Abstract

In this dissertation, as an aid to shedding light on the debate about 'Christian philosophy', I trace the unfolding of Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of cause of being in books I-III of the Summa Contra Gentiles. My aim is to examine the doctrine for its faith-inspired philosophical originality, and, in so doing, to adjudicate a dispute between Etienne Gilson and Fernand Van Steenbergen concerning Aquinas's method in philosophical inquiry. Particular attention is paid to what elements Thomas adds to the doctrine of cause of being he finds in Aristotle to formulate his own doctrine. ;Chapter one exhibits how Thomas demonstrates the existence of God, how he arrives at a determination of the divine nature, and how he provides an account of God as the efficient cause of all being. Chapter two characterizes Thomas's understanding of the structure of the created order in relation to the divine creative act. And chapter three lays out the doctrine of God as final cause of all being that is the subject matter of SCG, book III. ;In chapter four, in considering how specifically Aristotelian Thomas's doctrine of God as cause of being in the Summa Contra Gentiles is, I argue that Thomas is able to cut through a number of unresolved difficulties in Aristotle's philosophical theology thanks to the creationist account of the divine nature he has formulated at the beginning of the work. Chapter five argues that Thomas's innovations in philosophical theology in the SCG are the product of theological inspiration. Van Steenberghen's claim that Thomas arrived at his important philosophical insights prior to his work as a theologian is thus rejected as false