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The Church in the Middle Ages Essay

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The Church in the Middle Ages

By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.
The power of The Church, in The Middle Ages, was enormous. It touched almost everyone's life in many important ways. The Church baptized a person at birth, performed the wedding ceremony at people' marriages, and …show more content…

As one of most valuable works on this topic one can name St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, in which he states that existence of God, can be demonstrated in five different ways.
Aquinas, Saint Thomas was born at approximately 1225 at Aquino castle in Roccasecca, Italy. As a philosopher-theologian he was arguably the most influential thinker of the medieval period. He produced a powerful synthesis that combined Aristotelian and Neoplatonic elements within a Christian context. He maintained the Christian theological traditions, inspired by Aristotle's approach sought his own argument for God's existence.
Some people might say that proof of God's existence empty of concept. Others, that God's existence can not be rationally justified and acceptance of creator, no less than that of a Savior is a matter of Faith. But I agree with Anthony Kenny who wrote "… a valid philosophical proof of God's existence would be sufficient, though not a necessary, condition for the possibility of a rational acceptance of theism…" That is why I would like to examine the five ways introduced by St. Thomas.
St. Thomas combined, as I mentioned before, Aristotle's teachings with Christian doctrine. For example, Thomas argued that no conflict exists between reason and faith. Philosophy is based on reason, he declared, and theology comes from faith in divine revelation, yet both come from God. So Thomas believed that any differences between divine

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