ˈtōˌmizəm sometimes ˈtäˌ- noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: probably from (assumed) New Latin thomismus, from Thomas Aquinas died 1274 Italian scholastic theologian + Latin -ismus -ism
1. : the system of St. Thomas Aquinas teaching that philosophy and theology have separate spheres with one seeking truth through the agency of reason and the other through that of revelation but reaching conclusions that support each other, that all knowledge begins with sense perception from the data of which the intellect abstracts universals and on the basis of these proceeds through deduction and induction to science or knowledge of things in their causes and thence to knowledge of ultimate causality and the conclusion that the universe is the creation of an infinite uncreated Being, that everything in nature is composed of matter and form with the potentiality of the former being brought to actuality by the latter, that everything that is natural is good in itself and a cause of evil only when used for ends other than those for which it was created or beyond the limits prescribed by sound reason or divine law, and that because of his rational nature man is compelled by necessity to seek the highest good
2. : a theological theory deriving from Thomas Aquinas that explains the relation between efficacious grace and free will as a free determination of the will accomplished by virtue of a divine physical premotion — compare molinism