15 Thomas Aquinas
My four years studying theology prior to priestly
ordination were concentrated almost exclusively on the thought of
Thomas Aquinas. I have never regretted this. I developed an appetite
for ultimate meaning. I held on to the fact that things cohere even
when they seem to disintegrate. An inadequate synthesis must be
replaced by a more realistic one.
Subsequent developments could be accommodated. I
welcomed the excitement of existentialism. I cried out for the
addition of historical context. I could give attention to process
without being swept away.
My first contact with Thomism included two
devastating shocks. The first, that all our knowledge of God is
analogical. "The dissimilarities are greater than the
similarities, but the similarities are real." The second, that
towards the end of his life, Thomas, fresh from a mystical glimpse of
God in prayer, declared that he considered all that he had written
about God to be so much "straw".
I did not become shockproof, but in the following
years, I could scramble to recover when the rug was pulled from under
my feet.
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