Should Old Aquinas be Forgotten: Why Many Evangelicals Say No: The Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas Considered

“SHOULD OLD AQUINAS BE FORGOTTEN AND NEVER BROUGHT TO MIND?”

A generation ago most evangelicals were saying Yes to this question, but today there is a whole new generation of evangelical scholars who are saying No. Many of them have doctorates in the field. Most of them have written books or articles on the topic. Of courses, not all of them agree with everything Thomas wrote. For that matter, neither do most Catholic scholars. However, there are an increasing number of non-catholic scholars who see the value of Aquinas for their theology or apologetics. We have set forth some of these values in the first chapter, but they permeate the entire book.
Perhaps, one of the best compliments this book on Aquinas has received is from the late great Thomist, Dr. Ralph McInerny, who wrote: “Reading Geisler's landmark volume, in which he straightforwardly con¬fronts notable evangelical rejections of, or at least cautions about, Aquinas, and seeing the life and writings of the man who has been my philosophical mentor for some forty years freshly presented in a new and surprising light, made me think once again what poor stewards of Aquinas's thought we Thomists have been. If, as Geisler argues, Aquinas has come under evangel¬ical fire for holding things he did not hold, I sometimes think that Thomists have commended him for positions that are not his. For this reason I was particularly interested in Geisler's treatment of the relation between faith and reason. . . . I am flattered and pleased to have been asked to say a few words by way of introduction to this extraordinary book. Dr. Geisler is a man I have known and admired for many years. It is indeed the rare man who can find in an apparent enemy an ally. But Geisler's study of Thomas Aquinas is far more than an instance of the old adage fas est et ab hoste doceri (it is right to learn even from the foe). He enables evangelicals and Catholics to see the immense range of truths that unite us, not as some least common denom¬inator, but truths that are at the heart of our Christian faith.”