by which it is received, arefundamentally God's actions. Yet this knowledge is imparted to humans, by humans andfor humans. And since it is a principle of Thomistic thought that "whatever is received isreceived according to the mode of the receiver," revelation is also a human actconditioned by the human. The truth of Faith is transmitted through Sacred Doctrine andis the human participation in divine science, i.e. the knowledge which God and theblessed share in heaven. Theology, insofar as it is distinct from Sacred Doctrine, is ahuman science of the divine. However, both start first with God and then proceedsaccording to the human. Theology in fact differs from Sacred Doctrine only to the extentthat in theology the truth of faith is explicated through the more conspicuous use ofrational arguments. In fact, theology, when properly done, will merely present all of, andonly, the truth of Sacred Doctrine in another form. This is possible because of Thomas'conviction that reason of itself can attain truth. The human, by employing faith andreason together, can attain the truth about divine things since both are legitimate meansof attaining truth. These principles by which St. Thomas understands the structure oftheology are an application of principles learned from Aristotle and Plato and applied tothe reality of Christian revelation. At the core of his theological synthesis is what isfundamentally a philosophical doctrine, i.e. the real distinction between essence and esse.Since in all of creation a thing's esse is limited by its essence, the only way to account forit existing at all is through unlimited esse causing it, and this we call God. By hismetaphysics of esse, Thomas combines God's causality of creation with creation'sparticipation in the divine. The combination of these two traditions allows him to justifytrue rational knowledge of God through analogy. Creation is, by analogy, like God sinceHe created it. And in receiving being f...
