Abstract

In his Commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate 3.1, Aquinas cites Maimonides as giving five reasons for the need for faith. Yet interpreters tend to see Aquinas as “standing Maimonides on his head”. In this paper, the author places Maimonides’ text within the context of his rational mysticism and compares it to Aquinas’ own Christian mystical thought in an attempt to show that in his own mind Aquinas is not misquoting, reversing, or doing violence to Maimonides’ text; rather, Aquinas is completing Maimonides’ natural, rational mysticism with what he understands to be the supernatural perfection of the theological virtue of faith.