The Lego Movie, Thomas Aquinas, and the Redemption of Matter

By Eric Hanna, S.J.

Image: Wikipedia.com

Don't dismiss The Lego Movie as another vapid commercial display for children: it tackles some themes that run to the heart of how we interact with our world and teaches a wonderful message. Of course I'm not just saying this because I loved Lego as a kid and still love it today. I'm also saying it as a scholar of Thomas Aquinas.

The movie hinges (pun intended) on two central themes: creativity and order. If you haven't seen the movie, fear not. I will speak about it in a general way so as not to give away too much of the plot.

Thomas Aquinas: The Bruce Lee of Medieval Philosophy

By Eric Hanna, S.J.

Thomas Aquinas is, without a doubt, the Bruce Lee of medieval philosophy.

That's what I told my students as I began teaching my first class. I have officially begun my regency, the stage of Jesuit formation where those who have taken vows spend time teaching and performing apostolic work. I'm thrilled to be working at Campion College in Regina. It's not easy to interest people in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. But my opening device intrigued my students. Aquinas and Bruce Lee are philosophers with similar approaches to life.

Bruce Lee, founder of his own martial arts school and famed actor/director, began his studies in the west with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution. Aquinas and Bruce were similar in their level of personal giftedness. Both are geniuses who revolutionized their respective fields.

What I Learned from St. Thomas Aquinas

By Adam Hincks, S.J.

Image: J. Hester & P. Scowen, STScI, ESA, NASA.

As compared with many other saints, and many other philosophers, he was avid in his acceptance of Things; in his hunger and thirst for Things. It was his special spiritual thesis that there really are things; and not only the Thing; that the Many existed as well as the One. ―Chesterton on Thomas Aquinas

Last term, a fellow Jesuit scholastic and I were privileged to do a reading course on the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas with our programme director, reading chiefly from the First Part of the magnificent Summa Theologiae. I expected the material to be intellectually stimulating, but an unexpected pleasure were the many spiritual insights that we received. Here are the “greatest hits” from the course.