Scholastic Demonology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
This chapter focuses on Thomas Aquinas's contributions to the area of popular beliefs and ‘superstitions’. He articulated a full, rational vision of how bodies, souls, and spiritual beings related to each other and to God. From this vision he deduced clear and (relatively) consistent views about what could or could not happen in the universe. All the subsequent writers who explored the subject largely took Aquinas's conclusions in these areas as a given. The chapter outlines Aquinas's demonological system, drawing chiefly on key sections of his two summae, the Summa Theologica and the Summa against the Pagans or Summa contra Gentiles.
Keywords: superstition literature, demonology, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Summa against the Pagans or Summa contra Gentiles
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