Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
Thinker, Theologian, Aristotelian
Thomas Aquinas looms large on the historical horizon of Christianity, for many reasons. RC Sproul wondered if he was "the most brilliant theologian ever?" and Christianity Today thrilled over his "theology on the edge" as well as his willingness to draw from Jewish and Muslim writings. All one need do is type "Aquinas Aristotle" into a search engine and reams of links appear.
Aquinas was indeed of huge influence on the late Medieval church into the Renaissance and well beyond for purposes of interpreting Scripture, doctrine, and practice. One of the greatest impacts of his writings was to steer the Church in the direction of Aristotle for their "go to" Greek. I've written a lot on the idea that philosophy can be a dangerous influence if you adopt it unguarded, and have pointed to Paul's admonition of
"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" (Colossians 2:8, ESV).
In the case of Aquinas, he took the position that there was little conflict between the writings of Aristotle and the writings of the Bible. This should sound familiar because Augustine took the same position with Plato, much to his detriment.
Not only did it cause Aquinas to err in thinking that since Aristotle came to such harmony with Scripture by reason alone that it must mean human intellect is not fallen and can come to the Truth of God without the aid of Scripture, but his error in esteeming Aristotle too highly was passed on to his followers for generations. It became so bad that 300 years later Pope Urban VII violently disapproved of Galileo for considering the earth to revolve around the sun largely because it disagreed with Aristotle, having little to do with Scripture at all. As mentioned elsewhere, this disagreement was "old science vs. new science," not science vs. Scripture. Aristotle's ideas became so entwined with that of the Church's theologians that when science began to disprove Aristotle's ideas of how nature worked, they began to doubt Scripture's ideas about it, as well.
Again, this is why it is so important to separate the ideas of men from the interpretation of Scripture. The ideas of men will always contain flaws and change, but Scripture is eternal and unchanging. As is often said, "Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture," so go to the source, not to man's interpretation.
