CREATION AND INTELLIGIBILITY IN THOMAS AQUINAS: A VANTAGE-POINT FOR RE-THINKING MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY

摘要

This article on “Creation and Intelligibility in Thomas Aquinas:  A  Vantage-point  for  Re-thinking  Modern Anthropology” is based on the perception that modern anthropology has become too anthropocentric; to the extent that modern man claims to create God, and to hold supreme dominance over the universe. But the challenges and lessons of universal solidarity that emerge from coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19 pandemic) have necessitated the call for a new anthropology. Hence eco-spiritual anthropology or Integrative anthropology 1 is one such proposed new study on man that takes cognizance of God as the Creator, and man as having a common home with the universe, including the environment. Therefore, it is the belief of this article that any enquiry of such kind, through a historical and conceptual analysis of Aquinas’ notion of “Creation and Intelligibility” may serve as a vantage-point for re-thinking modern anthropocentrism. Aquinas’ creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo) implies that God as the Pure Actuality (Actus Purus) and in His freedom is the generative source of all things in being, including human beings.