Gerard Verschuuren - Aquinas and Modern Science: A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason

Aquinas & Modern Science

A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason

GERARD M. VERSCHUUREN

Aquinas and
Modern Science

A New Synthesis of
Faith and Reason

Foreword by

Joseph W. Koterski, S.J.

First published in the USA and UK
by Angelico Press
Gerard M. Verschuuren 2016

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission

For information, address:

Angelico Press

4709 Briar Knoll Dr.

Kettering, OH 45429

angelicopress.com

ISBN 978-1-62138-228-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-62138-229-4 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-62138-230-0 (ebook)

Cover Image: Jacopo del Casentino,

St. Thomas Aquinas, between circa 1325 and circa 1375,
tempera and gold on poplar wood

Cover Design: Michael Schrauzer

CONTENTS

Foreword

THE ETYMOLOGICAL ROOT of school is scholeGreek for leisure. Now, in many respects the time of ones formal schoolingespecially at the level of college or universityis not likely to be a place of leisure. Even if one doesnt have to work to pay for ones schooling, the experience is likely to be busy enoughtests, papers, presentations, and academic activities of all sorts. What makes the situation worse yet is that there is little unity to most experiences of higher education. Unless one is at that rare sort of place where the coursework has been carefully fitted together, the experience is likely to seem busy in yet another sensebusy with many ideas from diverse disciplines competing for ones attention, and often one has neither the time nor the venue for sorting it all out. It can prove hard enough to keep ones head above water.

The present volume by Gerard Verschuuren just might help. Aquinas and Modern Science: A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason is designed especially for helping to unify an undergraduate education. It cannot claim to solve the problem of having to work to pay for ones education or the challenge presented by tests, papers, presentations, and other academic activities. But what it could help to provide is the leisure of mind that comes from taking a step back, to see how things fit together. The discipline of philosophy, especially in its classical thinkers, has a penchant for seeing the unity amid diversity, for formulating the principles that are operative in the practice of other disciplines, and for making explicit what often goes unnoticed.

Yet it is not just any philosophy that Verschuuren uses for this project. He takes up the thought of Thomas Aquinas, who undertook the projection of the philosophical unification of the most fruitful forms of knowing in his own day and who embodied in his own thinking the trait that is most distinctive of a wise man: giving order to things. The need for intellectual order remains acute in our day. If anything, the task is more urgent, for the ramifications of academic specialization have proceeded at a furious pace, and it is ever harder to see how things fit together and how to formulate the principles that are operative in the practices of the contemporary academy.

Using his detailed acquaintance with a considerable range of todays sciences, Verschuuren here provides a thoughtful account of how the philosophical vision of Aquinas can help us to better see the unity of reality and to appreciate the wide range of scientific disciplines that study widely diverse aspects of reality. The book includes well-informed discussions of such technical issues as the indeterminacy problem in microphysics and the concept of randomness in evolutionary biology. For each issue, Verschuuren brings to bear the resources of the Thomistic philosophical method, clearly explained. To reach such a book, the poor beleaguered student will still have to find time away from working and from the other forms of academic busyness. But what it promises is a leisure worthy of a real education, the leisure of contemplation and of appreciation of the unity deep within the diversity of things that would otherwise seem too busy, too scattered, too diverse to be understood.

JOSEPH W. KOTERSKI, SJ,

Associate Professor of Philosophy,

Fordham University, New York.

Preface

WE LIVE IN a paradoxical time. Science enables us to know more and more, but it seems to be about less and less. This leads to some peculiar contradictions. Science allows us to reach into the outer space, but we seem to understand less about our inner space. Science enables us to create intricate machineries to direct our lives, but we cannot control ourselves. Science shows us more and more trees, but no longer do we seem to see the forest.

Is there a remedy for these contrasts? Yes, philosophy. Unfortunately, Albert Einstein hit the nail right on the head when he said, The man of science is a poor philosopher. Scientists tend to stare at that square inch, nanometer, or micron that they are working on and feel comfortable with, while forgetting that there is so much more beyond their restricted scope. As the Nobel laureate and biophysicist Francis Crick put it, They work so hard that they have hardly any time left for serious thinking.

Why philosophy? Philosophy has the power to bring clarity where confusion sets in. Philosophy has the capacity to create coherence where fragmentation looms. Philosophy can open vistas that no telescope or microscope can ever reach.

Why the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas? Because his philosophy has survived more than seven centuries. Its impact has gone up and down, but it always came out stronger than ever. It has been classified under various namesThomism, Scholasticism, neo-Thomismand has given rise to several schools, but its core has always stayed the same. It has been a beacon of safety in times of uncertainty, confusion, and tribulation. This should not create the impression, though, that vigorous debate does not exist among Thomists, but in this book I want to stay away from those discussions.

What made Aquinass philosophy so successful? Probably the best answer is its timelessness. He took the best from another timeless philosopher, Aristotle. He did this so well that the world would soon take on his ideas, concepts, and distinctionsalbeit with some, but not much, reluctance. Although he did not consider himself a purebred philosopher, but rather a theologian, much of his work bears upon philosophical topics, and in this sense it may be characterized as philosophical. His philosophy gained much ground in the Catholic Church in particular. In 1567, Aquinas was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII decreed that all Catholic seminaries and universities must teach Thomistic philosophy. In 1998, John Paul II issued an encyclical called Fides et Ratio that reaffirmed the importance of Aquinas and his teachings. But the Churchs preference for his philosophy is not exclusive but rather exemplary, making his philosophy serve as a guiding model. Also, this Catholic stance does not take away from the enormous influence Aquinas has had on scholars outside the Catholic Church, notably among Calvinists.

What could Aquinas ever contribute to our time, some seven and a half centuries later? One of the main reasons is that there are many similarities between his time and our time, between his world and our world. His thirteenth-century world was as turbulent as ours is. His world was confronted with an influx of new ideas coming from the Muslim world; our world is constantly being inundated with new ideas, coming particularly from scientists and atheists. His world saw the sudden rise of universities; our world sees an explosion of sciences and their sub-disciplines. His time was marked by dubious philosophies; our time has been infiltrated by skepticism, secularism, and relativism. His era was a time of tremendous change; ours is also in permanent instability. His world had lost faith in reason; ours has too. Aquinas understood both the fascination of his contemporaries with new discoveries and new ideas and the very mixed feelings that come with all of that. So he most likely understands our time too.