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Magisterium More Sufficient than Scripture? (Part 3)
[Cont’d from previous section] Is the Roman Catholic Magisterium More Sufficient than Sacred Scripture?Bryan Cross answered on the subject of the ability of the Scripture to interpret Scripture sufficiently, from Scripture, reason, and tradition. (Part 3) Augustine (about A.D. 354-430): The divine scriptures, which have lifted us up from their earthly and human meaning to…
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Aquinas – Limit on Papal Power
In a previous post (link) we saw that Aquinas indicated that it was possible for the universal church to define doctrine in some sense. There are, however, limits on that power. The following quotation comes from the Supplement, which is Reginald di Piperno’s work that is based on comments from Thomas Aquinas in his commentary…
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Aquinas on the Development of Doctrine
Here’s one or two points where Aquinas differs from modern Reformed believers: As Augustine says (Ep. xliii) and we find it stated in the Decretals (xxiv, qu. 3, can. Dixit Apostolus): “By no means should we accuse of heresy those who, however false and perverse their opinion may be, defend it without obstinate fervor, and…
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Aquinas: Scriptures Define Limit on Acceptable Teachings of Apostolic Successors
Thomas Aquinas believed that (at least in certain circumstances) the universal church could not err. If we define the universal church as the faithful and we refer specifically to those doctrines that are essential to the faith, it follows of logical and even definitional necessity that the universal church cannot err. Thus, even a sola…
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Incoming Blog Post Alert from Bellisario
Bellisario writes: “I have recently been working on a response to Turretin Fan’s absurd abuse of the Angelic Doctor’s works concerning his view of Sacred Scripture.” He explains that his research is taking a long time (it can’t be that long, he only started within the last month) and generating enough material for a book.…
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Aquinas – Index
This is an index post for posts that are primarily about Aquinas (other posts that touch on Aquinas and posts that are more recent than the most recent update of this index post can be found by searching on the label Aquinas) The date of this post may change as I back-date it to move…
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The Theological Virtues Only Known to Us Through Scripture
We’ve previously seen Aquinas talking about the primacy and sufficiency of Scripture. In the following quotation, we see Aquinas stating that the theological virtues are only known via divine revelation found in scripture (“sola divina revelatione, in sacra Scriptura”): Such like principles are called “theological virtues”: first, because their object is God, inasmuch as they…
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Aquinas on the Primacy of Scripture – a Word of Clarification
One of the key texts in the discussion of Aquinas and the primacy of Scripture is as follows: “Formale autem obiectum fidei est veritas prima secundum quod manifestatur in Scripturis sacris et doctrina Ecclesiae [quae procedit ex veritate prima]*. Unde quicumque non inhaeret, sicut infallibili et divinae regulae, doctrinae Ecclesiae, quae procedit ex veritate prima…
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Responding to Beckwith on Aquinas
Francis Beckwith has responded to my earlier post on Aquinas and the rule of faith in a way that does not meet the challenge. But it is a response that Prof. Beckwith seems to think worth noting, so I’ll provide it and a brief rebuttal: Yikes, I thought his name was “TurnitinFan,” a booster of…
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Aquinas: Rule of Faith ("sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei")
Thomas Aquinas’ expression, “sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei” at first glance sounds a lot like the Reformation maxim that the rule of faith is only the canonical scripture. Here’s an English translation of the relevant portion: It should be noted that though many might write concerning Catholic truth, there is this difference that those…