Similarities of Aquinas view with Ellen G. White Philosophy of Christian Education
Aquinas’ Life
Thomas Aquinas was a scholastic theologian. He is credited for synthesizing medieval Christian doctrine with Aristotelian philosophy. He was born to a wealthy land owning feudal family in the castle of Raccasecca in Italy. He enrolled in Benedictine Abbey monastery school which was renowned for its large library of early church father’s theology and philosophy. At 14 years, he enrolled for liberal Arts at the University of Naples where he was accessible to Greek and Arabic philosophy. He studied Aristotle, Boethius, Donatus, Cicero, Euclid and Ptolemy (Gutek, 2005, pg 24). He wrote a book that unified Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine.
In 1244, he became a Dominican. His family opposed his move and he could not inherit family wealth as a Dominican. However, the family relented and allowed him to join the Dominicans in 1245. Aquinas’s Dominicans send him for further study to the monastery of the Holy Cross in Cologne, Germany. He entered Dominican order, was ordained a priest and published On Being Essence (Donohoe, 1968, pg 23-57).
In 1252, he graduated in theology and was appointed lecturer at the University of Paris. He lectured on dogmatic theology using Peter Lombard’s Book of Sentences as his text. Aquinas followed the scholastic methods of the early church fathers in Sentences, reviewing arguments for and against a proposition, providing explanation and drawing conclusions. His interpretation of Lombard’s work known as Commentary on the Sentences won him an award and became an approved profess
I think his whole persona is just a very clever marketing ploy.