NIEWIARA W ROZUMIENIU ŚW. TOMASZA Z AKWINU

The aim of this study is to show the essence of unbelief based on the views of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Because in his view unbelief is the opposite of faith, speaking about the unbeliever inevitably requires a knowledge of what faith is. Therefore, Thomas’s views on the topic of unbelief are interwoven in the content of the problem of faith. Due to the participation of human authorities, the structure of unbelief is the same as faith, that is, it is constituted by reason and will. Reason is their subject, and will be the agent. However, unbelief as the abandonment of the truth and goodness contained in the revelation is at the same time the non-acceptance of grace, without which the supernatural faith does not exist. Because Saint Thomas understands faith as an act of reason which, under the influence of the will and with the cooperation of grace, recognizes as truth the content contained in the Gospel, all other activities which omit even one element included in the faith consistently recognize as unbelief. As a result of the new forms of unbelief and reflection on them, some philosophers postulate a reverse order to Thomas, that is, the priority of unbelief before faith.