Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

30 PIM VALKENBERG
of the subject-matters in the Liber de veritate of Thomas Aquinas".
If this analysis is correct, one may expect that Aquinas formulates his
considerations on 'how to talk to strangers' in the introductory
chapters of his work, viz. in Summa contra Gentiles (or Liber de
veritate) I, caps. 1-9. I cannot give a detailed analysis of these
introductory chapters", but restrict myself to some of the rules of
properly defending the truth of faith.
In the first chapter, Aquinas takes a quotation from Proverbs
8,7 as his guideline, in which Wisdom says, according to the Vulgate:
..Veritatem meditabitur guttur meum, et labia mea detestabantur
impium": After a meditation on the tasks of the wise man, of whom it
is typical to arrange all things properly, according to a famous saying
by Aristotle, Aquinas concludes that Wisdom instructs the wise person
to speak about the divine truth, and to attack the errors against this
truth. Conform to this instruction, Aquinas wishes to make the truth of
the Catholic faith manifest by eliminating the errors opposed to iel.
With respect to the refutation of errors, Aquinas sees two
problems. The first problem is the problem of cultural distance, both
historically and geographically. Aquinas remarks that some of the
Doctors of the Church were able to acquire direct knowledge of these
errors, because they were pagans themselves or could directly
communicate with them". For us, Aquinas says, such a direct
knowledge is no longer possible. These words may have two different
meanings: if he refers to historical distance, it indicates that Aquinas
mainly refers to the errors of the classical period, and not to
contemporary errors. If he refers to cultural distance, it indicates that
69 Cp. Corbin, O.C., pp. 628-642; Hoping, O.C., pp. 71-94.
70 See Corbin, O.C., pp. 491-642; Hoping, O.C., pp. 94-115.
71 "propositum nostrae intentionis est veritatem quam fides Catholica
profitetur, pro nostro modulo manifestare, errores eliminando contrarios ",
Summa contra Gentiles I, c. 2 (ed. Leonina, vol. Xlll, Romae 1918, p.6).
72 "Hoc enim modo usi sunt antiqui doctores in destructionem errorum
gentilium, quorum positiones scire potuerunt quia et ipsi gentiles fuerunt, vel
saltern inter gentiles conversati et in eorum doetrinis eruditis", ibid.