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On Denying the Right God: Aquinas on Atheism and Idolatry
Author(s) -
Turner Denys
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2004.00246.x
Subject(s) - idolatry , philosophy , atheism , denial , metaphysics , existence of god , epistemology , natural theology , theology , theism , psychology , psychoanalysis
Thomas Aquinas appears not to have been intellectually challenged by formal atheisms, nor are his 'five ways' of proving the existence of God best understood as arguments with formal statements of philosophical atheism. But his emphatically 'negative' theology does seem to offer a response to an over‐optimistic and potentially idolatrous 'affirmativeness', and we might see the relevance of this negative theology as challenging atheisms of our times to come up with more radical forms of denial than they customarily achieve. In the light of this account of Thomas' natural theology, how are we to view his 'five ways'? As on the one hand valid as rational proofs and at the same time as avoiding the pitfalls of a Scotist 'onto‐theological' metaphysics.