The Role of Conscience in Aquinas' Philosophy

Some of the best recent writers on Aquinas have been people who were not or were no longer Christians. He was first to make a sharp distinction between two kinds of theology, what he calls revealed theology and natural theology. Revealed theology will take as its premises some sacred book or authoritative teaching the church. Natural theology starts only with things which can be proved by reason without any appeal to an alleged revelation. The summer contregentilis was expressly designed to be used in dialogue with Jews and Muslims.