Today marks the Church of England remembering Thomas Aquinas and their are a few ironies here. Thomas Aquinas was less the popular in the reformation and his writings less than welcome.
Thank goodness we have come a long way since then. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot about his writing/theology and his approach that just doesn't work for me and I am not a huge fan of systematic theology (despite my accountancy/mathematics background). That said, there is also a lot to learn from the man too and his willingness to engage with philosophy and theology together is worth attention.
Here are a some words used to describe Aquinas that will ring true with many an "emerging church" theologian:
" He exhibits a calm determination to do justice to every facet of what he observes; it enables him to engage with the thoughts of various traditions in his own time, and makes him alive and readable today in our pluralist society." Timothy McDermott - Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings.
And a little something to ponder on:
"God then causes everything's activity in as much as he gives the power to act, maintains it in existence, applies it to its activity, and inasmuch as it is by his power that every other power acts. And when we add to this that God is his own power and therefore exists within everything, not as part of its being but as holding it in existence, it follows that he is at work without intermediary in everything that is active, but without excluding the activity of nature or of free will." Thomas Aquinas , Is God at work in nature and in will?