"We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves"
About this Quote
Aquinas is doing something sly here: he’s defending faith without insulting the intellect. The line concedes a problem that still haunts modern “just follow the facts” culture wars: no one arrives at a complete, neutral view from nowhere. We begin inside a tradition, a vocabulary, a set of trusted authorities. For Aquinas, that’s not a scandal; it’s the only way knowledge actually grows.
The intent is pastoral and philosophical at once. Pastoral, because it reassures believers that starting with trust is not childish, it’s method. Philosophical, because it smuggles in a theory of learning: assent precedes comprehension. You accept a claim provisionally - like a student accepting a theorem from a teacher - and only later acquire the competence to see why it’s true. Faith becomes a kind of apprenticeship.
The subtext is also defensive. Aquinas is writing in a medieval university world newly energized by Aristotle, where reason is ascendant and theology has to justify its place at the top of the curriculum. “Start by believing” is not a rejection of evidence; it’s a bid to control the timeline. Evidence is real, but it’s not always immediately available to the novice, and some truths (especially theological ones) require moral and intellectual formation before they can be “seen.”
Read this way, Aquinas anticipates a modern insight: our first commitments are often acts of trust, and the mature mind isn’t the one that avoids that fact, but the one that earns the right to interrogate what it once received.
The intent is pastoral and philosophical at once. Pastoral, because it reassures believers that starting with trust is not childish, it’s method. Philosophical, because it smuggles in a theory of learning: assent precedes comprehension. You accept a claim provisionally - like a student accepting a theorem from a teacher - and only later acquire the competence to see why it’s true. Faith becomes a kind of apprenticeship.
The subtext is also defensive. Aquinas is writing in a medieval university world newly energized by Aristotle, where reason is ascendant and theology has to justify its place at the top of the curriculum. “Start by believing” is not a rejection of evidence; it’s a bid to control the timeline. Evidence is real, but it’s not always immediately available to the novice, and some truths (especially theological ones) require moral and intellectual formation before they can be “seen.”
Read this way, Aquinas anticipates a modern insight: our first commitments are often acts of trust, and the mature mind isn’t the one that avoids that fact, but the one that earns the right to interrogate what it once received.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
