Although he only saw a trace of energy, Wu Ling also knew that the reason why the church was dangerous was because of its extreme purity, so he would also reject all other kinds of things except them... and there was no reason for such rejection, just because they felt that they were white, so they regarded everything except white as heresy, and were heresys that could not be proven to exist. When they saw these things, their first impression was that they would choose to eliminate them.

Churches are different from China. The culture of China emphasizes tolerance. Whether it is useful or not, it can accommodate all rivers and accommodate everything. Then, after the precipitation of time, all impurities and some useless things can be removed. This is also the reason why China can exist for thousands of years. If you are careful, you can find that the culture of China does not have a real main culture. It is a special and huge culture composed of hundreds or even thousands of cultures bit by bit. Only such cultural coverage can be truly passed down.

But churches are different. The church emphasizes purity. They not only pure to outsiders, but also to their own people. They emphasize their complete whiteness and do not allow any black existence. Even if it is just a little stain, they will regard the other party as heresy.

In fact, it is also because of this purity that there are different voices inside the church, but they have been suppressed. Although such voices can be suppressed, they cannot be completely eliminated, so the rise of philosophy in the Middle Ages was achieved.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, a series of major changes occurred in Western European society. The power of religion achieved obvious victory in the struggle against imperial power. A number of universities emerged one after another, becoming an important place for scholarly philosophers to conduct research, lecture and debate. In the reform of the monastic system, the newly emerged Francis and Dominic Monasteries, in addition to the characteristics of general monastic institutions, were equally enthusiastic about academic activities, emphasized preaching and teaching, focused on activities in cities with universities, and actively participated in the creation of some emerging universities and theological institutes. Soon, their fellows served as teaching positions in many universities.

The emergence of these two sects played an extremely important role in promoting the development of sectarian philosophy and created many famous scholars. After the 13th century, the famous sectarian philosophers almost all came from these two sects. These provided important external conditions for the prosperity of sectarian philosophy. As for philosophy itself, an important opportunity was the resurgence of Aristotleism. It turned out that after the Holy See obtained the status of state religion, the tradition of ancient Greek philosophy was forced to move eastward and travel through Persia and Syria

Asia finally reached a certain level of prosperity among the Arabs. Due to the influence of the Syrians and the relatively developed scientific and technological level of the Arabs themselves, the Arabs paid more attention to the study of Aristotle, known as an encyclopedic philosopher, especially his metaphysics and natural philosophy, thus forming the Arabic Aristotleism, the most important representatives are Avesenal (a) and Averro?s.

In the West, Aristotle was essentially unfamiliar with people. Regarding his works, the only thing that the Holy See knows about is the "Category" and "Explanation" which are logical works. Although his thoughts have begun to enter Western European schools since the 11th century, they are limited to the logical thoughts in the above two works. In the 12th century, due to various political, economic and other social and historical reasons, the East and the West began to have more frequent contact. In this case, ancient Greek civilization was introduced back to Western Europe by the hands of the Arabs, and a large number of ancient Greek philosophical and scientific works were introduced to the Latin world, including Aristotle's "Metaphysics", "Physics", "On the Soul", "Nicomaco Ethics", "Analysis" and the commentary made by the Arabs on these works.

So, in front of the Western Europeans, a Aristotle philosophy with extensive knowledge, profound thoughts, huge system, and emphasis on the surname and experience of the Aristotle. The Aristotle philosophy explained by the Arabs, especially the Arab Aristotleism formed on this basis, that is, the Averroyian philosophy, took the material world as its object of thinking and regarded God as the first promoter of material movement, which actually became the result of a logical inference. In addition, they also gave up their souls.

The theory of immortality. The introduction of this Aristotle philosophy with a strong Averroy color will inevitably have a direct conflict with Augustine's philosophy, which is based on Platonism and has long been regarded as the authority of theological theory by the Roman church. For reasons of self-protection, this philosophy even proposed a dual truth theory, that is, the truth of theology is not necessarily truth in philosophy, and the truth of philosophy is not necessarily truth in the eyes of theology. Both truths exist in the reading power and do not interfere with each other.

The significance of this theory is that it not only deeply reveals the differences and contradictions between the Li surname, faith, philosophy and theology, which is completely contrary to the view proposed by early Vatican theology that "true philosophy is true religion, religion, religion is true philosophy", but also strives to free the scientific research of the Li surname from the constraints of religion. Compared with traditional Vatican theology, Aristotle's philosophy, which focuses on facts, experience, and Li surname, is obviously more helpful to people to understand and explain the world, and is more conducive to the liberation of thought. Its introduction undoubtedly opened a gap in the closed position of Vatican theology.

In the second half of the 12th century, in Western European universities, especially at the theoretical center of Paris, a craze for studying and studying Aristotle's philosophy was set off. People used Aristotle's philosophy's views and methods to make new analysis and explanation of the world, and the ideology of the church encountered powerful challenges.

Of course, the Roman Church would not turn a blind eye to this. In order to maintain the authority of Vatican theology and scholastic philosophy, and to curb the spread of Aristotle's philosophy, at the Paris Church in 19th, the Roman Church made a decision on its important theoretical base at the University of Paris: Teachers shall not transcribe, read, teach or preserve Aristotle's works in any form, and those who violate the religion will be dismissed.

After that, the highest authorities of the church issued orders successively announcing Aristotle's "Physics" and "Metaphysics" and other works as [***]. Aristotle was regarded as "the most dangerous enemy" and his philosophy was regarded as "heretics". However, simply taking the practice of keeping away from the door with high pressure cannot curb the spread and development of Aristotle's philosophy.

The church's decision quickly became a piece of paper. During this period, Aristotle's philosophy was still the most popular philosophical theory in European universities. Many teachers and students even took pride in being able to invoke Aristotle as the theoretical basis. This situation forced the Roman Church to seriously consider how to treat Aristotle's philosophy in thought. As a result, in just a few decades later, things changed fundamentally, and Aristotle's philosophy was regarded as the greatest authority of philosophy and science. From 1366, the two envoys of the Pope, Cardinal, had to entrust Aristotle's logic with orders, and later stipulated that he must study his metaphysics and physics, otherwise he would not be able to obtain a superior degree.

In this process, almost all philosophers were more or less influenced by Aristotle. A group of clerical professors represented by Brabant Siegel strongly advocated the full acceptance of Aristotle's philosophy and publicly supported the Averoi school, so they were called Latin Averoiism. This theory was as powerful as the orthodox scholastic philosophy represented by Augustine's philosophy at that time, and came to some conclusions that were incompatible with the traditional doctrine of the Holy See, which were not acceptable to the church authorities. The Francis sect represented by Alexander and Bonaventura of Hales were conservative schools. Although they also accepted some contents of Aristotle's philosophy in form, they stubbornly adhered to the Augustine tradition in principle and refused to adopt Aristotle's philosophy.

In the face of new reality, this view inevitably seems pale and powerless. The Dominic sect represented by Albert and Thomas advocates opening up the third path, which can not only adapt to the new trend of the times, adopt Aristotle's philosophy for the church, but also maintain the authoritative status of the doctrine of the Holy See, or in other words, open up a way to combine Neoplatonism and Aristotle's philosophy and use Aristotle's philosophy to serve theology of the Holy See. These three thoughts had a fierce debate in the middle of the 13th century, known in history as the "Paris Debate". It was this fierce struggle that pushed the philosophy of the scholasticism to prosperity.

At the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century, Arab Aristotleism represented by Averroy began to be introduced to the Latin world on a large scale. At the same time, the German emperor led the Sicily king Friedrich II and the Pope also entered a white-hot stage. This emperor not only fought for power and profit with the Pope in the fields of politics, economy, religion, etc., but also used Arab Averroyism to oppose the orthodox theology of the Holy See. In his Sicily court, a group of famous Arab scholars gathered. It is said that his

Among them is Averoi's grandson. Friedrich himself has certain philosophical and scientific attainments and often discusses philosophical issues with these Eastern scholars, such as: Is the material world eternal? What is the relationship between scientific methods and theological methods? What is the original surname of the soul? These questions clearly show the influence of Averoiism. Friedrich used his own government and power to protect these scholars who were not tolerated orthodox theology, making the Sicilian court a center for the spread of Arab ideas and naturalistic ideas.

In the mid-13th century, the University of Paris, known as the "city of philosophers", set off a craze for studying Aristotle's philosophy, forming the center of Latin Averoi'sism. Especially the publication of the complete works of Averoi in about 1250 further promoted this wave. Many scholars at the University of Paris became Averoii. The views they put forward were often more radical than Averoi himself, such as denying the omniscience and omnipotence of God, denying the immortality of the individual's soul, insisting on the eternal surname of the world itself, etc. They also defended themselves with the "double truth theory" and engaged in fierce debates with the orthodox theology of the church.

Siegel tried to separate philosophy from the inner union of theology. He claimed that although revelation contains complete truth, it does not need to be consistent with philosophy. Similarly, philosophy is also a field of reading thinking. Philosophical thinking is "exploring what philosophers - especially Aristotle - have thought about, even if the doctrines of philosophers are occasionally inconsistent with truth... When we think about philosophers, exploring the views of philosophers is more than exploring truth." [19] In Siegel's view, the purpose of the research of the professors in the seminary is theology, not philosophy. Therefore, they cannot treat Aristotle's philosophy correctly, but can only tamper with Aristotle's philosophy for their own use. Only Aviloui's explanation of Aristotle was correct.

Based on Aristotle's philosophy, Siegel obtained the result of opposition to faith with natural proof. He refused to admit that God's creation theory, believing that God is not the cause of things, but only the cause of things, that is, God is the purpose of creation, not the cause of creation. The world is eternal, and various species on the earth are also eternal. The reason why a certain type of creature can be produced is because this type of species breeds many individuals of this creature. This generation of individuals was produced by the previous generation of individuals, and thus it is not continuous.

There is no creator. All things are repeated again and again, and one world follows another in the eternal return of things. The world is also inevitable, and the laws of nature are irreversible. We cannot say that God can foresee future accidental events, because Aristotle has proved that if God can foresee these events, they will become inevitable events. God can only recognize the general and necessary things, but cannot interfere with individual things and individuals.

In particular, Siegel followed Aviloui and divided the soul into the soul shared by all mankind and the individual soul. The individual soul is the principle of life of the individual and is inseparable from the human beings. It allows the individual to gain vitality and die with the death of the human beings. The soul shared by all mankind is the human surname, which is a unified and only soul. It combines with the individual to complete the activities of consciousness. When the individual dies, the spiritual entity of human beings is immortal, so only the soul of kind is immortal. Although reason stays in a single person through its activities, it surpasses the individual person.

Therefore, there is no immortality of the individual soul. This claim actually denies the creeds of the Holy See's immortality and other creeds. It is said that Siegel did not explicitly accept the "double truth theory". He only taught some conclusions that he himself thought were derived from Aristotle's philosophy and from the surname Li. Once these conclusions conflicted with the belief in the Holy See, he immediately emphasized his belief in the church. He called these creeds truth, but did not call philosophy like this. This shows that Siegel was far from developing to the point of breaking with the church, so many philosophical historians still included him as a scholar.

Bonaventura was also the most important theorist of the early Franciscan sect. His philosophy is characterized by the combination of scholastic philosophy and mysticism. Although he absorbed some views of Aristotle's philosophy, his criteria for choice were not inconsistent with Augustinism. He even believed that Aristotle's philosophy was based on the natural universe view, which was completely opposite to the belief in the Holy See, and would fundamentally harm theology of the Holy See. Bonaventura once gave a clear criticism of Latin Averroyism and Thomas' "mistakes". From the Augustinian standpoint, Bonaventura believed that the world was created from nothing according to the idea. He accused Aristotle of abandoning Plato's ideas in metaphysics, believing that the idea is God's thought, the model of all things, and all things are copies of ideas. Ideas are not only

It is just something purely logical, and it is dynamic, something that creates a surname. He denies that creation is eternal and inevitable overflowing, believing that this statement contains contradictions in itself. He believes that creation is a combination of form and material, and all creations include form and material. Light is the common form of all objects. All objects are related to light according to their original surname. The degree and level of existence depend on the degree of this relationship. Material only means a possible surname, but it is not a purely unregulated surname. The original material contains the embryo as an inner causal surname. Bonaventura opposes the theory of spiritual and flesh integration, believing that the soul is also a combination of form and material, and also has its own material, so there is a material of the spiritual surname. And ** also has its own form. Therefore, the soul is read by ** and is immortal.

Bonaventura believes that all things are copies of God, and God is expressed through all things, so people can know God in all things. He distinguished three ways of knowing truth, namely symbolic, original meaning and mysterious. The symbolic way is to know all things in the world through feeling and imagination, and the original meaning is to know all things through the surname of reason and mind. But such knowledge is only the beginning, and what real knowledge knows is the eternal paradigm, that is, the world of ideas and God.

The world. Such understanding can only be achieved through wisdom and sudden enlightenment of the mind. This is the mysterious intuition, a state of madness in the unity of God and man. But this intuition cannot be realized by anyone at any time. It relies on the gift of God, and God's gift can only be obtained through holy life and piety to God. Although Bonaventura admits that understanding begins with feelings, it eventually goes to mysticism. III. Dominic Sect: Albert

While the Francis stubbornly resisted Aristotle's philosophy, the Dominic sect was making active attempts to transform Aristotle's philosophy and make it serve theology. Albert was the main representative of this tendency of Dominic sect.

Albert (albertusmagnus, 1193-1(0) was born in Swaben, Germany. He studied philosophy, medicine, and natural sciences at the University of Padua, and studied theology at the University of Borockner. Later, he joined the Dominican Monastery and became the president of the Monastery in Germany. He was sent by the Monastery, and Albert taught philosophy and theology at the Monastery in Cologne, and had a short lecture in Paris, and had a fierce struggle with the Latin Avelloisism. It is said that Albert's lectures are rich in content and novel in views, which attracted a large number of students, so that the University of Paris could not find a spacious lecture hall to accommodate the famous.

The students who came here had to give lectures frequently in the square. In his later years, he was appointed Bishop of Regensburg, and soon resigned from the position to engage in scientific research and writing in the lonely life of the monastery. Albert was knowledgeable and loved to directly observe and study nature. He had certain attainments in the fields of zoology, botany, chemistry, etc. At the same time, he was proficient in ancient, godfather, and Arabic literature, and was known as "great man" and "almighty doctor". Most of Albert's works are annotations on Aristotle's metaphysics and natural philosophy, and also wrote "Creation of Creation", "Theology" and some debate papers.

Albert's position in the history of philosophy is mainly because he was the first to introduce Aristotle and his annotators to Western Europeans in a comprehensive way from the standpoint of the Holy See. However, Albert failed to effectively use the rich information he had mastered to establish an organic ideological system. His thoughts were somewhat chaotic and mixed with some Platonist components. The work of establishing the system was completed by his students Thomas Aquinas. Since the thoughts of the teachers and students were consistent in many aspects, here only the key person was chosen to give a brief introduction to Albert's thoughts.

On the issue of God and all things, Albert absorbed some ideas of Neoplatonism and the Arab philosopher Avisenne and transformed Aristotle's philosophy. He believed that God is the highest infinite entity, the light that is not created. From God, it is the "dark light". From "primitive reason", it also flows out of "primitive reason", all existences, including all levels of existence from the world's soul to the physical being. All created entities are composed of essence and existence.

On the issue of common and individual things, Albert accepted Avisenne's thought and further concretized it. He believed that the essence of common as a thing does not depend on the realization of things in the space-time world, and is therefore before things; the essence is concreted into everything, and is therefore in things; our universal concept is a product of thought, and therefore after things.

Regarding the relationship between philosophy and theology, he believed that the problems of philosophy can only be dealt with in a philosophical way. Theological problems, such as the Trinity, the incarnation, creation, resurrection, etc., are incomprehensible by natural reason, and can only be dealt with in the theological way. Albert's view was further developed by Thomas. 4, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1'4) was born in the Aquino region of Naples, Italy. His father was a powerful aristocrat in the local area. Thomas was sent by his parents to the nearby Monastery of Mount Casino at the age of 5. He entered the University of Naples at the age of 14 and joined the Dominic Monastery during this period. In 1244, he was sent to the University of Paris to further his studies, where he became a teacher, and was soon taken to Cologne by Albert to continue his studies. In 1252, Albert recommended Thomas to the University of Paris.

He studied and taught, but was later excluded from school by the opposition. In 1259, Thomas was ordered to work in the Holy See, where he met William, who was proficient in Greek, Mannpek. William directly translated from Greek to Latin, which allowed Thomas to master rich first-hand information and laid a solid foundation for his subsequent academic activities. In 1269, Thomas returned to the University of Paris and fought fiercely with the radical Latin Avelloisianism and the conservative Francisian sect. In 1'4, Thomas went to Lyon to attend the parish convention at the call of the pope, but unfortunately died of illness in the middle of the journey.

Thomas inherited the ideological line of his teacher Albert, and despite the opposition of the conservative forces of the church, adapted to the new trend of the times. He strongly advocated the use of Aristotle's philosophy to replace Augustinian Platonism as the pillar of the church's theory. He established a huge philosophical system in the fierce debate and became the most important representative of scholastic philosophy. Thomas wrote a lot of writings throughout his life. In addition to making a lot of comments on Aristotle's works, his works such as "Anti-Pagan Collection" and "Theological Collection" were the most important works in medieval Europe, both philosophically and theologically.

Based on Albert's thought, Thomas disagrees with Augustinism's approach to confuse philosophy with theology, nor with Latin Averroyism's "double truth theory" that divides philosophy and theology into two unrelated fields, but strives to argue that philosophy and theology are both mutually read and unified. He believes that the difference between philosophy and theology lies first in their cognitive goals or objects of knowledge. Theology provides us with the truths necessary for our salvation, and in addition to theology, there is still a lot of room for activity about the science of the real world's cognitive world. The objectively existing real world is the object of our cognitive name, and it is also the source of our knowledge, and the cognitive name also has the ability to recognize this object.

But the surname Li is not omnipotent, it cannot recognize all truths. There is also a surreal and supernatural world above the real natural world. Regarding this world, our surname Li can only recognize a very small part of it, such as the existence of God, the only surname of God, etc. And other truths in this world, such as the Trinity of God, the resurrection of the kingdom of heaven, God's plan of salvation, etc., are not something that can be recognized by human natural surname Li, but can only be grasped by faith. "Although things beyond human reason cannot be obtained by reason, if there is God's revelation, they can be obtained by faith." [ ] Even theological truths that can be obtained by natural surname Li should be obtained under the guidance of revelation. This is because "all the truth obtained by using reason can only be obtained by a few people, and it takes a lot of time, and it is also full of mistakes."

As for most people, due to their low talent and laziness, and spending too much energy on troublesome and common affairs, they have no ability to reflect and obtain truth at all. Therefore, even theological truths that can be obtained by the natural reason should belong to the content of apocalypse and should be grasped by faith. Secondly, the difference between philosophy and theology lies in their perspectives and methods of studying problems. Even for the same thing, philosophers and theologians also examine them from completely different angles, and the same existence becomes the objects of cognition of philosophy and theology in different senses. Even if philosophers and theologians face the same problem, their ways of dealing with this problem are different. Philosophers are based on the essence of things, and therefore obtain arguments from the reasons for their own things. On the contrary, theologians always understand things from the initial cause of things, that is, from God.

However, the above differences do not prevent philosophy and theology from reaching the same truth. Because the truth revealed by faith and the truth explored by the truth are actually the same truth. "The two truths I call are not in terms of God himself, because God is the only and single truth, but in terms of our knowledge, because we know God's truth from different aspects."

The ultimate destination of the philosophical thinking of the surname Li must be the infinite supreme being, that is, God. "Almost all philosophical thinking aims to know God."

Since philosophy studies them on creation itself, it reaches the knowledge of God from creation: it starts from creation and ends with God. Theology chooses the opposite path. It only grasps them in terms of the relationship between creation and God, so it starts from God and descends from God to creation. "The man's surname of the Li ascends to know God through natural creation, and faith is the opposite, allowing people to know God through God's revelation. The former is the ascending law, and the latter is the descending law. In terms of knowing God, the two are the same. In fact, whether it is faith obtained by transcending the surname of the Li, or the knowledge of God through the surname of the Li, it is just a different path."

Therefore, although theology and philosophy have clear boundaries, Thomas does not agree that these two fields of knowledge are separated from each other in practice. On the contrary, he requires the closest cooperation between theology and philosophy. Although faith and knowledge belong to two different fields, the two should be harmonious and consistent. Because the surname Li is a true surname created by God and given to mankind, while faith comes from God's revelation, the two can be traced back to the same source of truth, so it is impossible to oppose each other. Rather, the surname Li is the first surname created by God and given to mankind, while faith comes from God's revelation. The two can be traced back to the same source of truth, so it is impossible to oppose each other. Rather, the surname Li is the surname Li is more likely to be opposed to each other. Rather, the surname Li is more likely to be.

Both are opposite to fallacy. There will never be any contradiction between philosophy and theology. Although the truth of theology is a trans-reason, it is by no means an anti-reason. Faith is a kind of divine grace given to us by God. It does not weaken people's natural surnames, but instead strengthens people's natural surnames. "God's grace is attached to human surnames so that it does not destroy human surnames, but also makes human surnames more perfect. Therefore, the light of faith given to us by God does not destroy the glory of the natural surnames we have."

Philosophy and theology are only two different ways to understand the truth, and there is only one truth, that is God. If someone rejects God’s revelation because it seems to be in conflict with the natural reason of man in some places, then his stupidity is no less than a farmer who thinks it is false because he does not understand the theory of philosophers. Proposing arguments against faith based on the natural reason surname is itself inconsistent with the highest thinking principle of the logical surname.

Not only is faith and the surname Li consistent, but they also have a complementary and mutually promoting relationship. Faith is necessary for the surname Li. Faith can help the surname Li broaden its horizons, supplement and improve philosophical truth. The services provided by faith for philosophy and the surname Li are richly rewarded to theology. First of all, the surname Li can guarantee the foundation of faith and defend theology in the face of all attacks, because almost all attacks on theology come from the natural surname Li, which defends theology.

It must also be carried out from the natural surname. Secondly, the surname can clarify the reasonable surname of faith and prove some creeds that it can grasp. Even knowledge of purely natural things is of great use to theology. Knowledge about natural things can convey God's wisdom to us, guide us to praise and awe of God, and achieve love for God. As long as we study the essence of natural things more deeply, we will not fall into certain fallacies in the doctrine of God.

Of course, this does not mean that philosophy and theology have an equal status as Latin Aviloi's positivity. On the contrary, faith is higher than the surname of the Li, and theology is higher than philosophy and all sciences, which is Thomas's unwavering position. Regarding this, Thomas argues: "In general, we say that a speculative science is superior to other sciences, but that its true surname is higher than other sciences, or its subject matter is more noble than other sciences, and theology is superior to other speculative sciences in both respects. It is wrong to say that it has a higher true surname because the true surname of other sciences comes from the light of the original surname of the Li surname of the human being; and theology is indeed true.

The real surname comes from the light of God, and it is not wrong to make mistakes. It is said that its subject matter is more noble, because theology explores mainly things that are superior to the beauty of the human surname, while other sciences only pay attention to what the human surname can grasp. As for general practical science, its nobility depends on whether it leads to a higher purpose. For example, political science and military science are because the purpose of military is towards the purpose of national politics. The purpose of theology, in terms of practice, lies in eternal happiness, and this eternal happiness is the purpose of all practical sciences as the final purpose. Therefore, theology is higher than other sciences."

Because of this, although faith can and should use the surname of Li, it never means that it depends on the surname of Li. On the contrary, "theology may be developed by philosophy, but it does not necessarily mean that it must be, but uses it to explain its own principles more clearly. Because the principles of theology are not from other sciences, but directly from God by revelation. Therefore, it does not rely on other sciences as its superiors, but uses them as its subordinates and slaves."

Thomas thus came up with his famous proposition: "Philosophy is the maid of theology."

For Thomas, making philosophy serves theology, specifically transforming Aristotle's philosophy to serve theology. To this end, he borrowed the existence and essence, potential and reality of Aristotle's philosophy, and discussed the most general philosophical issues, and used this to prove the supreme status of God.

In Thomas's view, existence is a process of occurrence, a process of reality, which means that something corresponds to a concept or a judgment in reality. The essence is what we need to form a representation of a thing, and it is what makes something into that thing. In all created things, existence and essence are different prescribed names. The existence of a thing must contain its essence as the thing, otherwise it will not exist as the thing. But it cannot be said otherwise, the essence of a thing must contain its existence. For example, a triangle, its essence is three straight lines.

The line encloses a plane. Whether it exists or not, or whether it exists in reality or in our appearance, its essence is the same. We can think about any essence, even if we know nothing about its actual existence. "Any essence or substance, although man does not have the knowledge of existence, can still be understood. Because even if I do not know whether there is someone or a phoenix in nature, I can understand what a person is or what a phoenix is. Therefore, existence is obviously different from essence or substance, unless there may be something that is indeed its existence."

Thomas refers to God here. The existence of God is the same thing as its essence. Because God's essence lies in the fact that He is the creator of all things. Although the causes of all creation are different, they are the same in the fact that it creates existence. For example, fire causes the existence of heat, and construction workers causes the existence of a house. The reason why the creator can cause existence is that it exists itself. Therefore, as the creator of all things, God's essence itself already contains existence.

The created things are both active and passive. They act on their own and are also the object of action; they have a surname, and they can lose the surname and obtain a new surname. This ability to accept external effects or internal changes is potential, and the existence of things is reality. "Although some things do not exist, they have the ability to exist; while other things already exist. Things that can exist but do not exist are said to be in potential; while things that already exist are said to be in reality" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!