第五讲是关于圣托马斯·阿奎那与阿威罗伊在信心与理性问题上的对比。 Lecture 5 is on St. Thomas Aquinas versus Averroes on faith and reason.
在当今的哲学家中，仍有柏拉图主义者、亚里士多德主义者、奥古斯丁主 义者、笛卡尔主义者、休谟主义者、康德主义者、黑格尔主义者、无神论 存在主义者、有神论存在主义者、马克思主义者、解构主义者、实用主义 者、现象学家、实证主义者和怀疑论者，但托马斯主义者的数量更多。 Among philosophers today, there are still Platonists, and Aristotelians, and Augustinians, and Cartesians, and Humians, and Kantians, and Hegelians, and atheistic existentialists, and theistic existentialists, and Marxists, and deconstructionists, and pragmatists, and phenomenologists, and positivists, and skeptics, but there are even more Thomists.
为什么圣托马斯的哲学具有如此持久的生命力？ Why does the philosophy of St. Thomas have such staying power?
即使七个世纪后，为什么他的哲学比其他任何哲学都更能吸收现代科 学的新数据和人格主义、存在主义、现象学等新哲学发展的成果？ Even seven centuries later, why has his philosophy shown itself more capable of assimilating new data from modern science and from new philosophical developments such as personalism, existentialism, and phenomenology than any other philosophy?
第一个原因必定是因为它是真实的，而真理永远不会与真理相矛盾。 The first reason has to be simply because it's true and because truth never contradicts truth.
第二个原因是阿奎那比任何人都更好地结合、综 合、调和或融合了哲学与神学、理性与信心。 And the second reason is that Aquinas combined and synthesized and reconciled or married philosophy and theology, reason and faith, better than anyone else ever did.
这是我将在本讲中试图展示的主要观点。 That's the main point I'll try to show in this lecture.
在哲学理性范畴内，他也比任何人都更好地结合了理性的两个主要理想。 And within philosophical reason, he also combined reason's two primary ideals better than anyone else ever did.
清晰性和深刻性。 Clarity and profundity.
精确的逻辑和直觉的智慧。 Exact logic and intuitive wisdom.
分析与综合，细节与全局。 analysis and synthesis, the details and the big picture.
没有其他哲学家在清晰性上可以与他匹敌，同时又能在深刻性上与他相媲美。 No other philosopher who might rival him in clarity can rival him in profundity.
也没有其他哲学家在深刻性上可以与他匹敌，同时又能在清晰性上与他相媲美。 And no other philosopher who might rival him in profundity can rival him in clarity.
当今的英国分析哲学家给你清晰、谨慎的逻辑，但不太深刻，而大 陆哲学家，尤其是现象学家和存在主义者，阿奎那则两者兼备。 British analytic philosophers today give you clear, careful logic, but not much profundity, while continental philosophers, especially phenomenologists and existentialists, Aquinas gives you both.
许多思想家探索超自然但忽视自然，更多的人探索自然但忽视超自然。 Many thinkers explore the supernatural but ignore the natural, and many more explore the natural but ignore the supernatural.
例如，在最著名的哲学绘画「雅典学院」中，柏拉图和亚里士多德并肩而 行，柏拉图的目光向上仰望天空，而亚里士多德的目光向下俯视大地。 For instance, the most famous of all philosophical paintings, the School of Athens, has Plato and Aristotle walking together, Plato with his eyes upward on the heavens and Aristotle with his eyes downward towards the earth.
但阿奎那探索和捍卫两者，因为他的一个基本原则和 假设是恩典完善自然，就如光完善所有颜色和形状。 But Aquinas explores and defends both, for one of his basic principles and assumptions is that grace perfects nature, as light perfects all colors and shapes.
神的超自然启示并不颠覆、忽视、贬低或减少整个自然界和自然理性的价值。 God's supernatural revelation does not subvert or ignore or demean or lessen the value of the whole world of nature and natural reason.
它提升并完善了它。 It enhances and perfects it.
这就是为什么信心，即我们灵魂与神的联系，完善了理性，即我们灵魂与自然的联系。 That is why faith, which is our soul's connection to God, perfects reason, which is our soul's connection to nature.
阿奎那还结合了非凡的智慧和非凡的常识。 Aquinas also combines uncommon intellectual brilliance and uncommon common sense.
如同大海，他表面清澈闪耀，内里深不可测。 Like the sea, he is both clear and shining on the surface and almost inexhaustibly deep.
像亚里士多德一样，他习惯性地避免对立的极端，非此即彼。 Like Aristotle, he habitually avoids opposite extremes, either-ors.
正如切斯特顿所说，你总有至少两个角度可以跌倒，但只有一个角度可以站立。 For, as Chesterton says, there are always at least two angles at which you can fall, but only one at which you can stand upright.
例如，大多数哲学家非常聪明，但缺乏常识。 For instance, most philosophers are very intelligent, but lacking in common sense.
大多数人很有常识，但不太聪明。 Most people are very commonsensical, but not very intelligent.
阿奎那两者兼备。 Aquinas is both.
让我给你举三个阿奎那清晰简单的常识的简短例子。 Let me give you three very short examples of Aquinas' clear and simple common sense.
这些也是他结合清晰性和深刻性的例子。 They are also examples of his union of clarity and profundity.
这只是数千个例子中的三个。 There are only three examples out of thousands.
首先，他对自由意志的辩护。 First, his defense of free will.
他写道：「人有自由意志，否则一切赞美、责备、劝 告、命令、奖赏和惩罚都毫无意义且徒劳无功。」 He writes, Man has free will, otherwise all praising, blaming, counseling, commanding, rewarding, and punishment are meaningless and in vain.
其次，他对肉体诱惑力量的解释。 Second, his explanation of the power of the temptations of the flesh.
他说：「人无法没有喜乐而活，这就是为什么一 个失去真正属灵喜乐的人会转向肉体的快乐。」 He says, Man cannot live without joy, that is why one deprived of true spiritual joy will go over to carnal pleasures.
第三，他关于死后生命的一个论证。 Third, one of his arguments for life after death.
他说：「自然界不会创造无用之物，因此人对永生的自然渴望就是其真实性的标志。」 He says, nature makes nothing in vain, thus man's natural desire for immortality is a sign of its reality.
圣奥古斯丁和圣托马斯·阿奎那无疑是两位最伟 大的基督教哲学家，是基督教思想山脉的双峰。 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas are certainly the two greatest Christian philosophers, the twin peaks of a mountain range of Christian thought.
奥古斯丁是爱的伟大哲学家，阿奎那是真理的伟大哲学家。 Augustine is the great philosopher of love and Aquinas is the great philosopher of truth.
这里并无矛盾，因为对这两位思想家来说，这是他们的两个绝对。 And there is no contradiction here, since for both thinkers these are their two absolutes.
记住，中世纪奥古斯丁的雕像总是展示他双手捧着真理的开放之书和爱的燃烧之心。 Remember that medieval statues of Augustine always show his two hands containing the open book of truth and the burning heart of love.
还要记住，奥古斯丁思想的第一次转变是在他读了西塞罗的 《哲学劝勉》后，发现真理是绝对的，并全心投入其中。 And remember that Augustine's first conversion of mind was when he read Cicero's Exhortation to Philosophy and discovered that truth was absolute and devoted his whole heart to it.
阿奎那也有这两个绝对，他展示了它们如何合一，因 为他说真理是我们必须最爱的，而爱是最高的真理。 Aquinas has those same two absolutes, and he shows how they are one because he says both that truth is the thing we must love the most, and that love is the highest truth.
他说爱神比认识神更好，因为我们可以完全地爱他，但不能完全地认识他。 He says that it is a greater good to love God than to know God, because we can love him totally, but we cannot know him totally.
他通过观察比较两者，认为爱使爱者塑造成被爱者的形象 ，而知识则将所知对象塑造成认知者心智局限的形式。 He compares the two by observing that love shapes the lover into the form of the beloved, While knowledge shapes the object known to the mental limitations of the knower.
这就是为什么认识石头比爱石头好，但爱神比认识神更好。 And that is why it is better to know a stone than to love a stone, but better to love God than to know God.
因为当我们认识一块石头时，我们将它提升到人类思想、观念和人类精神的层面。 For when we know a stone, we raise it up to the level of human thought, of idea, of the human spirit.
我们使它成为我们思想生活的一部分。 We make it a part of our thought life.
但当我们爱一块石头时，我们将自己降低到它的层面。 But when we love a stone, we lower ourselves to its level.
我们变得更像石头。 We become more stone-like.
但当我们爱神时，我们变得更像神。 But when we love God, we become more God-like.
我们将自己提升到一个更超人的层面。 We raise ourselves up to a more superhuman level.
然而，当我们认识神时，我们用人类的类比和术语来认识他，可以 说我们将他拉低到我们贫乏的层面，因为我们的知识如此有限。 However, when we know God, we know him by human analogies and in human terms, so we drag him down to our meager level, so to speak, because our knowledge is so limited.
例如，我们说当我们悔改时，神从我们的敌人变成我们的朋友。 For instance, we speak of God as changing from being our enemy to being our friend when we convert and repent.
但神并没有真正改变，只有我们改变了。 But God does not really change, only we do.
就像太阳并不围绕地球运转，尽管看起来如此，而是地球围绕太阳运转。 As the sun does not move around the earth, as it seems to, the earth moves around the sun.
奥古斯丁和阿奎那都相信真理和爱都是绝对的，值得我们无限和绝对的忠诚。 Augustine and Aquinas both believe that both truth and love are absolutes and merit our unlimited and absolute allegiance.
我们永远不应妥协任何一个，因为可以说，它们是神的本质。 We should never compromise either, because they are what God is made of, so to speak.
它们是神的属性。 They are divine attributes.
它们是构成我们内在神形象的灵魂两种能力的各自对象、目标和 完善，即理智和意志，头脑和心灵，认知的能力和爱的能力。 And they are the respective objects and ends and perfections of the two powers of the soul that constitute the image of God in us, the intellect and the will, the head and the heart, the power to know and the power to love.
这可能就是为什么神给了我们两位伟大的哲学家， 而不是一位，他给了我们两种性别，而不是一种。 That's probably why God gave us two great philosophers, not just one, and he gave us two sexes, not just one.
奥古斯丁是爱的至高倡导者，阿奎那是真理的至高倡导者。 Augustine is the supreme champion of love and Aquinas is the supreme champion of truth.
奥古斯丁有一个被严重误解的名声，被视为一种清教徒式的 扫兴者，因为他从与我们社会大多数人相同的性瘾中悔改。 Augustine has a radically misunderstood reputation as a kind of puritanical killjoy because he converted out of the same sexual addiction that most people in our society have.
他们通过拥抱性革命而转变成那样。 They have converted into that by their embrace of a sexual revolution.
同样，阿奎那也有一个被严重误解的名声，被视为一个 只有其他知识分子才能理解的不切实际的知识分子。 Similarly, Aquinas has a radically misunderstood reputation as a head-in-the-cloud intellectual that can be understood only by other intellectuals.
这完全不是事实。 This is simply not true.
事实上，一旦你理解了他专业哲学词汇中的几个关键术语（这些术语来自亚里 士多德），阿奎那就是有史以来最简单、最清晰、最容易理解的哲学家之一。 In fact, once you understand a few key terms in his technical philosophical vocabulary, which comes from Aristotle, Aquinas is one of the simplest and clearest and easiest to understand philosophers who ever lived.
令人惊讶的是，他的著作易读易懂，而且总是富有常识。 Surprisingly easy to read and understand, and always commonsensical.
这是有史以来关于阿奎那最好的书，G.K.切斯特顿的《圣托马斯·阿奎那：笨牛 》的主要观点。「笨牛」是阿奎那的同学给他起的绰号，因为他在课堂上很少说话。 That's the main point of the best book ever written about Aquinas, G.K. Chesterton's St. Thomas Aquinas the Dumb-Ox. Dumb-Ox was what Aquinas was called by his fellow students because he seldom spoke in class.
这不是因为他什么都不懂，而是因为他几乎什么都懂。 That was not because he understood nothing, but because he understood almost everything.
我忍不住想用阿奎那自己的话而不是我的话来证明我的观点，但这将需要 给你读一整页阿奎那的文字，只是为了向你展示他是多么清晰和简单。 I can't resist the temptation to prove my point from the words of Aquinas himself instead of using my words, but that will entail reading to you a whole page from Aquinas just to show you how clear and simple he is.
这是关于我想要集中讨论的主题，即信心与理性、宗教与科学、神学与哲学之间的关系。 It's about the topic I want to center on, about the relation between faith and reason, religion and science, theology and philosophy.
我花时间读完它，因为它解决并驳斥了我们文化中关于我们这个时代 与圣托马斯时代之间历史变迁的最流行的迷信，即认为自阿奎那以来 我们现代文明的历史集中在科学与宗教之间日益加剧的战争上。 I take time to read it all because it addresses and refutes the most popular superstition of our culture about the historical change between our age and that of St. Thomas, which is the idea that the history of our modern civilization since Aquinas It centers on the ever increasing war between science and religion.
这是一场完全虚假的战争，没有一个伤亡。 This is a totally fake war without a single casualty.
这种说法可能听起来令人惊讶，但当我们不谈论所谓的科学和宗教这两个模糊的 抽象概念，而是问哪个宗教的哪个教义被哪个科学的哪个发现所驳斥，这个发现 是什么时候发生的，指出那个科学家、那个发现、那些数据或实验或计算在逻辑 上驳斥了那个宗教教义，当我们问这个问题时，我们发现没有人能回答它。 That claim may sound surprising, but when, instead of talking about the two vague abstractions called science and religion, when we ask the question, which dogma of which religion has been disproved by which discovery of which science, and when did that discovery happen, name the scientist and the discovery and the data or the experiment or the calculation that logically disproved the religious dogma, when we ask that question, we find that no one has ever answered it.
因此，对我们的时代和文化来说，集中讨论阿奎那关于 信心与理性永远不会相互矛盾的论点是非常相关的。 So, it is deeply relevant to our times and our culture for us to center on Aquinas' argument that faith and reason can never contradict each other.
这个假设是他毕生工作的庞大事业的基础，目的是展示两个庞大而复杂的 思想体系，一方面是通过信心所知的一切在基督教神学中超自然地启示出 来，另一方面是单凭自然理性所证明的一切。这里有一段引自他较短的《 神学大全》，即《反异教大全》的开头，意思是反对不信者的总结。 And that assumption is the foundation of the vast enterprise of his lifetime of work, to show that the two massive and complex bodies of thought, on the one hand, everything known by faith is supernaturally revealed in Christian theology, and on the other hand, everything proved by natural reason alone Here's a quotation from the beginning of his shorter Summa, the Summa contra Gentiles, which means the summary against the unbelievers.
引文的第一部分是关于真理的绝对优先性。 The first part of the quote is about the absolute priority of truth.
他写道：「每个事物的目的是其创造者所意图的，而宇宙的创造者是一个智慧。」 He writes, The end of each thing is that which is intended by its author, but the author of the universe is an intellect.
「因此，宇宙的终极目的必定是智慧的善。」 The ultimate end of the universe must therefore be the good of an intellect.
「这善就是真理。」 This good is truth.
「因此，真理必定是整个宇宙的目的。」 Truth must consequently be the end of the whole universe.
「智者的考虑主要是针对真理。」 And the consideration of the wise man aims principally at truth.
「因此，根据他自己的陈述，神的智慧证明他已 取了肉身来到世上，为要使真理为人所知。」 So it is that, according to his own statement, divine wisdom testifies that he has assumed flesh and come into the world in order to make the truth known.
「我为此而生，我为此来到世上，为要给真理作见证。」 For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth.
接下来是对两种真理的区分。 Next comes a distinction between two truths.
阿奎那会强烈反对他同时代人布拉班特的西格尔所谓的双重真理理论。在这 里，阿奎那区分了神使真理为人所知的两种方式，即通过理性和启示，以及 我们认识真理的两种方式，即通过信心和理性，但不是区分两种真理。 Aquinas will vociferously oppose the so-called double-truth theory of his contemporary, Sieger of Brabant, Here, Aquinas distinguishes between two ways God made truth known, namely by reason and by revelation, and two ways we can know the truth, by faith and by reason, but not between two truths.
他说：「使真理为人所知的方式并不总是相同的。」 He says, The way of making truth known is not always the same.
「在我们关于神的宣认中，有两种真理模式。」 There is a two-fold mode of truth in what we profess about God.
「因为有些关于神的真理超越了人类理性的所有能力，即发现、理解或证明的能力。」 For some truths about God exceed all the ability of the human reason, that is, to discover, to comprehend, or to prove.
「神是三位一体的真理就是如此。」 Such is the truth that God is triune.
但有些真理是自然理性能够达到的。 But there are some truths which the natural reason is able to reach.
比如神存在、神是独一的等等。 Such are that God exists, that he is one, and the like.
事实上，这些真理已经被哲学家们论证性地证明了 。神将这两种真理都提出来让人相信是合适的。 In fact, such truths have been proved demonstratively by the philosophers It is fitting that both of these truths be proposed to man by God for belief.
这一点首先必须针对那些可以通过理性探究的真理来说明，因为可能看起来既然 这样的真理可以通过理性认知，神通过超自然的启示向人揭示它似乎是多余的。 This point must first be shown concerning the truths that are open to the inquiry of reason, for it might seem that since such a truth can be known by reason, it was superfluous for God to reveal it to man through supernatural inspiration.
但如果这真理仅仅作为人类理性探究的对象，就会产生三个尴尬的后果。 But if this truth were left solely as a matter of inquiry for human reason, three awkward consequences would follow.
第一是很少人会拥有对神的认识，因为有三个原因使大 多数人无法获得发现这种真理所需的勤奋探究的成果。 The first is that few men would possess the knowledge of God, for there are three reasons why most men are cut off from the fruit of diligent inquiry which is needed for the discovery of such truth.
有些人没有身体条件。 Some do not have the physical disposition.
其他人因日常生活的需求而无法追求这个。 Others are cut off from this pursuit by the necessities imposed on them by their daily lives.
最后，有些人因懒惰而无法追求。 And finally, there are some who are cut off by laziness.
第二个尴尬的结果是，那些能够发现关于神的真理的人只有在经过很长时间后才能达到。 The second awkward effect is that those who would come to discover the truth about God would only reach it after a great deal of time.
这有几个原因。 The reasons for this are several.
这真理很深奥，而且年轻时灵魂更容易受激情影响，不适合认识如此崇高的真理。 There is the profundity of this truth, and there is also the fact that in youth, when the soul is more swayed by the passions, it is not in a suitable state for knowing such lofty truths.
第三个尴尬的结果是这样的。 The third awkward effect is this.
人类理性的探究在使用中通常会有错误，结果是许多人仍会对实际上已经真正证明的事情 持怀疑态度，尤其是因为在那些被认为是智者的人中，每个人都教导自己的一套学说。 The investigation of human reason usually has errors in its use, With the result that many would still hold in doubt things that have in fact been truly proved, especially since among those reputed to be wise, each one teaches his own brand of doctrine.
因此，神的怜悯提供了通过信心相信的指示，即使是人类理性能够达到的真理，这是 有益的，这样所有人都可以轻易地分享对神的认识，没有不确定性，也没有错误。 It was beneficial, therefore, that the divine mercy provided for instructions to believe by faith even truths that human reason is able to reach, so that all could easily share in the knowledge of God without uncertainty and without error.
而人类理性无法达到的真理也适当地被提出来让我们相信。 And the truths that human reason is not able to reach are also fittingly proposed to us for belief.
因为没有人会对自己不知道的事物产生渴望和热忱。 For no one tends with desire and zeal toward something that is not known to him.
但神的旨意使人注定要得到比人类在现今生命中所能经历的更高的善。 But men are ordained by divine providence to a higher good than human fragility can experience in this present life.
这就是为什么有必要呼召人的心智去追求比当前人类理性所能达到的更高的事物。 That is why it was necessary for the human mind to be called to something higher than the human reason here and now can reach.
这样我就会学会渴望并热切地追求超越现今生命全部状态的事物。 So that I would learn to desire and tend with zeal toward something that surpasses the whole state of this present life.
现在，这种对神策略的逻辑和理论解释又由一种心理和实践的解释来补充。 Now, this logical and theoretical explanation of God's strategy is then supplemented by a psychological and practical one.
阿奎那写道：「向人启示超越人类理性的真理带来 的另一个好处是治愈自负，自负是错误之母。」 Aquinas writes, Another benefit that comes from the revelation to men of truths that exceed human reason is the curing of presumption, which is the mother of error.
「因为有些人对自己的能力如此自负，以为自己能够衡量一切事物的本质。」 For some have such a presumptuous opinion of their own ability that they deem themselves able to measure the nature of everything.
「在他们看来，凡是他们认为是真的就是真的，凡是他们认为不是真的就是假的。」 In their estimation, everything is true that seems to them so, and everything is false that does not.
「为了使心灵从这种自负中解脱出来，谦卑地探求真理 ，有必要神向人启示一些完全超越人类智力的事物。」 In order that the mind might be freed from this presumption and come to a humble inquiry after truth, it was necessary that some things should be revealed to men by God that would completely surpass his intellect.
接下来是一种基督教哲学的宣言或章程，它驳斥了18世纪启蒙运动的 思想，这种思想由亚历山大·蒲柏在他的《人的论文》中著名地总结道 ，C.S.路易斯回应说，人类恰当的研究对象是一切，尤其是神。 And then comes a kind of manifesto or charter for Christian philosophy that refutes the 18th century Enlightenment idea famously summarized by Alexander Pope in his Essay on Man, when he said, C.S. Lewis replied to that that the proper study of mankind is everything, especially God.
圣托马斯引用亚里士多德的话，说的几乎是同样的事。 And St. Thomas, quoting Aristotle, says pretty much the same thing.
他说：「有一个叫西蒙尼德斯的人劝告人们放弃对 神圣事物的探究，而将才能用于人类的事务。」 He says, There was a certain Simonides who exhorted people to put aside the inquiry into divine things and apply their talents to human occupations.
「他写道：『作为人应当知道人的事，作为凡人应当知道凡人的事。』」 He wrote, He who is a human should know human things, and he who is a mortal things that are mortal.
「亚里士多德反对西蒙尼德斯，说人应当尽可能地向那不朽和神圣的事物靠拢。」 Against Simonides, Aristotle says that man should draw himself towards that which is immortal and divine as much as he can.
他说，虽然我们对更高实在的认识很少，但这一点点认 识比我们对较低级事物的所有知识更为珍贵和渴求。 And he says that although what we know of the higher realities is very little, yet that little is prized and desired more than all the knowledge we have about less noble things.
现在来到关键点，这些真理永远不会相互矛盾，真正的科学（ 包括哲学科学）和真正的宗教之间永远不会有真正的战争。 And now comes the bottom line, that these truths can never contradict each other, that there can never be any true war between true science, including philosophical science, and true religion.
阿奎那写道：「虽然基督教信仰的真理超越理性的能力，但人类理性天生 能够认识的那些真理不可能与基督教信仰的真理相对立，原因有二。」 Aquinas writes, Now, although the truth of the Christian faith surpasses the capacity of the reason, nevertheless those truths that human reason is by nature endowed to know cannot be opposed to the truth of the Christian faith for two reasons.
「首先，人类理性凭本性所知的是如此真实，以至于不可能将这些真理视为虚假。」 First, what the human reason knows by nature is so true that it is not possible to think of such truths as false.
他所想的是诸如二加二等于四，不朽比凡人更伟大这样的真理。 He is thinking of such truths as 2 plus 2 equals 4, that the immortal is greater than the mortal.
「他说，也不允许将通过对神启示的信心所知的视为虚假。」 Nor, he says, is it permissible to believe as false that which is known by faith in divine revelation.
「既然只有虚假与真实相对立，这从它们的定义中就可清楚看出，因此 通过信心所知的真理不可能与人类理性凭本性所知的真理相对立。」 And since only the false is opposed to the true, as is clearly evident from their definitions, it is impossible that the truths known by faith should be opposed to the truths that human reason knows by nature.
「第二个原因是，凡是老师引入学生心智的东西，我们人类理性凭本性确信的原则知识 都是由神植入我们的，神是我们本性的创造者，因此这些原则也包含在神的智慧中。」 A second reason is that whatever is introduced into the mind of the student by the teacher Now, the knowledge of principles that our human reason assures us of by our very nature have been implanted in us by God, who is the author of our nature, and these principles are therefore also contained in the divine wisdom.
「因此，凡与这些原则相对立的都是与神的智慧相对立，所以不可能来自神。」 Hence, whatever is opposed to them is opposed to the divine wisdom and therefore cannot come from God.
「因此，我们凭信心认为是神所启示的不可能与我们通过自然理性所知的相矛盾。」 Therefore, that which we hold by faith as divinely revealed cannot be contrary to that which we know by natural reason.
最后，由此得出的结论或推论在今天许多人看来可能过于乐观，但这是逻辑上必然的结果。 Finally, from this comes what may seem to many people today an apparently far too optimistic practical conclusion or corollary, but it's one which logically and necessarily follows.
阿奎那说：「由此我们推导出以下结论。」 Aquinas says, from this we deduce the following conclusion.
「凡是针对信仰教义提出的任何论证，都是从植根于我们本 性中的理性第一原则错误和不合逻辑地推导出的结论。」 Whatever arguments are brought forward against any of the doctrines of the faith are conclusions that are incorrectly and illogically deduced from the first principles of reason that are embedded in our nature.
「这些结论没有证明的力量，这些论证要么只是可能性，要 么在逻辑上是谬误的，因此总是存在回答它们的可能性。」 Such conclusions do not have the force of proofs, and such arguments must be either only probable or logically fallacious, and therefore there always exists the possibility to answer them.
这最后一点并不意味着任何个人都能回答所有问题。 This last point does not mean that any one individual can answer all the questions.
可信的是理性本身，而不是推理者。 It's reason, not reasoners, that is trustable.
问题不在于剑这个工具，而在于使用剑的人。 There's nothing wrong with the sword, the instrument, but with the swordsman, the user.
阿奎那的论证简单地意味着没有任何论证能证明基督教 的任何基本教义是错误的，因为它本来就不是错误的。 Aquinas' argument means simply that no argument can prove any essential dogma of Christianity to be false, because it is not false.
虚假和真实是互相排斥的。 And falsehood and truth are mutually exclusive.
但真理与真理并非如此。 But truth and truth are not.
因为真理不能与虚假共存，只能与真理共存。 For truth cannot exist with falsehood, only with truth.
因此，信心可以与理性结合，但真理不能与虚假结合。 So, faith can marry reason, but truth cannot marry falsehood.
值得注意的是，阿奎那的反对者通常因两个相反且互相排斥的原因攻击他。 It is significant that Aquinas' opponents usually attack him for two opposite and mutually exclusive reasons.
首先，他在评估人类理性时过于谦卑，过于依赖对神启示的信心。 First, that he is too humble in his estimation of human reason, and too reliant on faith in divine revelation.
其次，他对人类理性驳斥每一个可能反对信仰教义的论证的能力过于乐观。 And second, that he is too optimistic about human reason's ability to disprove every possible argument against every doctrine of the faith.
但如果神存在，那么我们易犯错误的心智谦卑地顺从于他无误的心智是完全合理的。 But if God exists, then the humble conformity of our fallible mind to his infallible mind is utterly rational.
这回答了第一个反对意见。 That answers the first objection.
另一方面，如果信仰是真实的，它就永远不能被证明是虚假的，因为虚假和真实是对立的。 And, on the other hand, if the faith is true, it can never be proved to be false, since falsehood and truth are opposites.
这回答了第二个反对意见。 That answers the second objection.
阿奎那是历史上最伟大的媒人，他将人类两项最 伟大的事业——信心与理性——结合在一起。 Aquinas is history's greatest matchmaker between two of humanity's greatest enterprises, faith and reason.
当我们谈论这种结合时，我们并不是指信心的心理行为（即相信神，因此相信 神所启示的一切）与理性的心理行为（即理解、判断和证明）之间的结合。 When we speak of this marriage, we are not speaking of the marriage between the psychological act of faith, or believing in God, and therefore in all that God reveals, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the psychological act of reason, that is, of understanding and judging and proving.
这两种心理行为不能结合或配对，就像猫和狗不能一样。 The two psychological acts cannot marry or mate, Any more than cats or dogs can.
相信和证明是非此即彼的。 Believing and proving are an either-or.
如果我们能用理性证明一个真理，我们就不需要信心来认识它。 If we can prove a truth by reason, we don't need faith to come to know it.
如果我们确实需要信心来认识它，那是因为理性不足以认识它。 And if we do need faith to know it, that's because reason is insufficient to know it.
不，当阿奎那将信心与理性结合时，他是在结合信心和人类理性的客观内容。 No, when Aquinas marries faith and reason, he is marrying the objective contents of the faith and of human reason.
是两者所知的对象，而不是相信和证明的主观行为。 The objects known by both, rather than the subjective acts of believing and proving.
他在展示，一方面通过信心所知的所有真理，即整个基督教信 仰，另一方面通过理性所知的所有真理，都能在同一个真实世 界中和谐共存，没有任何矛盾，因为真理不能与真理相矛盾。 He's showing that all the truths known by faith, on the one hand, the whole of the Christian faith, and all the truths known by reason, on the other hand, fit into the same real world without any contradictions, since truth cannot contradict truth.
现在，这种结合是一项巨大的事业，因为新娘和新郎都是巨大的。 Now, this marriage is an enormous enterprise because both the bride and the groom are enormous.
信心包括神所启示的所有真理。 The faith includes all the truths revealed by God.
三位一体、道成肉身、神的属性、创造、神的旨意、神的爱、救赎、最后审判、天堂 、地狱和炼狱、教会、圣事、神学美德、神秘联合和至福直观、罪与救赎、公义与怜 悯、神对个人和社会的诫命，整个体系比哥特式大教堂更加复杂、神秘和美丽。 The Trinity, the Incarnation, God's attributes, creation, Divine Providence, God's Love, Salvation, the Last Judgment, Heaven and Hell and Purgatory, the Church, the Sacraments, the Theological Virtues, the Mystical Union and the Beatific Vision, Sin and Salvation, and Justice and Mercy, and God's Commandments for Individuals and Societies, the whole package infinitely more complex and mysterious and beautiful than a Gothic cathedral.
事实上，比整个自然宇宙更甚。 In fact, more so than the entire natural universe.
而我们通过理性所能知道的也是巨大的，因为它包括我 们通过常识、所有科学和良好哲学所能知道的一切。 And what we can know by reason is also enormous, because it includes, well, everything we can know by common sense, by all the sciences, and by good philosophy.
哲学包括逻辑学、方法论和形而上学、形式和物质、实体和偶性、本 质和存在、存在和生成，以及宇宙学、空间和时间、物质和四因说。 And philosophy includes logic and methodology and metaphysics, form and matter and substance and accident and essence and existence and being and becoming, and cosmology, space and time and matter and the four causes.
还有人类学、灵魂和身体、理性和意志、激情和不朽、自由和认识论、感官和智力、抽象和 普遍与特殊、真理的本质、对怀疑主义和主观主义的驳斥、伦理学、善恶与对错、义务和良 知、责任和四枢德、自然法则和社会伦理、美学、历史哲学、政治和教育，总之，一切。 and anthropology, soul and body and reason and will and passions and immortality and freedom and epistemology, senses and intellect and abstraction and universals and particulars and the nature of truth and the refutation of skepticism and subjectivism and ethics, good and evil and right and wrong and obligation and conscience and duty and the four cardinal virtues and the natural law and social ethics and aesthetics and philosophy of history and politics and education and, well, everything.
结合这两套思想就像结合两个星系。 Marrying these two sets of ideas is like marrying two galaxies.
阿奎那承担这项巨大任务的唯一原因是，他从一开始就知道 这是可能的，因为他知道所有真理的唯一基础，那就是神。 The only reason Aquinas undertakes this enormous task is that he knows at the outset that it is possible, because he knows the one foundation of all truth, which is God.
正如哲学家亚瑟·霍尔姆斯所说，所有真理都是神的真理。 As philosopher Arthur Holmes said, all truth is God's truth.
现在，让我们从这个主要观点，即关于信心和理性的一般原则转向亚 里士多德的著作。这些著作在黑暗时代失传数世纪后刚刚被重新发现 ，阿奎那清楚地认识到亚里士多德是有史以来最伟大的哲学家。 Now, let's move from this main point, this general principle about faith and reason, Aristotle's works had just been rediscovered after being lost for centuries during the Dark Ages, and it was clear to Aquinas that Aristotle was the greatest philosopher who had ever lived.
但亚里士多德在至少三个重要问题上与基督教相矛盾。 But Aristotle contradicted Christianity on at least three important issues.
首先，他似乎证明了宇宙不可能有开始，而是永恒的，不是被创造的。 First, he apparently proved that the universe could have no beginning, but was eternal, not created.
因为无中不能生有。 Because nothing can come out of nothing.
其次，灵魂不是不朽的，而是会死的，因为它是身体的形式。 Second, that the soul was not immortal, but mortal, since it was the form of the body.
第三，不存在神的旨意，因为一个完美的神只会知道和爱完美 的对象，只会知道和爱值得知道和爱的，而这只有他自己。 And third, that there was no such thing as divine providence, because a perfect God would know and love only perfect objects, only what was worth knowing and loving, which was only himself.
另外两个有问题的观点，都更加技术性和哲学性，来自穆斯林 哲学家对亚里士多德和新柏拉图主义创始人普罗提诺的综合。 Two other problematic ideas, both somewhat more technical and philosophical, came from the Muslim philosophers' synthesis of Aristotle and Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism.
在伊斯兰世界，哲学比基督教哲学领先几个世纪，早在 西欧之前就已经拥有亚里士多德和普罗提诺的著作。 In the Islamic world, philosophy was centuries ahead of Christian philosophy, having had both Aristotle and Plotinus long before Western Europe did.
根据这种在穆斯林哲学家中盛行的新柏拉图化的亚里士多德解释，尤其是阿维森纳和阿威 罗伊的解释，所有人类思维的第一动因是一个单一的主动智力，低于神但高于个体人类。 According to this Neoplatonized interpretation of Aristotle that prevailed among Muslim philosophers, especially Avicenna and Averroes, The first agent of all human thinkings was a single active intellect below God, but above individual human beings.
换句话说，当我们知道任何永恒的真理时，我们每个人并不拥有自己的 主动智力，而是从那个单一的主动智力接收这些观念。根据当时最新最 流行的天文科学，这个主动智力也是解释月球围绕地球运动的天使。 In other words, when we know any timeless truths, we do not each have our own active intellect, but we receive these ideas from the single active intellect that was also, according to the latest and most fashionable astronomical science of the time, the angel that accounted for the movements of the moon around the earth.
这里有一个教训，就是不要让自己的哲学依赖于当前 科学中总是可修改的最新理论，无论它们多么流行。 There's a lesson here about not making one's philosophy dependent on the always-revisable latest theories in the current science, no matter how popular they may be.
在这五个问题上，阿奎那不得不挑战并驳斥有史以来最伟大的头 脑，而且他必须仅凭理性来做到这一点，而不是仅仅凭信心断言 神已启示亚里士多德是错的，因为那将不是结合而是分离。 On all five of these issues, Aquinas had to take on and refute the greatest mind that ever lived, and he had to do it by reason alone, not just by asserting by faith that God had revealed that Aristotle was wrong, because that would not be a marriage but a separation.
他必须证明它，而这正是他所做的。 He had to prove it, and that's exactly what he did.
但关键点是阿奎那选择迎战而不是退缩。 But the crucial point is the fact that Aquinas charged into the battle instead of retreating from it.
当然，他用来赢得这场战斗的策略也很重要，即论证，因为在那个时代，理性论证至少还 被认为是通向真理的道路，就像苏格拉底那样，而不仅仅是为了胜利，像诡辩学家那样。 The strategy he used to win the battle is important too, of course, the arguments, because rational argument was still in those days at least believed to be a road to truth, as with Socrates, and not just a victory, as with the Sophists.
但最重要的是，阿奎那在离婚的威胁下保护了信心与理性结合的整个基本事业。 But the most important point is that Aquinas preserved the whole basic enterprise of the faith-reason marriage against the threat of divorce.
这种分离直到后来才发生，尤其是在现代。 The divorce did not happen until later, especially in modern times.
对阿奎那来说，对于这种源自亚里士多德哲学的 信心与理性结合的危机，有三种可能的回应。 For Aquinas, there were three possible responses to this crisis in the marriage of faith and reason that came from the philosophy of Aristotle.
我们可以称它们为信仰主义、理性主义和综合。 We could call them fideism, rationalism, and synthesis.
让我们仔细看看这三个选项，因为它们在我们的文化中仍然 是三个选项，尽管它们来自亚里士多德以外的其他来源。 Let's look carefully at these three options, because they remain the three options today in our culture, though they come from other sources than Aristotle.
阿奎那显然是神圣启示和亚里士多德理性之间的矛盾。 Aquinas was apparently the contradiction between divine revelation and Aristotelian reason.
这三种回应中的两种，信仰主义和理性主义，在阿奎那之前的几个世纪 就出现在伊斯兰哲学中，这两种在我们今天的文化中也是最流行的。 Two of the three responses, fideism and rationalism, appeared in Islamic philosophy in the centuries earlier than Aquinas, and these two are the most popular today in our culture as well.
在穆斯林世界中没有第三种选择，没有像阿奎那那样将信心与理性结合的人。 There was no third option, no Aquinas in the Muslim world, to marry faith and reason as Aquinas did.
这就是为什么直到今天，大多数穆斯林哲学家都属于这两个阵营之一， 一些基督教思想家也是如此，主要是新教徒，但也有一些公教会信徒。 And that is why most Muslim philosophers to this day fit into one of these two camps, as do some Christian thinkers, mainly Protestants, but also some Catholics.
如果我们喜欢粗略的口号，我们可以称他们为基要主义者和现代主义者。 We could call them fundamentalists and modernists, if we like sloppy slogans.
更准确地说，它们是非理性主义和理性主义。 More exactly, they are irrationalism and rationalism.
非理性主义认为依赖理性要么毫无价值，要么不敬虔，因此放弃它。 Irrationalism sees reliance on reason as either worthless or impious and renounces it.
在8世纪的穆斯林哲学家中，这是阿什阿里和阿什阿里派采取的选择。 Among eighth-century Muslim philosophers, this was the option taken by al-Ash'ari and the Asharites.
这是对早期阿尔金迪和穆尔太齐赖派试图用理性来解释、理解和捍卫《古兰经》的反应。 It was taken in reaction against the earlier attempt of al-Kindi and the Mu'tazilite school to use reason to interpret and understand and defend the Qur'an.
但阿什阿里教导说，不应该试图将哲学理性与《古兰经》中的信仰结合起来，其最终原因 是他的意志主义神学，即意志优先于理性，不仅在人身上如此，首先在神身上也是如此。 But al-Ash'ari taught that no attempt should be made to marry philosophical reason and faith in the Qur'an, and the ultimate reason for that was his theology of voluntarism, the priority of the will rather than the reason, not only in man, but first of all in God.
神的意志如此自由，以至于完全不受理性约束，因此一个行为之所以善，只是因 为神意愿如此，而不是因为它自身的本性，就像我们通过理性所能认识的那样。 That God's will is so free that it is not subject to reason at all, and that therefore an act is good only because God wills it, not because of its own nature, as we can know that nature by reason.
换句话说，对神来说，力量确实可以创造正义。 In other words, that with God literally might make right.
所以我们不应该感到依赖理性的欲望，因为神自己是非理性的。 So we should feel no desire to rely on reason because God himself is irrational.
根据阿什阿里派的观点，不存在通过理性认知的自然道德法则。 There is no natural moral law known by reason, according to the Asherites.
阿什阿里派认为理性毫无价值的另一个原因是，他们说自然界中的所有事件 都是由神直接、立即和超自然地引起的，而那些看似自然原因的东西，我们 可以通过自然理性来研究，只不过是神通过纯粹的力量和意志行动的机会。 Another reason why the Asherites thought that reason was worthless was because they said that all events in nature are directly and immediately and supernaturally caused by God, And that what seem to be natural causes, which we could investigate by natural reason, are only occasions for God to act by sheer power and will.
例如，当火燃烧时，不是火产生热量，而是神产生热量。 For instance, when fire burns, it is not the fire, but God that makes the heat.
当我想移动我的手时，只有神，而不是我，在移动我的手和我的意志。 And when I will to move my hand, it is only God, not I, who moves my hand and my will.
这后来被称为偶因论，它削弱了人类理性，不仅在神学和道德方面，也在物理科学方面。 This was later called occasionalism, and it undercuts human reason, both in theology and morality, and also in physical science.
在穆斯林世界出现的另一种回答，在普通人中并不流行，但在精英 哲学家中很受欢迎，可以被标记为理性主义而不是非理性主义。 The other answer that appeared in the Muslim world, which was not popular among ordinary people, but was popular among the elite philosophers, could be labeled rationalism instead of irrationalism.
它主要来自阿威罗伊。 It came above all from Averroes.
阿威罗伊对理性与信心、亚里士多德与《古兰经》的危机的回应， 不是像阿奎那那样纠正亚里士多德，也不是像基要主义者那样忽视 和禁止他，而是用亚里士多德来纠正对《古兰经》的正统解释。 Averroes responded to the crisis of reason versus faith, Aristotle versus the Koran, not by correcting Aristotle, as Aquinas did, nor by ignoring and forbidding him, as the fundamentalists did, but by using Aristotle to correct the orthodox interpretation of the Qur'an.
换句话说，这位穆斯林理性主义者和非理性主义者阿什阿里一样，假设信心与理性之间， 作为神圣启示的《古兰经》与作为人类理性最高成就的亚里士多德之间存在真正的矛盾。 In other words, this Muslim rationalist assumed, as did al-Ash'ari, the irrationalist, that there were real contradictions between faith and reason, between the Qur'an as divine revelation and Aristotle as the highest achievement of human reason.
这是阿奎那否认的关键假设。 And this is the key assumption that Aquinas denied.
在做出这个假设时，阿威罗伊与阿什阿里不同，他是 根据亚里士多德来纠正《古兰经》，而不是相反。 In making that assumption, Averroes, unlike Al-Ash'ari, corrected the Qur'an in the light of Aristotle instead of vice versa.
阿威罗伊这样做了，后来许多基督教和犹太教理性主义者如康德和斯宾诺莎也这样做，他 们将伊斯兰宗教的真理变成秘传而非显传，只有精英知识分子才能理解，而不是普通人。 Averroes did this, and many later Christian and Jewish rationalists like Kant and Spinoza did it too, by making the truth of his Islamic religion esoteric instead of exoteric, understandable only by the elite intellectuals, not by ordinary people.
他区分了三个不同层次的人，并教导了后来被称为双重真理理论的东西，或者 更准确地说，对阿威罗伊来说，是三重真理，三个不同且不相容的真理层次。 He distinguished three different levels of people, and taught what was later called a theory of double truth, or more exactly, for Averroes, a triple truth, three different and incompatible levels of truth.
绝大多数人属于他所称的「劝诫之人」，他们靠情感而不是理性 生活，应该给他们意识形态、演说和修辞，而不是哲学和逻辑。 The vast majority of men fit into what he called men of exhortation, who lived by emotion rather than reason, and who should be given ideology, oratory, and rhetoric rather than philosophy and logic.
群众相信《古兰经》并按字面意思解释它，我们 应该满足于此，因为这是他们能做到的最好的。 The masses believe the Quran and interpret it literally, and we should be content with them, and with that, because that's the best they could do.
我们可以把他们看作相信真实圣诞老人的三岁智力儿童，这是对的 ，因为这让他们更快乐更善良，他们无法理解比这更高深的东西。 We could see them as intellectual three-year-olds who believed in a literal Santa Claus, and rightly so, because it made them more happy and more good, and they couldn't understand anything higher than that.
顶层的少数精英是阿威罗伊所称的「论证之人」，即能理解逻辑并在任 何地方都要求逻辑上确定的证明的哲学家，甚至在宗教中也是如此。 The elite few at the top are what Averroes called the men of demonstration, that is, philosophers who can understand logic and demand logically certain proofs everywhere, even in religion.
他们理解亚里士多德，并且明白亚里士多德的理由是无法超越或驳斥的。 They understand Aristotle, and they understand that Aristotle's reasons cannot be topped or refuted.
因此，在《古兰经》与亚里士多德相矛盾的每个地方，他们都象征性地而不是字面上地解 释《古兰经》，尤其是关于我们之前定义的亚里士多德与《古兰经》之间的四个最重要的 矛盾：宇宙的创造、个体灵魂的不朽、神的旨意以及对我们详细的个人生活的认知。 They therefore interpret the Quran symbolically, and not literally, in every place where it contradicts Aristotle, especially regarding the four most important contradictions between Aristotle and the Quran that we defined earlier, the creation of the universe, the immortality of the individual soul, and divine providence and knowledge of our detailed little individual lives.
还有关于主动智力的个体性。 and also about the individuality of the active intellect.
在这两类人之间，即宗教信徒和哲学家之间，阿威罗伊把神学家置于中间 ，他说神学家满足于不确定的论证、适合性论证、仅仅是可能性的论证。 In between these two classes of men, between the religionists and the philosophers, Averroes put the theologians, whom Averroes said are satisfied with inconclusive arguments, arguments from fittingness, merely probable arguments.
这些人认为他们用推理支持了他们的信仰。 And these people think that they have supported their faith with reasoning.
但这是儿童的推理。 But it is the reasoning of children.
阿威罗伊说，神学家试图融合信心和理性，这只会导致混乱。 The theologians attempt to blend faith and reason, and that can only lead to confusion, says Averroes.
阿威罗伊声称他是一个好穆斯林，相信《古兰经》中的一切，但 他声称《古兰经》中的所有先知，包括穆罕默德，都是被派来象 征性地向群众教导真理的，而不是理性地向成熟的哲学家教导。 Averroes claims that he is a good Muslim and believes everything in the Qur'an, but he claims that all the prophets of the Qur'an, including Muhammad, were sent to teach truth symbolically to the masses, not rationally to mature philosophers.
而亚里士多德比这些人更了解神的心意。 While Aristotle knows the mind of God better than these.
阿威罗伊是现代主义基督徒的原型。 Averroes is the prototype of modernist Christians.
唯一的区别是，今天胜过神圣启示并要求将其降低为单纯象征 而非字面真理的不是亚里士多德，而是至少三种其他东西。 The only difference is that the thing today that trumps divine revelation and demands that it be reduced to mere symbolism and not literal truth is not Aristotle, but at least three other things.
第一个不是现代科学，而是科学主义，它拒绝超自然，这就像因 为对女性有了极大改进的认识而拒绝承认生物学上男性的存在。 The first is not modern science, but scientism, which rejects the supernatural, which is like rejecting the existence of biological males because of its vastly improved knowledge of females.
第二个是现代世俗人文主义，它捍卫人类的骄傲并 批评基督教的谦卑，而谦卑是所有圣徒的秘诀。 The second is modern secular humanism, which defends human pride and criticizes Christian humility, the secret of all the saints.
第三个，也是最快见效的，是性革命，它在涉及任何性问题时 都拒绝犹太教和基督教共有的4000年历史的道德哲学。 And the third, and the most rapidly effective of all, is the sexual revolution, which rejects the 4,000-year-old moral philosophy common to Judaism and Christianity whenever it comes to anything sexual.
在基督教西方，在阿奎那时代教导本质上与阿威罗伊相同观点 的哲学家是布拉班特的西格尔，换句话说，真理是相对的。 The philosopher in the Christian West, who taught essentially the same thing in Aquinas' day as Averroes, was Ciger of Brabant, In other words, truth is relative.
因此哲学家和神学家都有权说，好吧，那是你的真理，但不是我的真理。 so that both the philosopher and the theologian had the right to say, well, that's your truth, but not my truth.
这不是13世纪的旧异端。 That's not an old 13th century heresy.
这是世俗精英中非常现代的正统观点。 It's a very modern orthodoxy among the secular elite.
阿奎那一贯彬彬有礼，竭尽全力在所有对手的诸多错误中寻找一些真理。 Aquinas was consistently polite and bent over backward to find some truth in the many errors of all his opponents.
但他对那种观点的态度不仅毫不妥协，而且激烈甚至带有个人色彩。 But his attitude towards that idea was not only uncompromising, but vociferous and even personal.
因为在穆斯林世界没有阿奎那这样的人物，基要主义者的 非理性主义和现代主义者的理性主义成为唯二的选择。 Because there was no Aquinas in the Muslim world, the irrationalism of the fundamentalists and the rationalism of the modernists were the only two alternatives.
基要主义成为大多数穆斯林中的主导正统观点，至今仍是如此。 And fundamentalism became the reigning orthodoxy among most Muslims and remains so today.
但主要是因为阿奎那，虽然不仅仅通过他，主流基督教哲学开辟了一 条中间道路，一种既接受理性又接受信心并调和二者的替代方案。 But largely because of Aquinas, though not only through him, mainline Christian philosophy has staked out a middle way, an alternative which accepts both reason and faith and reconciles them.
这就是为什么我读了阿奎那的那段长引文，因为它捍卫了整个中世纪基督教思想主流事业的 基本信念，即所有真理都来自一位不欺骗任何人的神，他不会向人类的两个不同层次教导互 相排斥的真理，也不会说话前后矛盾，而是一位作为所有真理背后唯一作者和权威的神。 That's why I read that long quotation from Aquinas, because it defended the foundational belief of the whole mainline enterprise of medieval Christian thought, that all truth comes from a God who does not deceive anyone, or teach mutually exclusive truths to two different levels of mankind, or speak out of two sides of his mouth, but a God who is the single author and authority behind all truth.
这个问题最终不仅仅关乎信心和理性，关乎人如何认 识真理，而且关乎真理本身和神，因为神就是真理。 The issue ultimately is not just about faith and reason, about how man knows truth, but about truth itself and about God, because God is truth.
阿奎那是神的伟大战士，是思想世界中的圣米迦勒大天使。 Aquinas was God's great warrior, the Saint Michael the Archangel in the world of thought.