Thomas Aquinas—Theologian of Modern Roman Catholicism and Protestantism

How can one man be responsible for both the Modern Roman Catholic Church and the Modern Protestant Church?  The fact is that is what he talked about became the basis of the theology of the Roman Catholic Church.  It was what he said that led many to begin questioning the theology of the Roman Catholic Church (Protestant Reformation).  To understand Thomas Aquinas you have to understand where he came from and what influenced his life.  It his early life that led Thomas to become the teacher and theologian that had the influence that still continues today.

Thomas was raised in the Aquino county of Sicily.  His family was quite wealthy.  His older brothers went into the military.  It was thought that Thomas was to go to the abbey.  He studied at several different colleges.  During this time he came under the influence of Aristotle.  This influence affected his later writings. 

He then did something that was very contradictory to what his family wanted.  He met a Dominican priest.  It was this meeting and understanding of the order of Dominicans that he changed his career path.  It is quite interesting to see how his family reacted to this decision.  His father had his brothers kidnap them.  They placed him in an upper room of the tower to convince him to change his way. 

After one year he was freed and his theologian career began.  Because of his influence of Aristotle his theology views were against his contemporary Augustine.  He believed that understanding God was able to be done through reasoning.  It was his theory that God was explained by the physical world around us.  God was the only thing that existed perfectly.  Simply put God has no beginning or end.  God is complete and is the only thing that is not affected by the cause effect theory.

He took his thoughts one step further and added humanity to God.  Many people felt that God did not have a human side.  This was a much different view than his contemporaries.  The humanness of God shows the expressed love, anger, and grief that were expressed by different writers in the Bible.

The most defining part of his theology revolves around his five views of Roman Catholic Doctrines:

11.      Mother Mary was born without sin

22.      Jesus provides the way to salvation, but the Roman Catholic Church distributes the salvation

33.      The church actually has seven sacraments

a.      Baptism

b.      Eucharist

c.      Penance

d.      Ordination

e.      Marriage

f.       Last rites

g.      Confirmation into the church

44.      The Bread and Wine once blessed by the Priest become the Body and Blood of Christ

55.      Purgatory

These beliefs are still held by the Roman Catholic Church.  Yet, the Protest Reformation came to debate all of these views except Baptism and Eucharist.  This is why Thomas Aquinas has made a major impact on both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Revolution.  One man’s theory that became common thought in the Church at the time split the Church latter.  We can all imagine that Thomas did not attend this when he expressed his theological views.