Saint Thomas Aquinas

2023 年 10 月 17 日

西方文论（一） Week 5

张晓婵

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 I. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)

• An Italian Dominican friar and priest, an

influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist
in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of
Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily, Italy.
• Philo Judaeus was a contemporary of Jesus. He
advocated a speculative allegorical approach to
interpreting the Bible.

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 I. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)

• Neoplatonism: Aquinas was one of the main representatives

of Neoplatonism and was deeply influenced by Plotin. In
terms of aesthetics, his views were in line with those of
Plotinus, who believed that the beauty of the whole lay in
the arrangement of proportional, well-proportioned
parts. Works of art originate from the mind of the artist.
• Therefore, the beauty of the artist's mind is the source of the
beauty of the work of art, and the work of art is the
externalization of the artist's mind and thoughts. He
emphasized the two aesthetic senses of sight and hearing,
believing that beauty is mainly received through sight
(Zhang and Zhao 136).
• Plato vs. Aristotle
• Summa Theologica was declared in 1879 the official
philosophy of Roman Catholicism.
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 II. Clarifications

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 II. Clarifications

• Scripture: In Christianity, "Scripture" often refers to the Holy Bible

Bible 的词源 biblia 就是书卷，而 Scripture 一词更强调圣经作为经的地位

• pseudo-Dionysius ： Dionysius Areopagiticus, an Athenian convert to
Christianity in the first century A.D., were actually written in the fourth or fifth
centuries. The author is traditionally called pseudo-Dionysius or the pseudo-
Areopagite (150).

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 II. Clarifications

• allegorical interpretation of Scripture ： Christian interpretation probably

began with the methods of Philo Judaeus, a philosopher of the first century
A.D., and by the churchmen Origen, Clement, Jerome, Augustine, and
Gregory. The system that St. Thomas sets forth was probably first worked out
in the fifth century. It reflects the fundamental idea that the world is itself a
symbol subject to interpretation as the work of God.

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 II. Clarifications

• etiological interpretation of Scripture: In the context of Augustine's

interpretation of the Old Testament, "etiology" refers to a particular category
or aspect of biblical interpretation. Etiology in this context is the study of the
causes or origins of things, events, customs, or beliefs as found in the Old
Testament. It involves understanding the biblical text's explanations for the
origins or reasons behind certain historical events, traditions, or practices.

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 II. Clarifications

• Example: Eucharist, bread and

wine, 圣餐论
• 天主教：基督的肉变成了饼
• Luther ：基督的肉是饼，饼是肉
• Zwingli ：饼是饼，肉是肉，只是
人们在二者间建立了联系

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 II. Main Ideas

• question
• objection
• “on the contrary” : Authoritative discourse
• reply
• conclusion

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 II. Main Ideas

• twofold system of interpretation

• literal and spiritual levels, is really sixfold, since both have three parts. Under the literal are the historical,
the etiological, and the analogical. Under the spiritual are the allegorical, the moral, and the anagogical
(149).

• literal
• * historical
• * etiological
• * analogical
• spiritual
• * allegorical
• * moral
• * anagogical
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 II. Main Ideas

• The world is itself a symbol subject to interpretation as the work of God.

• Spiritual truths are properly and naturally taught by figures taken from
corporeal things, and for these truths to be veiled is not harmful dissimulation
but, with Augustine, the cause of beneficial exercise of the mind. (149).

• The author of Holy Scripture is God, in Whose power it is to signify His

meaning, not by words only (as man also can do), but also by things
themselves (151).

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 III. NINTH ARTICLE Whether Holy Scripture Should
Use Metaphors?

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 III. TENTH ARTICLE Whether in Holy Scripture a Word
May Have Several Senses?

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 IV. Significance

• The Thomistic system has occasionally been imposed arbitrarily on literary

works, but it did open up the possibility of discovering multiple meanings
in poems (149).

• ambiguity in the senses put forward in the twentieth century

• William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity

• symbolism: the relationship between signs or symbols and what they
signify or denote arose again in the Romantic period
• Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism: The Second Essay of the Anatomy
—―Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols

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 IV. Significance

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 IV. Significance

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 References

麦克德莫特 T S, 黄瑞成 . 如何阅读阿奎那 [M]. 重庆 : 重庆大学出版社 , 2022.

英格利斯 , 刘中民 . 阿奎那 [M]. 北京 : 清华大学出版社 , 2019.

张中载，赵国新 . 西方古典文论选读 [M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社， 2006

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 Thanks for Your Patience

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