There are many theories in the area of philosophy dealing with religion. Anselm has his Ontological argument. William Paley has his Teleological argument and Soren Kierkegaard talks about faith. But the argument that really fused together faith and reason is the Cosmological argument of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the argument there are 5 ways to prove the existence of God. But one stands out from the rest. The first argument of Motion. .
St. Thomas Aquinas was born in the year 1266 to Landulph, Count of Aquino. At the age of 5, Thomas was sent to live with the Benedictine Monks. He was a brilliant student and his teachers were impressed with his progress. When he became of age to choose his direction in life, St. Thomas renounced the things of this world and entered the Order of St. Dominic despite the objection of his family. In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples. It is here that he is merited the title of the "Angelic Doctor". After making his profession at Naples, he studied at Cologne under St. Albert the Great. Here carried the nickname "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in the same city. At the same time, he also began to publish his first works. After four years he was sent to Paris. At the age of thirty-one, he received his doctorate, while still being a priest. .
At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261, Pope Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach but he declined. St. Thomas not only wrote, but he preached often. Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Naples, which he also refused. He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.
