THE DOUBLE Jubilee of St. Thomas Aquinas, which concludes today, Jan. 28, is not only a period of celebration for the Dominican Order but also a time to honor the lasting influence of Thomism 750 years after his death.
Considered the greatest of scholastics, Aquinas produced a long line of Thomists, many of them influential in their heydays but now barely footnotes in the history of the field.
UST Faculty of Philosophy officer in charge Fr. Felix de los Reyes, O.P. and faculty member Levine Lao strived to bring light to the forgotten Thomist influence through one such figure: Cardinal Zeferino González, O.P., archbishop of Seville and an alumnus and professor of the University of Santo Tomas.
Both delos Reyes and Lao specialize in Thomistic studies at the UST Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics.
The article, “Zeferino González: Inheritor of Salamantine Thomism in the Nineteenth Century,” was published under a collection of texts by renowned academics and thinkers in “Tomismo Hispano: Ocho Siglos de Tradicion Intelectual” that highlighted eight centuries of the Thomist philosophy.
Published in 2024, the texts were compiled from discussions during the IX Symposium of Thomistic Studies last year in January in Barcelona, Spain to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the canonization of Aquinas.
Lao, director of the UST Office for Grants and Partnerships in Higher Education and a former managing editor of the Varsitarian, and delos Reyes showed how Fray Zeferino developed a Thomism that places a premium on dialogue and humanism. As the two philosophers said, González’s general theme is “making Thomistic philosophy dialogue with contemporary times.”
Thomism has long been seen as outdated and out of touch with modern concerns, being a philosophy born during medieval times.
To counter this misconception, Lao and de los Reyes focused on González’s embrace of the Salamantine tradition of Thomistic philosophy as he tackled the challenges of evangelization and education in the Far East during the 19th century.
This tradition, which originated from the University of Salamanca during the 16th century, promotes a universal recognition of human dignity and the rights of natives in light of the brutality of the early stages of the Spanish colonization of the New World.
Lastly, Lao and delos Reyes pointed out how González made an impression on 20th-century Thomists such as Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier of Belgium and Étienne Gilson of France.
González as a philosopher, as painted by Lao and delos Reyes, finds new life in his centuries-old philosophical tradition.
Citing one of his works “Historia de la filosofia (1878),” the two philosophers commended González for his ability to “embody the true meaning of dialogue.”
“We dare say that he did not intend to impose his thoughts over other philosophies. Instead, with the Historia, he invites his readers to also consider what the philosophy of St. Thomas can offer in addressing the questions on human existence, which the different philosophies in the world also try to address,” Lao and delos Reyes wrote.
Compared with contemporaries Friedrich Nietzsche or Karl Marx, González did not have the kind of paradigm-shifting ideas these polarizing figures represented.
But Lao and delos Reyes showed how González is a significant figure not only in the history of Thomism but also in the history of philosophy and education in the Philippines.
The article is an adequate guide to an oft-overlooked aspect of Thomism, which is its regard for the human being, of which González is an enthusiastic promoter.
The memory of the illustrious Thomasian is commemorated by a street sign near the UST parish church and a portrait that hangs in the UST Central Seminary.
Lao and de los Reyes’ article can pave the way for the reintroduction of González to the Thomasian consciousness.
His works, still untranslated into English, surely influenced his student Fr. Jose Burgos, champion of the Philippine clergy’s rights and forerunner of the Philippine independence movement.