Thomas Aquinas

“The pendulum of 20th-century evangelical scholarship on Aquinas has swung between strongly negative appraisals (…Francis Schaeffer and Cornelius Van Til…) and, since the 1980s, more appreciative receptions (…Norman Geisler and Arvin Vos).

“Sadly, many Protestants today have never read Thomas but have absorbed caricatures of Thomas based more on fear than truth, heat than light.” - Credo

“As we have seen, Keller did indeed break with Augustine and Calvin here, who held that the doctrine of original sin makes non-Christian virtue impossible.” - London Lyceum

“The moral philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) involves a merger of at least two apparently disparate traditions: Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian theology.” - Providence

“…natural law does not hold that all moral evil can or should be prohibited by the state. The free choice to lie, for example, is always wrong because such acts always damage the good of truth. Yet we don’t legally prohibit and punish all acts of lying.” - Samuel Gregg

“… following the example of my Protestant forefathers, such disagreements do not keep me from recognizing Thomas as a beacon of orthodoxy and fountain of inquisitive acumen from which I can and should benefit.” - Credo

“Why are evangelicals so unfamiliar with one of the greatest theologians in the history of the church… Is Thomas a friend or a foe to evangelicals today? Was Thomas first and foremost a philosopher or a theologian? Was Thomas a rationalist as some would suggest?” - Credo

“Strachan begins his program by describing the figures he takes issue with: contemporary protestants who commend Aquinas as a fruitful pedagogue….But his description of our commendation is quite inaccurate; he sets up a very tall straw man” - Samuel Parkison

“I felt, for a time, unmoored. Like many seminary students, I had been praying for years to a God who I had pictured as being just like me, only larger….What happened during those early years of my academic study of theology was a kind of deconstruction. More properly, it was a correction.” - C.Today

“One of the more common mischaracterizations is that Thomas Aquinas is a pure rationalist who subverts the Scriptures at the expense of his philosophical musings. Contrary to this narrative, Aquinas was a man who was steeped in the Scriptures. For Thomas, the love of God is more important than the knowledge of God, even though both are absolutes.” - Credo