Natural Indestructibility of Heavenly Bodies according to St Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

The subject of the article is the question of the nature of heavenly bodies in St Thomas Aquinas’ approach. The Dominican thinker, using Aristotle’s cosmology, tries to present his understanding of the Stagirite’s theory concerning natural indestructibility of heavenly bodies, which he treats as relatively perfect beings built of ether and indestructible in the world of nature, although they are contingent and created by God. The issue proves the Angelic Doctor’s independence and self-reliance; studying the universe he not only used Aristotle’s cosmology but he verified it with theological knowledge basing his considerations on the ancient and medieval commentators of the Greek philosopher. In St Thomas’ studies his conviction about relative formal and material perfection of metaphysical components of heavenly bodies is of significant importance. The conception of indestructibility of heavenly bodies also presents methodological assumptions of the metaphysics developed by the Dominican thinker who made the rules of Aristotle’s philosophy relative.