Podcast Episode 54
St. Thomas Aquinas
with Father Cajetan Cuddy & host Nick Walters
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The Angelic Doctor and the Architecture of Christian Thought.
This Week in Christian History features an in-depth interview with Nick Walters, founder of the Center for Christian History at Mississippi College, along with a Deep Dive conversation with our Subject Matter Expert, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., on the life, theology, and enduring legacy of Thomas Aquinas. The episode also highlights two significant historical moments from this week in church and public life.
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) stands as one of the most consequential theologians in the history of Christianity. A Dominican friar formed in the intellectual ferment of the medieval universities, Aquinas labored to bring clarity, coherence, and philosophical rigor to Christian doctrine. Writing during a period when newly recovered works of Aristotle were reshaping European intellectual life, Aquinas demonstrated that faith and reason were not adversaries but allies. His great works, including the Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles, systematically organized Christian teaching on God, creation, human nature, virtue, law, grace, and salvation.
Aquinas’ influence reaches far beyond the medieval classroom. His articulation of natural law shaped Western legal theory. His careful distinctions between essence and existence, nature and grace, reason and revelation provided a framework that would guide Catholic theology for centuries. At the Council of Trent, his thought helped clarify doctrinal formulations. In the nineteenth century, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Aeterni Patris called for a revival of Thomistic philosophy, solidifying Aquinas’ place as a central intellectual authority within Catholic tradition. Even outside Roman Catholicism, Protestant and evangelical scholars continue to engage his arguments regarding metaphysics, ethics, and the existence of God.
March 2, 1898 – “Humbly Relying on the Blessing of Almighty God”
On March 2, 1898, during the constitutional conventions that shaped the Commonwealth of Australia, Patrick “Paddy” Glynn proposed adding explicitly theological language to the preamble of the new constitution. The phrase “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God” was not included in the earliest drafts. Glynn argued that the founding document should acknowledge divine providence as part of the nation’s moral foundation.
The amendment was debated and at times mocked by delegates who favored a more secular public philosophy. Nevertheless, it passed. The phrase remains in the Australian Constitution’s preamble, alongside references to unity under the British Crown. Its inclusion illustrates that at the turn of the twentieth century, many Western political leaders still assumed that public life and Christian belief were interconnected. The constitutional language reflects broader cultural convictions about providence, authority, and national identity during that era.
March 8, 1948 – McCollum v. Board of Education
On March 8, 1948, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in McCollum v. Board of Education. Writing for the majority, Associate Justice Hugo Black concluded that a public school program permitting religious instructors to teach during school hours within public school facilities violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Black emphasized a robust understanding of church-state separation, arguing that public institutions must not facilitate religious instruction.
The ruling marked a significant moment in twentieth-century jurisprudence concerning the religion clauses. It reshaped how religious education could intersect with public schooling and signaled a more stringent interpretation of constitutional limits on government involvement with religion. The federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, now bears Black’s name, a reminder of his long judicial career and his influence on American constitutional interpretation.
Image Credit: Bartolomeo degli Erri (attributed), Thomas Aquinas, c. 1470. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.