Aquinas and Modern Science

the long version

We live in a paradoxical time. Science enables us to know more and more, but it seems to be about less and less: we reach into outer space but understand less about our inner space; we create intricate machineries to direct our lives but cannot control ourselves; we see more trees but no longer the forest. Is there a remedy for these dichotomies? Yes, philosophy, which can bring coherence where fragmentation looms, opening vistas no telescope or microscope can ever reach--and especially the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, because for more than seven centuries it has been a beacon of surety in times of uncertainty, confusion, and tribulation. Thomas's 13th-century world was in many ways as turbulent as ours, confronted with an influx of new ideas, rife with dubious philosophies not so different from the skepticism, secularism, and relativism that saturates ours. He understood both the fascination of his contemporaries with new discoveries and the confusions they often brought. No wonder then that his philosophy has been lauded by modern thinkers such as Albert Einstein, David Bohm, Werner Heisenberg, John Searle, and Alasdair MacIntyre--to name but a few. The mission of Aquinas and Modern Science: A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason is precisely to invite you on a tour through the richness of Thomas's philosophy in its encounter with the sciences as we know them today. Let his time-tested principles continue to serve as an anchor of intelligibility in a sea of confusing claims.