How to Think Like Aquinas Read online

  Kevin Vost, Psy.D.

  How to

  Think Like

  Aquinas

  The Sure Way to Perfect

  Your Mental Powers

  SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS

  Manchester, New Hampshire

  Copyright © 2018 by Kevin Vost

  Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

  Cover design by LUCAS Art & Design, Jenison, MI.

  On the cover: Saint Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli, 1426.

  Illustrations by Ted Schluenderfritz.

  Scripture quotations have been taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright © 1965 and 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, copyright © 1994 by United States Catholic Conference, Inc.–Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Vost, Kevin, author.

  Title: How to think like Aquinas : the sure way to perfect your mental powers

  / Kevin Vost.

  Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2018.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018029093 ISBN 9781622825066 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ePub ISBN 9781622825073

  Subjects: LCSH: Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. Thought and thinking.

  Classification: LCC B765.T54 V67 2018 DDC 230/.2092 — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018029093

  To all Thomists of every stripe, who through prayer,

  study, reading, teaching, preaching, writing, or one-on-one conversation strive to share with others the

  heavenly wisdom of the Angelic Doctor

  Contents

  Introduction: Why You Should Think Like Aquinas (and How)

  Part 1

  Navigating the Small Streams of Knowledge

  1. Speak Slowly and Carry a Big Heart and Mind

  2. The Power of Pure Prayer

  3. From the Cell to the Wine Cellar: On Crafting a Study Space You Can Love

  4. The Benefits and Perils of Friendliness to Study

  5. Set Your Intellect Free by Avoiding Worldly Entanglements

  6. The Imitation of Christ (and of Those Who Imitate Him)

  7. Loving Truth Regardless of Its Source (and On the Perfection of Memory)

  8. How to Read Any Book: On the Power of Understanding

  9. Filling Your Mental Cupboard to the Brim: On Building a Knowledge Base

  10. Knowing Your Mental Powers — and Their Limits

  Conclusion to Part 1

  Part 2

  Fathoming the Depths of Wisdom

  Prologue to Part 2

  11. Reason Gone Wrong

  12. Premises of Sand

  13. Wrong Thinking about the Faith

  14. Mnemonic Master Table

  About the Author

  Bibliography

  Introduction

  Why You Should Think Like Aquinas (and How)

  He alone enlightened the Church more than all other doctors; a man can derive more profit from his books in one year than from pondering all his life the teaching of others. 1

  — Pope John XXII

  The human soul is the highest and noblest of forms. Wherefore it excels corporeal matter in its power by the fact that it has an operation and a power in which corporeal matter has no share whatsoever. This power is called the intellect.

  — St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q. 76, art. 2

  Why Should You Think Like Aquinas?

  We should all strive to think more like Aquinas, but only if we desire to know what is true, to love what is good, to grow in happiness and holiness while wayfarers on earth, and ultimately to share in eternal beatitude with God and the communion of saints when we arrive home in heaven. You see, in all of human history, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was among the very best guides to fulfilling these desires. Dozens of popes have sung his praises as philosopher and theologian, the Catechism of the Catholic Church abounds in references to his writings, and even secular scholars have acknowledged his monumental contribution to the field of philosophy.2 They praise him foremost for what G. K. Chesterton called in his biography of Thomas “that unusual human hobby: the habit of thinking.”3

  Of course, by thinking like Aquinas I do not pretend to possess the keys to thinking as well as St. Thomas (as much as I wish I did!). Thomas was gifted with a uniquely powerful intellect and was quite aware that God gives some of us more powerful potential for greater depths of thinking than He gives others: “Experience shows that some understand more profoundly than do others; as one who carries a conclusion to its first principles and ultimate causes understands it better than one who reduces it to its proximate causes.”4

  Many centuries later, groups of modern psychologists have concluded repeatedly that the capacity for higher-level “abstract thinking” (the stuff of “first principles and ultimate causes”) is a fundamental hallmark of human intelligence. So, Thomas truly understood the nature of thinking and the habits required to perfect it. He was blessed with a uniquely powerful intelligence able to fathom the most ultimate of causes and principles. Further, he possessed the capacity to enlighten others by making the abstract more concrete, by capturing lofty truths and bringing them down to earth, so that the average person could grab onto them firmly and be raised up by them.

  Regardless of how you might think of yourself as a thinker, Thomas is a most trustworthy guide for helping you to maximize your unique God-given capacities to think and reason about the things that matter most to you. Further, whoever has the capacity to read and understand these pages has the capacity to improve greatly his powers of thinking — indeed, to grow adept at that most “unusual hobby” and think more like Aquinas!

  Perhaps more than ever, we need to develop our capacities for clear thought on the things that always matter the most, such as the existence and the nature of God and how we should live our lives and relate to our Church, families, neighbors, and fellow citizens.

  We live in a day when many young people declare themselves “nones” (people with no religious affiliation)5 amidst a barrage of propaganda that people who value thinking should choose reason and science over faith and religion, with the latter presented as matters of blind belief, sentimental tradition, and remnants of primitive superstition.

  In our time, St. John Paul II stated elegantly how faith and reason, properly understood, are not at all opposed, but “are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”6 Nearly eight centuries ago, St. Thomas Aquinas, the “Angelic Doctor,” showed us many ways to obtain maximum lift from both of those wings, and that is what this book is about.

  As for what we might call the “wing of reason,” Thomas knew well tha
t the powers of thought that arise from our human nature are “also aided by art and diligence.”7 In other words, intelligent thought and accurate thinking are not just capacities that you and I have in some fixed measure but are flexible potentials that can be built, improved, and actualized by training and practice (“diligence”) in the right methods (“art” being short for “artificial” or man-made). Your powers of memory, for example, or of logical reasoning, are fluid capacities that you can build and improve by using them in the right ways. As we proceed through this book we will learn the ways provided in the writings of St. Thomas — and practice them as we go!

  As for the “wing of faith,” Thomas knew as well that “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it; natural reason should minister to faith as the natural bent of the will ministers to charity.”8 Further, “when a man’s will is ready to believe, he loves the truth he believes; he thinks out and takes to heart whatever reasons he can find in support thereof; and in this way human reason does not exclude the merit of faith but is a sign of greater merit.”9

  Clearly then, Thomas knew that God gave us reason for a reason — to find truth in the world around us and to serve the faith that will guide us to Truth in eternity. It is up to us, then, to build on our natural thinking capacities both by developing and practicing the arts that perfect them on a natural plane, and by becoming more open to the graces from above that will raise them to heavenly heights.

  How Can You Think Like Aquinas?

  We can all come to think more like Aquinas in three steps:

  1.By reading and reflecting on what he wrote specifically about thinking, study, and the nature of perfection of the human intellect

  2.By observing the methods of thinking St. Thomas employed in his great writings, such as his over-three-million-word Summa Theologica and many others

  3.By practicing what he preached and taught through simple exercises included throughout this book

  As for the first step, our guiding template for this book will be the brief, elegant, delightful “Letter of St. Thomas to Brother John on How to Study.” We will examine this extraordinary letter in its entirety, fleshing out our reflections (in keeping with step two) with insights drawn from St. Thomas’s massive body of other great works and from works of great modern-day Thomists, students of the philosophical and theological wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. We will also mine some important events from Thomas’s life story to see how he lived out the principles he taught others. As for step three, each chapter will conclude with simple “Read, Reflect, and Remember” exercises designed to help us absorb, retain, and expand upon each chapter’s golden nuggets of wisdom from St. Thomas.10

  What better place than our introduction to dive into the introduction to Thomas’s letter to Brother John? Here we go:

  On Sailing Your Way toward a Treasure Trove of Knowledge

  This letter’s authenticity, as having been penned by St. Thomas, has been questioned by some. We don’t know, for example, who this Brother John was or when the letter was written. Still, Thomas was known to take time from his prodigious writing, teaching, and preaching duties to respond to letters requesting his advice. Further, commentators, including Father White and Father Sertillanges, note that its content is quite consistent with statements found in Thomas’s other writings.11 This letter’s worth, then, is unquestionable for those who would strive to think like Aquinas! Let’s dive in now and reflect on it. Here is its introduction:

  Because you have asked me, Brother John, most dear to me in Christ, how to set about acquiring the treasure of knowledge, this is my advice to you; namely, that you should choose to enter by small rivers, and not go straight into the sea; for difficult things should be reached by way of easy things. Such is therefore my advice on your way of life.

  The first lesson to be gleaned is that to think like Aquinas is to center one’s thoughts and affections on Jesus Christ. A second lesson is that knowledge is indeed a rightful treasure to be sought by the followers of Christ. Christ declared that what we treasure reveals our heart’s desires and we should seek not earthly, but heavenly treasures (see Matt. 6:19–21). Clearly, then, to seek truth is a proper desire and one that will be fulfilled completely with the Beatific Vision of God, who is Truth.12 In the meanwhile, here on earth, to obtain truth requires both the sweat of our brows and application of the right methods.

  Thomas reveals that the first of those methods is to approach the vast sea of knowledge via smaller, more navigable streams. We learn new things by comparing and contrasting them with things we already know, thereby widening the channels of our knowledge, bit by bit. We see this, for example, in the way we first learn the names of numbers and how to count before we move to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and onto higher mathematical functions such as algebra, geometry, and such. Who could possibly survive the deep seas of calculus without having reached it via those ever-widening streams? Further, we navigate these streams and reach broader, deeper channels by following the guidance of our teachers, who have traveled much farther upstream than we have.

  That is all common sense, but Voltaire said that “common sense is not so common,” and ironically, we often see the lack of it in many of his modern heirs who criticize Christ and His Church. By this I refer to some modern atheists who navigate their way up the rivers of knowledge in their own specialty areas, such as mathematics or biology, but then dive right into the oceans of philosophy and theology with no conception of how far they are out of their depth! But that’s another story, one that we’ll examine a bit later in this book.

  For now, let us note that Thomas’s advice in his letter concerns not merely study, but a “way of life.” In the rest of this book we will sail up those streams of knowledge and drink in the rest of his advice, so that we too might think like Aquinas, for to think like Aquinas is to strive to live out the truth that we seek, in imitation of the One who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

  On Fathoming Deeper Truths

  The goal of each of the ten chapters in this book’s first part is to help us sail up those small streams of learning toward vast seas of knowledge, with “Captain” St. Thomas at the ship’s helm. Hopefully all will find it a pleasant trip with few difficulties to cause any intellectual seasickness. But we’ll go a little further in this book’s second part, for those who would care to try their ships upon the open seas. These seas are indeed fraught with dangers, for they take us into the realm of abstract thoughts, universal ideas, premises, arguments, and conclusions that threaten to sink so many people’s ships in our day. This will be the stuff of our last three heftier chapters in the second half of this book.

  Thomas wrote extensively in his many works about the nature, importance, and perfection of human reason. The virtue of prudence, or of “practical wisdom,” for instance, he described as “right reason applied to action.” Well, part of right reasoning is to know how to identify wrong reasoning when you see it! Chapter 11 consists of twenty common logical fallacies, which we will examine after touching briefly on the nature of reason itself and on the story of how the power of St. Thomas’s reason made him the hero of a popular twentieth-century science-fiction story! Chapter 12 exposes twenty erroneous philosophical and ethical assumptions, worldviews, ideologies, or isms that wreak havoc in our world today, and chapter 13 comprises ten heresies and half-truths that have besieged Catholics over the centuries, some of which are still alive though unwell in our time.

  We can consider the fallacies in chapter 11 as affronts to logic; the errors in chapter 12 as affronts to philosophy as a whole, and specifically to metaphysics (the study of being), epistemology (the study of how we know), and ethics (the study of moral behavior); and the heresies and half-truths in chapter 13 as affronts to the Faith, mistakes at least or attacks at most regarding the nature of Christ, the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Mother, and the Catholic Church.

 
Following Thomas’s lead, we will address ways to dissect the kinds of logical fallacies, erroneous isms, and heresies and half-truths that have plagued our world in the past and continue to do so.

  Extra Helps for Thinking More Like Aquinas

  Doctor’s Orders: The “Doctor” here is the “Angelic Doctor,” St. Thomas Aquinas, of course. In these brief essays, you will encounter prescriptions, some directly from the “prescription pad” of St. Thomas’s writings, on how to develop the virtue examined in each chapter. Sections labeled “Reflect,” “Read,” and “Remember” include exercises to enhance your ability to remember all the essential lessons in this book, to guide you to resources for further learning, and to help you practice your God-given intellectual powers so that you may truly think more like Aquinas.

  Mnemonic Master Memory Table: Oh yes, and lest I forget: the appendix provides in one handy master table a written summary of the memory exercises that appear throughout the second half of this book. (If you read along carefully and do all the exercises as you go through this book’s chapters, by the time you get to this table, you may find that you do not need it!)

  I will note as well that we will focus throughout on practical thinking and the perfection of study habits. I include practical, real-world examples of these thinking principles from the lives of St. Thomas, other saints and sages, and at times from my own life experiences (the life that I am most acquainted with).

  So then, with the Angelic Doctor as our guide, let’s get down to business to see how we can attain greater happiness and holiness through the perfection of our intellectual powers that can come from thinking like Aquinas.

  1As cited in Pope Pius IX, motu proprio Doctoris Angelici (June 29, 1914).

  2See Charles A. Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950 (New York: HarperCollins, 2003). In this book, Murray, an agnostic, lists St. Thomas among the “giants” of Western philosophy, ranking him the sixth most influential of all time — above Socrates and St. Augustine. Note that philosophy was not Thomas’s specialty, but merely a tool — a “handmaiden” to theology, the highest of all branches of learning.