The Conception of God in the Philosophy of Aquinas [Paperback]

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the recovery by western Christendom from the Arabs, Jews and Greeks of the metaphysical treatises of Aristotle, and their translation into Latin, caused a ferment in the intellectual world comparable to that produced by Darwin in the nineteenth century. To vindicate traditional methodoxy Albertus Magnus undertook to harmonize the doctrines of the Church with the Peripatetic philosophy, and this work was carried to its conclusion by his pupil, St Thomas Aquinas, with such success that the latter has become the official philosopher of Roman Catholicism. The system of Aquinas centres in his conception of God, to the exposition and criticism of which this book is devoted.

Preface.  Abstract.  Part 1: The Existence of God  1. The Demonstrability of the Divine Existence  2. Proofs of the Existence of God Rejected by Aquinas  3. Proofs of the Existence of God Accepted by Aquinas  4. Criticism of the Proofs of the Existence of God  Part 2: Negative Knowledge of God  5. The Via Remotionis  6. The Negative Qualities of God  Part 3: Positive Knowledge of God 7. The Method of Analogy  8. The Goodness of God  9. The Unity of God  10. The Infinity of God  11. The Divine Intelligence  12. The Theory of Ideas  13. The Will of God  Part 4: God and the World  14. Creation  15. Conservation  16. Providence  17. Mystical Knowledge of God