Aquinas: Summa Theologiae

Is there a good argument for God’s existence? In his theology textbook for beginners, the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas provides five arguments in defense of belief in God: the Argument from Motion, the Argument from Causality, the Argument from Dependence, the Argument from Perfection, and the Argument from Design. As the titles of the arguments suggest, Aquinas uses various observations about motion, causality, design and other phenomena as evidence for the existence of the divine. This article examines these five arguments (...) in detail and considers what precisely Aquinas meant to demonstrate in each argument, along with their potential scope and limits. (shrink)