Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) advocated a similar position when he wrote: The church’s preference for the work of Aquinas is primarily intended to provide, at a time of spiritual dissolution, a sound philosophy by which the abiding, naturally known antecedents of the faith are eminently validated; it is not aimed at forcing theology into a determined form. The church did not mean at all to put an impassable obstacle in the way of reshaping theology by the search of new philosophies.35
