In a Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy

podcast brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at

Kings College London and the LMU in Munich online at History of Philosophy.net. Today's episode,

Not Doubting Thomas, the Aquinas Revival.

The University of Notre Dame, where I got my PhD, is known for, among other things, college football, the gleaming golden dome that adorns its main building, and its Catholic identity, which in philosophical terms means that Notre Dame has always been a home for teaching and research devoted to Thomas Aquinas, the most canonical philosopher of the Catholic faith.

These things have stayed with me in later life.

As you know, I'm very invested in football, albeit the more globally relevant version that Americans call soccer.

After quite a bit of hair loss, I am now adorned with a gleaming dome of my very own, and have often had the chance to teach

and think about Aquinas. Indeed, if you work in medieval philosophy, you simply have to engage with

Aquinas, since he is generally recognized as the most important

Latin scholastic theologian and philosopher.

As I pointed out when we looked at him here on the podcast, that recognition came only somewhat

later.

During and shortly after his own lifetime, he was certainly seen as significant, but more as one of several leading thinkers of the period,

alongside Albert the Great Henry of Ghent and Duns Skodis.

But he was also controversial, given his devotion to Aristotle and attachment to certain philosophical doctrines that were unpopular at the time.

Indeed, he's thought to have been one of the targets of the condemnations handed down by the Parisian church authorities in 1277.

How then did he ascend to his present exalted status?

The answer has something to do with his order, the Dominicans,

and something to do with our current preoccupation, the counter-reformation.

After lobbying from the Dominicans, Aquinas was canonized in 1323, about 50 years after his death in 1274.

Shortly after that, he was absolved of any charges connected to the Paris condemnation.

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