Understanding John Duns Scotus by Ingham Mary Beth;

Author:Ingham, Mary Beth;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Franciscan Institute

COMPARED TO AQUINAS: THE NATURE AND SINGULARITY OF THEOLOGY

How does this vision of Duns Scotus compare to that of Thomas Aquinas? There are, I believe, three areas which can help us distinguish the approach of these two great theologians.

First, when he considers how theology’s subject and object relate, Aquinas uses a model known as subalternation. A science is subaltern when it depends on principles derived from a higher science, in the way that music or optics depend more fundamentally on mathematics. In this way, Aquinas envisions a type of scientific cascading from higher to lower. He defends the scientific nature of theology (sacred doctrine) in the following way:

Sacred doctrine should be said to be a science. Yet we must bear in mind that there are two kinds of sciences. There are some which proceed from principles known by the natural light of intelligence, such as arithmetic and geometry and the like; while others work from principles known by the light of a higher science: thus optics proceeds from principles established by geometry, and music from principles established by arithmetic. So it is that sacred doctrine is a science, for it proceeds from principles established by the light of a higher science, namely, the science of God and the blessed. Hence, just as the musician accepts on authority the principles taught him by the mathematician, so sacred science takes on faith its principles revealed by God.14

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.