Maspero, Giulio (Papieski Wydział Teologiczny we Wrocławiu, 2020)
Thomas Aquinas’ theological epistemology is presented as a response to an aporia of classical metaphysical thought, which affirmed the relationality of the episteme but denied that of the First Principle. The path that led from a cause to another cause down to the ultimate cause thus remains without a true foundation. On the contrary, the Trinitarian ontology developed by the Fathers of the Church allowed Aquinas to recognize the foundation of the episteme with its immanent relationality of the triune God. This emerges from his rereading of John Damascene and from how Thomas – contrary to what happened in the thought of Boethius and Richard of Saint Victor – reworked the concept of person so that it could be applied both to man and to God. The very analysis of the act of faith and the rereading of the name Verbum in an exclusively notional sense reveal how Thomas developed a true Trinitarian epistemology as a reflection of his Trinitarian ontology.
