resurrection).
The structure of the work has caused some controversy. Some Christians see an unnecessary division between divine truths and human truths. Thomas asserts, however, that the twofold division is solely due to the condition of human knowledge. In itself there is one truth, God's knowledge of himself. Humans, since we rely necessarily on the senses for natural knowledge, have two kinds of knowledge about God. One is exemplified by the gentiles' knowledge of God (what can be known by natural reason) and the other, those things that can only be known in the light of Christian revelation. Since Thomas treats what can be known about God in this bifurcated manner, many have called the Summa contra Gentiles (at least the first three books) his most philosophical work, insofar as we would understand that term today.
Read more about this topic: Summa Contra Gentiles
Famous quotes containing the words structure of the, structure of, structure and/or work:
“Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)
“Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.”
—Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)
“Slumism is the pent-up anger of people living on the outside of affluence. Slumism is decay of structure and deterioration of the human spirit. Slumism is a virus which spreads through the body politic. As other “isms,” it breeds disorder and demagoguery and hate.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“On a huge hill,
Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and he that will
Reach her, about must, and about must go;
And what the hill’s suddenness resists, win so;
Yet strive so, that before age, death’s twilight,
Thy Soul rest, for none can work in that night.
To will, implies delay, therefore now do:
Hard deeds, the body’s pains; hard knowledge too
The mind’s endeavours reach, and mysteries
Are like the Sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)