Wednesday Wisdom

St. Dominic de Guzmán was a Spanish priest born around 1170 in Caleruega, Spain. Born into a noble family, Dominic studied theology and demonstrated early devotion to his faith. Between 1203 and 1206, while traveling as a canon, he encountered the Albigensian (Cathar) heresy in southern France. This dualistic movement rejected Catholic teachings on the material world, the sacraments, and the Church. Dominic observed that so called the heretics lived ascetically and preached persuasively contradicting the lives of many Catholic clergy who appeared corrupt and lived medieval lavish lifestyles. Inspired to counter this, he began preaching with a group of companions, emphasizing poverty, itinerant preaching, and intellectual rigor. He sought to engage heretics or non-believers through reasoned dialogue rather than force.

In 1206, Dominic founded a monastery for women at Prouille, France, to shelter and educate noblewomen, this became the first Dominican community which was initially established for nuns. On December 22, 1216, Pope Honorius III officially approved the Dominican order through a papal bull Religiosam vitam, granting it the mission of preaching for the "salvation of souls." While most monks of his time stayed behind high walls in monasteries, Dominic founded an order of "mendicants" (beggars/travelers) who went out into the world to meet people and exchanges ideas in universities and marketplaces.

Dominic dispersed his initial friars to key cities like Paris, Bologna, and Rome in 1217 to study, preach, and grow the order. It spread rapidly across Europe, focusing on university towns for theological training. The motto associated with the Dominicans is contemplata aliis tradere ("to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation").

Legend has it that Dominic, while travelling in Toulouse France with Bishop Diego of Osma, stopped at an inn for refreshments. Discovering the inn keeper’s beliefs in the dualistic religion, Dominic spent the entire evening in a fervent discussion using scripture, logic and compassion to convert him to Catholicism.

Dominic died on August 6, 1221, in Bologna, Italy, and was canonized in 1234. The Dominicans went on to play vital roles in theology, philosophy, and education through great thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas Aquinas: The Angelic Doctor

Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Italian Dominican friar and theologian regarded as one of the greatest philosophers in the history of the Church. He is celebrated for his contributions to the natural law tradition and his synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine. His work profoundly influenced Western thought and he is often referred to as the "Angelic Doctor."

Aquinas is perhaps most famous for his Summa Theologica, a comprehensive work providing a systematic and logical explanation of the Christian faith. As a student at the University of Naples, he was introduced to the writings of Ancient Greeks and Romans. This experience led to a lifelong devotion to the question of how non-Christians could possess knowledge and wisdom without divine revelation.

By combining Greek knowledge with Christian theology, he embarked on the "Christianization of Aristotle." He used Aristotelian categories to explain God, creation, and the human condition. He developed the concept of "Natural Law," holding that certain principles of morality are inherent in human nature and apply to all people. This is coupled with "Eternal Law," God’s divine plan for the universe. A prime example is the "Golden Rule’, universal concept found in almost every culture.

The Five Ways

Aquinas used Aristotelian logic in his five proofs for the existence of God. He was attempting to demonstrate that even if you removed faith or the religious aspect and instead instilled reason, the existence of a "First Mover" or "Necessary Being" is a logical necessity of the physical universe.

1)The Argument from Motion: Whatever is in motion must be moved by something else.

2)The Argument from Efficient Cause: Nothing can cause itself; there must be a "First Cause."

3)The Argument from Possibility and Necessity: Because things come into and go out of existence, there must be one "Necessary Being" that has always existed.

4)The Argument from Gradation: We perceive degrees of goodness and truth, which implies a maximum standard of perfection.

5)The Argument from Design: The order and purpose of the universe imply an intelligent designer.

Why Do We Care in 2026?

In the Summa, Aquinas wrote: "In the works of the philosophers, we can find many things that are true... for the light of natural reason... is nothing other than a participation in the light of the divine wisdom."

This highlights his most significant contribution, the idea that faith and reason, or science and religion, are not in conflict but are complementary. As Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Fides et Ratio: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth."

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

Thank you, Dad, for the gift of curiosity

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.