Table Of ContentELEMENTS 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:
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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.
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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
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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
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ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY
