Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

19

AQUINAS, St. THOMAS OF

assuming a human body. Apollinarian
Christologies did not acknowledge the
full humanity of Jesus Christ.

APOLOGETICS. A defense of the truth
of a position or religion. For Christians,
apologetics names the practice of setting
forth reasons for accepting the Christian
faith.

APOLOGY. A defense. The classic model
is Socrates’ defense of himself in Plato’s
Apology. A well-known apology in the nine-
teenth century is John Henry Newman’s
Apologia pro Vita Sua (1865–1866).

APOPHATIC THEOLOGY. Also known
as negative theology, apophatic theology
emphasizes God’s radical transcendence
to the effect that only negative properties
may be attributed to God. God is not
material, not spatial, not temporal, not
finite, and so on. Some advocates of apo-
phatic theology go so far as to claim that
even “existence” cannot be attributed to
God; on this view, God may be said to
be beyond existence or being. See also
RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE.

APOSTASY. From the Greek apostasia,
meaning “a defection.” Traditionally an
apostate is someone who once professed
a traditional religious faith but has since

renounced it. The term is pejorative,

implying infidelity, betrayal, or a blame-

worthy faithlessness. For instance, it

would be hyperbolic or misleading to call

someone an apostate who was a Christian

in her youth, but rejected Christian faith

in college in the process of adopting Zen

Buddhism.

AQUINAS, St. THOMAS OF (1225–

1274). The most influential medieval

philosopher and theologian who shaped

much (but not all) of Roman Catholic

philosophy and theology. He refined the

Neoplatonic-influenced Christianity of

Augustine by way of Aristotle. So, rather

than Augustine’s clear distinction of soul

and body, Aquinas argued that the soul is

the form of the body. Although Aquinas

affirmed an individual afterlife, he asserted

that the soul and body constituted a unity

in this life (and also in the afterlife, after

the resurrection of the body). The idea

that the soul is the form of the body is

called hylomorphism.

Although Aquinas thought that we

cannot directly grasp God’s essence, he

held that there were five compelling

arguments to justify the belief that God

exists (sometimes called “the five ways”)

and that God may be known through

analogy. Aquinas developed an extensive

philosophy of the divine attributes, the

incarnation and the trinity, human action

and virtues, the atonement, sacraments,

the church, history, and politics. His chief

works include On Being and Essence