Excerpt from The "Summa Theologica" Of St. Thomas Aquinas, Vol. 3: Third Part (Supplement) Qq. XXXIV-LXVIII
IN the next place we must consider the sacrament of Order: (i) Order in general; (2) the difference of Orders; (3) those who confer Orders; (4) the impediments to receiving Orders.
Thomas Aquinas was an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis.
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.
The philosophy of Aquinas has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church, extending to Western philosophy in general, where he stands as a vehicle and modifier of Aristotelianism, which he fused with the thought of Augustine.
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