I.

INTRODUCTION

The ideal good and God is the same thing (Stevenson, 2014). Philo said that God, the
ideal of goodness, is the oneness that underlies all things. (EWTN, 2010) We can appreciate this
oneness both through philosophical reasoning and through religious faith. This oneness, God, is
like a universal mind, (EWTN, 2010) and the order ideal forms described by Plato can be
understood as Gods thoughts. These thoughts of God give order to the corporeal things so that
it can be understood by people, whose minds are made in the image of Gods mind.
The ideal good and thought are attributed to the truth. Philo give us an idea that both
attributes of truth are distinctive idea but complement to each other in knowing the Truth which
is God. In relation to The Place of Philosophy in Moral Theology by Fr. Servais Pinckaers which
is also a complementary relationship between philosophy and theology and this idea capsulizes
into four points of St. Thomas theological works.

II. SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The four structural elements of St. Thomas Aquinas moral theology are as follows: (1) it is
the treatise of happiness as the ultimate end. (2) The virtues and the gifts. (3) The law and grace
and lastly, the prudential judgment. On each of these four points we will examine the place and
role of philosophy in the Angelic Doctors moral theology.
As a believer, each one of us is aiming to be happy because happiness is the ultimate end
for everyone. To possess God can fully satisfy the human longing for happiness. In dealing with
this high point of reasoning, Thomas no longer relies on the Philosopher, but on theologian, on
Augustine, who says that to be happy is to possess God in his whole life. The One who can
satisfy this longing is really the Trinitarian God, revealed and accessible in Jesus Christ.
Regarding this vocation, philosophy is both necessary and inadequate. It can neither attain nor
even consider such a totally gratuitous and truly supernatural happiness. But although theologian
knows of the call of happiness in God by faith, he still cannot show the paths leading to it
without the work of reason, without a philosophical reflection on acts and virtues.
A happy person is a virtuous one. The second point is man moves towards happiness
through his actions on the basis of two kinds of principles corresponding to the two parts of the
human act: the internal act and external. First there are the internal principles or personal sources
of action, which are the virtues. The treatise on the virtues is read as a whole, we see that it is
mainly a theological construction. The virtues actually form a living organism comparable to the
human body and its organs, they neither exist nor act separately, as one might suppose from an
analytical study of the Summa. They are united by dynamic links forged by charity and
prudence, and act together, like the limps of our body. This consideration particularly applies to
the relationship between the theological and moral virtues. Faith, hope, and charity constitute the
head of the Christian organism of the virtues and impart life from within, like a vital impulse, to
the human virtues so that they can be ordered to divine happiness, but not without transforming
them to some extent. St. Thomas will have such a strong sense of this influence that he will
consider it necessary for the infused moral virtues to be added in order to perfect the acquired
virtues. Morality truly becomes life in the Holy Spirit as the Catechism calls it. The Thomistic
study of the virtues thus combines the leading scriptural, philosophical and theological currents.
Finally, the idea that the Word of God is deepens through philosophical knowledge and develops
it beyond human thoughts and hopes.
On the other hand, the third point is the ten precepts or commandments of God had
always been considered a basic foundation, and scholastic theology related it to the natural law
inscribed in every human heart. Revelation will clarify, corroborate and perfect this legislation in
the form of the Old Law, concentrated in the Decalogue, and of the New or Gospel law, taught
chiefly in the Lords Sermon on the Mount. The New Law represents the apex of the moral law
and brings the divine law to its perfection here below. It is a reinterpretation of the Decalogue in
the sense of an interiorization and a higher perfection. For St. Thomas, the Decalogue sets out
the rules for external acts which the New Law brings to perfection by governing the internal acts
that inspire them, with the help of the virtues beginning with faith and charity. In this way, the
natural law and the Decalogue can be ordered to the Gospel law as to a higher perfection, a total
fulfilment, as well as, theology takes up and completes the philosophical quest. The coordination
of the different philosophical and theological levels of moral legislation will be the work of this
wisdom.
Lastly, prudential judgement is different because t goes beyond ideas, however beautiful
they may be, beyond intentions, counsels and commandments, however judicious they can be, to
a decision to act, which gives rise to action and transforms the acting subject: make him better
person and enables him to grow. This is why true prudence needs the virtues which particularly
govern affectivity. We can say that prudential judgement or choice is all encompassing; it
engages the human person with his whole being, the past he has inherited, even his unconscious.
A persons character is judged by his actions, as a tree is known by its fruits.

III. REACTIONS/INSIGHTS
Going back to the question, what is the relationship between philosophy and theology in
Christian moral doctrine? For man, in his heart a law is inscribed by God moral conscience,
whose voice echoes in his depths (CCC, 1994, p. 1776), and this voice cannot be fully
understood by intuition because man is limited and so moral conscience could fully understood
and acted through mans capacities using his reasoning and faith. Thus, St. Thomas is right when
he said that Philosophy is the handmaid of Theology. Both elements of truth go hand in hand
with this complementary relationship.
It is also affirmed as I understood from the article of Fr. Servais Pickaers that happiness
is the ultimate end of every human being. A moral being is a happy person on the basis of two
kinds of principles mentioned by St. Thomas moral teaching. In addition, peoples minds, for
instance, are modelled after Gods mind; we can understand God through reason to a point.
The problem is, though, that people are also tied up with material things like food, clothes,
smartphones, and their physical bodies, which can distract and prevent them from understanding
God. This connection to material things limits peoples abilities to reason, so we also need faith
to achieve a mystic connection with God (Stevenson, 2014).
Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas firmly believed in the harmony of faith and reason and
respected the autonomy and complementary of these two ways of knowing that truth that has its
origin in Gods word. This complementary relationship between the two is a reflection of the
truth that Gods grace on as it elevates and perfects human nature and enables man to pursue his
deepest desire for happiness (EWTN, 2010). Moreover, in acknowledging this harmony between
reason and faith, we also need to recognize that they make use of different cognitive procedures.
Reason accepts a truth on the strength of its intrinsic evidence, indirect or immediate; faith, on
the other hand, accepts a truth based on the authority of the Word of God that has been revealed
to us (EWTN, 2010).
Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of Gods total love and opens us to the
power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. The encounter of the Gospel
message with philosophical culture of the ancient world proved a decisive step in the
evangelization of all peoples, and stimulated a fruitful interaction between faith and reason
which has continued down the centuries to our own times. St. John Paul II, in his Encyclical
Letter Fides et Ratio, showed how faith and reason each strengthen the other (Lumen Fidei,
2013) Thus, philosophy complements theology. For Scholastic, it is a handmaid and it was
claimed that knowledge of natural sciences and philosophy had a limited intrinsic value, but
showed a great amount of usefulness when used as an aid to the knowledge of God.

IV. CONCLUSION
Thus, Philosophy and Theology are the heart of truth. The concept of the heart
occupies place in mysticism. In biblical language to say in ones heart means to think. But
furthermore, the heart is the organ of the will; like philosophy, it makes decision because heart
reason out. Love emanates from it. It said that we have someone in our heart (NAB, 1968, pp.
Phil. 1:7, 2 Cor. 7:3) or we are of one heart with someone (NAB, 1968, p. Acts 4:32). And
then, the heart is the location of that intimate and hidden function of consciousness the
conscience: in the words of apostle, conscience is the law delineated in our heart. Moreover, we
must also necessarily acknowledge the heart as the basic organ of religious feelings. This symbol
of the heart lays its supreme religious value. A person without a heart is a person without love
and without religion (Vysheslavtsev, 2002).

V. REFERENCES
CCC. (1994). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Philippines: Word and Life Pubilcations.

EWTN. (2010, June 28). National Catholic Register: Aquinas on the Relationship of Philosophy and
Theology. Vatican.

John Paul II. (1998). Encyclical Letter: Fides Et Ratio. Vatican, Rome.

Lumen Fidei. (2013). Lumen Fidei. New York: Image.

Lumen Fidei. (2013). Lumen Fidei. New York: Image.

NAB. (1968). St. Joseph Edition . USA: Catholic Book Publishing Co.

Stevenson, J. (2014). Idiot's Guides: Philosophy 4th Edition. USA: Penguin Groups (USA) Inc.

Vysheslavtsev, B. (2002). The Eternal in Russian Philosophy. UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
 ST. MONICA INSTITUTE OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Moral Theology

Reaction Paper to
THE PLACE OF PHILOSOPHY IN MORAL THEOLOGY
By: Fr. Servais Pinckaers, O.P.

Submitted by: Fra. Marcelino A. Rapayla Jr.

Submitted to: Fr. Renan Obregon, OAD