How Did St. Thomas Aquinas Reconcile Religion

St. Thomas Aquinas was born into a wealthy, religious family. His concern was find a solution to a problem that has been bedazzling humanity for centuries; how to reconcile religion and science, and faith with reason. In fact, St. Thomas did not reject his religion, rather he found a way to explain how religion and science were linked to each other. In order to do so, he developed four kinds of law by which the world operated. His definition of law came from the belief that every rule should be created for the common good by those who care for their community. Firstly, at the highest level, Eternal Law is the divine governance of all things. In fact, St. Thomas claimed that God can operate outside of human reason and govern humans and things according to the purpose they are supposed to accomplish in the universe. Things that do not possess intelligence must obviously be governed by something in order to accomplish their purpose. One interesting example given is the one of the arrow, which needs to be shot by the archer in order to fulfill its goal. Just like the archer, God governs over all things to make sure that they reach their given purpose. …show more content…
For instance, the purpose of men’s lives on earth is to reach salvation and eternal life. Such concept cannot possibly be understood by the human mind, and for this reason, God provided the truth through the sacred scriptures. St. Thomas Aquinas placed a lot of thought and importance on faith in God. Like Aristotle, he thought that human beings find the truth through their senses, but God was the ultimate knowledge. So, even though reason could be used in order to attempt to understand God, a man could never really understand God simply because men are creatures of