On the relation between philosophy and theology in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

The article analyzes the relation between philosophy and theology in Thomas Aquinas in the context of the difference between the light of active intellect and the light of faith. The light of faith perfects and strengthens natural light; because of that, natural reason is subservient to the higher light of faith, cannot contradict it and has to submit to it. Theology uses the first principles of reason that are the presuppositions of all thinking; faith and theological reflection correct reason and defend it against its inherent destructive tendencies, because it is undermined by the sin. Theology uses philosophy for the sake of greater clarity as well as for the articulation of revealed mysteries in a consistent system. Also, the function of philosophy is, with the help of the philosophical models, to reach some remote conceptual similarity between the mysteries of faith and the conceptions of natural reason.