St. Thomas or St. Augustine (Jesus, beliefs, grace, evolution)

[thomasedison]

Who was a greater being -- St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine?

[dan]

Both were equally important in the history of Catholic doctrine, but Aquinas' doctrine has held up longer than Augustine. Both are responsible for marrying human philosophy to divine dogma (thanks a butt-load), and both threw out accepted doctrine in favor of the human philosophy. Augustine wedded Plato to Christianity and Aquinas wedded Christianity to aristotle (monist, go figure). Both made the Catholic church more hip and less true.

[Scott1]

thomasedison,

Originally Posted by thomasedison

Who was a greater being -- St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine?

They were equal beings.......sinful, and saved by the grace of God, human beings.

Peace,
Scott

[thomasedison]

Originally Posted by SOGFPP

sinful

How sinful? They didn't harm anyone.

[Scott1]

I answered your question, neither was "greater being" than the other.

[Raphael]

Both were unusually brilliant thinkers of there times. Neither changed church doctrine but both added to the vast storehouse of religious knowledge and gave us a criteria for examination of our system of beliefs. Both would claim adherance to the Holy See and both would recommend Jesus as their inspiration.

Aquinas has always seemed to be the most complicated thinker of the two but both contributed religious thinking that is still used today. It was Augustine who defined that matter takes on various forms. Which in itself shows that all things have a story of origin, existence and ending. This is evolution. The theroy of evolution in no way addresses or attempts to address the origin of motion in the infinity of pretime.

[Katholish]

The question of "greater being" is meaningless, but as far as which had a greater influence, I would say St. Thomas. Personally, I tend to like Thomas better for his systematic approach, and obviously Aristotilean philosophy is superior to Platonism.