Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal

by Norman L. Geisler

Book by Geisler, Norman L.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion

Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

Norman L. Geisler (PhD, Loyola University of Chicago) taught at top evangelical colleges and seminaries for over fifty years and was a distinguished professor of apologetics and theology at Veritas Evangelical Seminary in Murrieta, California. He was the author of nearly eighty books, including the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics and Christian Ethics. He and his wife lived in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Reviews

[David Haines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to the thought of Aquinas, and attempt to show that there is much in the thought of Aquinas which can be embraced by contemporary Protestants. It is aimed at lay-people and college level readers. If you have never read Aquinas, and want to read a Protestant introduction to his work, this is a good place to start.

[Maxime N. Georgel · Rating 5 out of 5]

C’est une excellente introduction à la pensée thomiste pour les évangéliques. J’ai l’impression d’avoir enfin rencontré un penseur évangélique qui a compris Thomas D’Aquin et son utilité pour nous.

L’introduction n’est pas simpliste, en fait elle est même parfois « pas simple ». Cela est dû au fait que la pensée du Docteur Angélique est complexe et que Geisler l’aborde jusque dans ses détails (même jusqu’à se demander comment Dieu peut connaître de manière nécessaire les singuliers futurs contingents).

Geisler a réussi à m’apprendre encore des choses sur la théologie de Thomas D’Aquin et à préciser là où je suis en désaccord avec lui. Je prévois d’étudier plus profondément sa solution au problème du mal et son lien avec sa doctrine de la prédestination. Je prévois aussi de creuser sa distinction entre loi naturelle, divine et humaine. Distinction que je trouve légitime en principe mais dans laquelle je ne peux pas aujourd’hui le suivre quant à ses conclusions (a savoir, qu’est-ce qui relève de la loi naturelle et de la loi divine).

Je m’interroge aussi sur la pertinence des distinctions entre les différentes vertus.

[sch]

Jul 2024. Reading Chapter Six (available online) on first principles in metaphysics and epistemology.

[Patrick O'Hannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this as interesting and honest. Geisler's thesis is that evangelical and fundamentalist Christians would do well to grant Aquinas the hearing that they too seldom give him because he predates the Reformers and is so closely identified with Catholic thought. Naturally I agree with that (Evangelicals like Fred Sanders do, too). It is also to his credit that Geisler realizes -- as G.K. Chesterton and others before him have also done -- that Aquinas has as much to say to Christian hearts as to Christian heads.

Where the book begins to fray is when Geisler hides behind evangelical hobby horses or disagrees with fundamentally Catholic aspects of Thomist thought. Reading Geisler's appraisal in a vacuum, you might think his essentially Calvinist outlook has a pedigree comparable to the one enjoyed by the thought of Thomas Aquinas, but that's a mistake not unlike the one that wrongly regards Augustine of Hippo and Paul of Tarsus as "proto-Protestants" (Fun fact: Neither Augustine nor Paul was a "Proto-Protestant").

It is one thing to say (correctly) that Aquinas had an exalted view of Scripture, for example, and to dryly observe that his evangelical critics typically shortchange that view because they haven't sufficiently studied Thomist source material. It is quite another thing to imply as Geisler does that Aquinas relegates the teaching authority of the church to second-tier status under the normative touchstone of the bible.