The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

THE REVIVAL OF THOMISM * THE foundation of a Thomistic Institute in the second hal£ of the twentieth century might well be the occasion for a person to enquire what can be the meaning and the purpose of an outlook which professedly lingers on an outgrown episode of thought which, however much nobility and splendour one may care to concede it, now belongs, on any supposition, clearly and irrevocably to the past. And the enquirer might go on to ask whether this Institute simply sets itself the aim of cultivating tradition and memories of the past or whether it intends to take a vital part in the contemporary intellectual dialogue; whether, to put it briefly, it conceives its task as authentic philosophy or merely as the history of philosophy . Again, we are living in a period when the message of the Gospel is spreading throughout the world and Christian culture is coming into ever closer contact with fundamentally diverse cultures. Particularly among the Oriental races, these other cultures have left an indelible impression, both fruitful and unique, on psychological attitudes, on customs and on all the modes in which the human spirit expresses itself. It might, then, appear strange at first sight that we do not know how, that we do not desire, that we are unable to free ourselves from the principles and the fundamental schemes of thought of a philosophy which takes its name and its inspiration from St. Thomas, a son, not merely of the West, but of the medieval West. It is just this remoteness in time together with the quite * The text of a paper read by H. E. Mgr. Dino Staffa, titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Palestine, Secretary of the Congregation of Seminaries and Universities, in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Lateran University, for the official inauguration of the Chair of St. Thomas Aquinas, 10 March, 1963. Among the distinguished guests were: Their Eminences Cardinals Pizzardo, Aloisi Masella, Tappouni, Marella, Santos, da Costa Numes, Antoniutti, Jullien, Heard, Browne, Albareda; Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Germany, France, Ireland, and representatives of several other Embassies to the Holy See; and many archbishops and bishops from Italy and abroad. 1Q9 180 DINO STAFFA rudimentary scientific apparatus available to St. Thomas that raise doubts in some minds with the result that the Thomistic system appears unacceptable to them. How is it possible still to maintain this system on the data of modern physies which are so far removed from what St. Thomas could use as foundation ? And how is it possible to reject the efforts and the conclusions of present-day thought, irreconcilable as they often are with the very principles of Thomism? Philosophy cannot be the bare repetition of what has been said by others. It implies, of its very nature, arduous effort and conquest on the part of reason. How can it be imposed by decree without being transformed into an act of obedience or of faith? And even on the absurd supposition that it ought to be or could be an act of faith, how is it that only in the last century the Church has commanded this philosophy? I will not attempt here to propose an adequate and consequently a suitably extended reply to 'these questions which concern the legitimacy, the necessity and the very possibility of a return to the philosophy of St. Thomas. Yet it is certain that these aspects of the problem are once more being brought to light today and are .enjoying wide currency; and consequently I feel it my duty to make a reply, however brief, to them. It appears feasible to me to give a reply in such a fashion because the Supreme Pontiffs of the last century who have made the study of Thomism obligatory have evidently faced these same difficulties and have solved them. Why was it only in the nineteenth century that the Supreme Pontiffs began to make the teaching of Thomism obligatory? At the Council of Trent there was placed on the altar, side by side with the Sacred Scripture, the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas/ the significance of this being that the latter was called to the support of the former. This was...