What People Are Commenting
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Terror, Aquinas Expert & Burke’s Interview
Let’s Re-establish the Crusades
TIA,
The Crusades must be re-established or civilization is doomed.
Many governments, including the Vatican, believe that as long as we are kind to the Muslims, they will be kind to us. Breathtaking stupidity and absolutely invincible ignorance, not to mention being accessories to another’s sin.
In Maria,
J.S., Ph.D.
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A St. Thomas ‘Expert’ Speaks
Re: St. Thomas on Mohammed
Dear Sir,
The reference you give (CG Book 1 ch 16 art 4...) is wrong. There are no articles in the chapters of Contra Gentiles and chapter 16 of Book 1 has nothing to do with Mohammed.
To my knowledge, the only texts of St Thomas concerning “sarasins” are in quarto Sententiarum distinctio 44, art 3 and in CG Book 3 Ch 27 in fine.
I don’t know who is the author of the text you publish, but I doubt very much it belongs to St Thomas!
C.E., France
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The Editor responds:
Thank you for your observation.
Since I had some spare time after reading your e-mail, I also went to the Summa contra Gentiles to check your allegation that the quote our reader S.S. sent to TIA is wrong.
You are right regarding the chapter and the use of articles; the Latin edition I am using also does not have footnotes. So, that bibliographical reference needs to be corrected.
But, that very text is bel et bien in Book 1 at the end of Chapter 6, in its § 4. I also checked its translation to English and it seemed to me quite accurate.
Thus, I am sorry to say that you are mistaken: that text was written by St. Thomas of Aquinas and it is in the Summa contra Gentiles.
Probably it was misquoted by someone who copied and confused chap. 6 with chap. 16 and § 4 with a. 4 (article 4). It is good to have the right reference, no doubt; but there is no tragedy in the picture. A bit of good will and time was all it took to find where St. Thomas wrote that extraordinary text. The mystery is unveiled.
Perhaps you, Mr. C.E., should be a little more careful when you pretend to know everything about St. Thomas and, based upon this non-objective supposition, you hurl condemnations on others.
Cordially,
Atila S. Guimarães, editor
Note to the Reader:
The bibliographical reference for the text of St. Thomas against Mohammed sent by S.S. that TIA posted on July 21, 2016 – here – is not
Summa contra Gentiles, Book 1, Chapter 16, Art. 4, Footnote 1.
The correct reference follows:
Summa contra Gentiles, Book 1, Chapter 6, in fine (§ 4).
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This commentary was sent to me from a Catholic friend of mine. It speaks to what Islam really is. It comes under the heading "Know your enemy and what it intends for you - which is nothing less than your submission to its diabolic dictates or your death!"
In other words, we fight or we die!
Gary Morella
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Dr. Dianne N. Irving, retired Bioethicist, Prof. of Philosophy
Card. Burke is absolutely correct. Islam is not “just a religion;” it is a theocracy. And its holy book, the Qur’an, the source of Sharia Law, requires jihad, and even lying and deceiving to non-Muslim governments, officials and citizens if it would advance the Islamic State. If Muslims don’t accept this, then they are apostate and must die.
That is why we see almost no cooperation among the so-called “moderate Muslims”. They don’t want to die. Given these empirical facts about Islam – not “radical Islam”, but normal traditional Islam as documented in their own holy book and as clearly articulated in Cardinal Burke's timely new book – how can we believe anything they say?
As I’ve noted historically before, and as Cardinal Burke expresses in his interview https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-burke-the-church-really-should-be-afraid-of-islam, these problems have been going on for centuries (remember the Crusades?!). What is often not understood by Westerners is that Islam is not “just” a religion; it encompasses literally all areas of knowledge or fields – which are classified as just sub-fields of Islamic theology.
This was best explained during the mediaeval times (when the same problems were going on) by two amazing philosophical (not theological) treatises by mediaeval philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas. One of his most famous philosophical treatise is his The Division and Method of the Sciences – which goes a long way in explaining why Islam is not “just” a “religion” like other religions, which is so misunderstood and confusing to people today. It documents the difference between the Western-Aristotelian “fields of knowledge” (or “sciences”, as the term is understood historically) and the Islamic “fields of knowledge” or “sciences”. In short, the Western-Aristotelian “sciences” lie along a straight line. Each is independent of the other, and each has its own subject matter and method of coming to know that subject matter, although the fields can be related. And for Thomas, this is true of philosophy and theology as well! But they cannot substitute for each other.
In contrast, the “sciences” in Islam are in the shape of a triangle – with theology at the top, and all other “sciences” are either sub-fields or sub-fields of sub-fields of theology. Thus law, economics, history, biology, medicine, politics, agriculture, etc. are all just sub-fields of Islamic theology! I hear nothing out there about this critical distinction!
See the classic exposition of the Islamic Pyramid in Thomas Aquinas, The Division and Method of the Sciences.
Aquinas’ second relevant treatise was his philosophical refutation of the cosmology, philosophy and theology of several major mediaeval Islamic philosophers (still taught today), in his Summa Contra Gentiles (Books 1 - 4), here.
The English translation of the text of the Qur’an and Sharia Law, Reliance of the Traveller (quoted at length below) has been used for a long time in scholarly academic graduate courses in universities (e.g., Georgetown University, the Islamic Center at Catholic University of America, etc.) is also referenced in Wikipedia, “Sharia Law,” at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia:
Posted July 26, 2016
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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Something is rotten in France. The police ordered videos documenting the terrorist attack of Nice to be destroyed.
Read the news report here.
F.G.