A study of St. Thomas Aquinas's Secunda Secundae (Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae). These lectures examine the theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity—and the particular applications of moral theology, exploring specific virtues and their practice in Christian life. en © 2025 Berquist Lectures Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:59:24 +0000 Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Duane H. Berquist A study of St. Thomas Aquinas's Secunda Secundae (Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae). These lectures examine the theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity—and the particular applications of moral theology, exploring specific virtues and their practice in Christian life. false Duane H. Berquist info@example.com https://berquistcourse.com/images/cover-12.jpg https://berquistcourse.com serial Berquist opens the Secunda Secundae, laying out its sevenfold structure of virtues, gifts, vices, and precepts, then turns to Question 1 of the Summa on faith's object as "first truth." Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/001-prologue-to-the-secunda-secundae-the-seven-virtues-the-eleven/ Berquist introduces the Secunda Secundae by working through its prologue, explaining why Thomas treats virtues, vices, and precepts together and how the three theological and four cardinal virtues correspond to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and opposing vices. He draws on Vatican II's Dei Verbum, quoting St. John's first epistle and Augustine's De Catechizandis Rudibus, to clarify the ordering of faith, hope, and charity. He then turns to Question 1, article 1, on the object of faith as "first truth," setting Thomas's treatment against the backdrop of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and the soul's four faculties—reason, will, and the irascible and concupiscible appetites. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/001-prologue-to-the-secunda-secundae-the-seven-virtues-the-eleven/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/001-prologue-to-the-secunda-secundae-the-seven-virtues-the-eleven/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/001-1.mp3 1:02:33 1 full false Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist opens Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 1, working through articles 1 and 2: is the object of faith God alone, or does it reach created things too—and is that object simple or something stated in a proposition? Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/002-ii-ii-q-1-articles-1-2-is-the-object-of-faith-the-first-truth/ Berquist takes up the first two articles of Aquinas's question on faith. The question: since faith's object is the "first truth," how can Christians be said to believe in Christ's humanity, the sacraments, or events in Scripture, none of which is God himself? He works through Aquinas's objections and replies to show these are all believed only as referred back to God. He then turns to whether what is believed is something simple (incomplexum) or a stated proposition (enunciabile), pausing along the way over angelic knowledge and what "Word of God" means to clarify the distinction between simple apprehension and complex judgment. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/002-ii-ii-q-1-articles-1-2-is-the-object-of-faith-the-first-truth/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/002-ii-ii-q-1-articles-1-2-is-the-object-of-faith-the-first-truth/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/001-2.mp3 0:59:45 2 full false Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Aquinas on whether faith can hold something false and whether its object is something seen (Summa II-II, q.1, aa.3-4), with a detour on Mary's unique grace. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/003-aquinas-on-faith-part-1-marys-unique-grace-whether-anything/ Berquist takes up two articles from Aquinas's treatise on faith: whether anything false can fall under belief, and whether faith concerns things seen. He walks through the objections, sed contra, and responses, distinguishing an article of faith itself from a merely human conjecture about its timing, and showing how faith stands apart from both vision and opinion by way of God's eternal knowledge. Along the way he digresses on Mary's "hypostatic order" of grace, citing the Dominican Louis Chardon and his own teachers Charles De Koninck and Maurice Dion, with anecdotes on certitude and first principles. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/003-aquinas-on-faith-part-1-marys-unique-grace-whether-anything/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/003-aquinas-on-faith-part-1-marys-unique-grace-whether-anything/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/002-1.mp3 0:58:37 3 full false Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist continues through Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 1, working articles 4 through 6: whether the believer in some sense "sees," whether faith can be scientific knowledge, and why the articles of faith are divided as they are. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/004-aquinas-on-faith-part-2-the-light-of-faith-whether-faith/ Berquist takes up Aquinas's question of what exactly faith's object is. He works through article 4's distinctions between believing something "in particular" and finding it generally credible, and between believing simply and believing "somewhat," tying these to how the light of faith differs from the light of glory. Article 5 asks whether matters of faith can also be known by science or opinion; article 6 asks why the articles of faith are distinguished as they are, using the word "article" itself and the example of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. He draws in moral-virtue analogies, the Transfiguration, and other asides to keep the distinctions tied to how faith is actually lived. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/004-aquinas-on-faith-part-2-the-light-of-faith-whether-faith/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/004-aquinas-on-faith-part-2-the-light-of-faith-whether-faith/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/002-2.mp3 1:10:13 4 full false Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Summa II-II, q. 1, aa. 7-8: whether the articles of faith grow over time, and why they number fourteen—unity, Trinity, and the humanity of Christ. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/005-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-7-8-how-the-articles-of-faith/ Berquist takes up two questions from Aquinas: does the content of faith increase through history, and why do the articles of faith come to fourteen? He works through Aquinas's distinction between implicit and explicit belief, likening doctrine's growth to a teacher condescending to a learner's capacity rather than adding new truths. Along the way he distinguishes agent from material causality and discusses the "fullness of time" surrounding Christ's coming, drawing on Hebrews, Galatians, Ephesians, and Gregory the Great, with side references to Aristotle's Metaphysics and Categories and brief remarks on Marian and Josephine devotion. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/005-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-7-8-how-the-articles-of-faith/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/005-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-7-8-how-the-articles-of-faith/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/003-1.mp3 1:09:39 5 full false Thu, 05 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist finishes the objections on God's unity and Trinity, then turns to Summa II-II, q. 1, aa. 8–10 on why the Creed's wording matters and who has authority to revise it. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/006-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-8-10-the-objections-on-the/ Berquist works through Aquinas's replies to objections on the unity of God and the Trinity before taking up Question 1, Articles 9 and 10: whether the Creed is fittingly worded and whether it belongs to the pope to draw up a new edition of it. He compares the ordering of divine attributes in the Summa against the Summa Contra Gentiles, distinguishes the Apostles' Creed from the Nicene "symbol of the fathers," and considers Athanasius's role behind the Athanasian Creed. The discussion is conversational, mixing close reading of the text with tangents into Church history and contemporary magisterial teaching. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/006-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-8-10-the-objections-on-the/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/006-summa-ii-ii-question-1-articles-8-10-the-objections-on-the/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/003-2.mp3 0:45:20 6 full false Thu, 05 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Aristotle's five senses of "before" from the Categories, ch. 12, then applies them to Aquinas's Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 2, a. 1, where Augustine defines believing as "thinking with assent." Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/007-distinction-and-order-the-senses-of-before-and-augustines/ Berquist opens with the logical distinctions between material and formal distinction, and between the senses of "order," working through Aristotle's five meanings of "before" in the Categories, ch. 12 — in time, in being, in knowledge, in goodness, and by causality. He shows how these senses bear on the Trinity and on Aquinas's arguments for God as first being and first cause. The class then turns to Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 2, a. 1, examining Augustine's definition of believing as "thinking with assent" and distinguishing it from doubt, suspicion, opinion, and simple understanding, to explain how firm adherence joined to ongoing inquiry grounds theology as fides quaerens intellectum. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/007-distinction-and-order-the-senses-of-before-and-augustines/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/007-distinction-and-order-the-senses-of-before-and-augustines/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/004-1.mp3 1:10:23 7 full false Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 2, aa. 2–3, unpacking the threefold act of belief—credere Deum, credere Deo, credere in Deum—and why faith is necessary for salvation. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/008-believing-god-believing-by-god-believing-in-god-and-why-faith/ Berquist takes up Article 2's question of what it means to believe God, to believe by God, and to believe in God, tracing how Aquinas distinguishes the object, the authority, and the end of the act of faith. He moves closely through the Latin text, objections, and replies, pausing over translation problems between Latin and English and drawing on Aristotle's account of learning and of equivocal terms to sharpen the distinctions. Turning to Article 3, he examines why rational creatures, ordered to an end exceeding natural reason, require supernatural instruction from God to attain it. Brief anecdotes—John Paul II in Poland, Cardinal O'Connor—illustrate the stakes, and the class breaks off partway through Article 3's replies. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/008-believing-god-believing-by-god-believing-in-god-and-why-faith/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/008-believing-god-believing-by-god-believing-in-god-and-why-faith/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/004-2.mp3 0:47:22 8 full false Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist opens with George Washington's virtues as seen by Adams, Jefferson, and Irving, then turns to Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 2, a. 4: why must we believe even truths reason can demonstrate? Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/009-washingtons-virtues-believing-god-about-god-and-why-truths/ Before reaching Aquinas, Berquist lingers on George Washington, using tributes from Adams, Jefferson, and Washington Irving to show the cardinal virtues embodied in a life. He then takes up Article 4 of question two: is it fitting for man to believe things demonstrable by natural reason? Working through Thomas's three reasons—speed, universality, and certitude—he ties the answer to divine simplicity and to the structure of the act of faith itself, distinguishing credere Deum, Deo, and in Deum, and touching on how miracles and an infused habit dispose the believer toward assent. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/009-washingtons-virtues-believing-god-about-god-and-why-truths/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/009-washingtons-virtues-believing-god-about-god-and-why-truths/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/005-1.mp3 1:00:39 9 full false Thu, 09 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Summa Theologiae II-II, q.2, aa.5-7, asking whether all believers must explicitly hold every article of faith, or whether the simple may believe implicitly what the learned hold explicitly — including belief in Christ across different ages. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/010-explicit-and-implicit-faith-the-learned-and-the-simple-and/ Berquist takes up three articles of the Summa on the scope of required faith: must everyone believe every article explicitly, does this obligation differ between the learned and the simple, and was explicit belief in the mystery of Christ demanded of people in every historical period? He follows Aquinas's objections, sed contra, and corpus in each article, drawing on Augustine, Gregory, Dionysius, and scriptural texts from Hebrews, Romans, Job, and John to distinguish core articles everyone must know from secondary matters the unlearned may hold only implicitly, trusting the Church's fuller understanding. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/010-explicit-and-implicit-faith-the-learned-and-the-simple-and/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/010-explicit-and-implicit-faith-the-learned-and-the-simple-and/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/005-2.mp3 0:58:52 10 full false Thu, 09 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist works through Aquinas on whether explicit belief in the Trinity is required for salvation, whether believing is meritorious, and whether reason strengthens or weakens faith's merit (ST II-II q.2 a.8-10), then opens the question on confession as an act of faith (q.3 a.1). Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/011-explicit-faith-in-the-trinity-the-merit-of-believing-and/ Berquist continues his article-by-article reading of the Summa on faith, taking up whether explicit belief in the Trinity is necessary for salvation, whether the act of believing is meritorious, and whether reasoning about what one believes increases or lessens that merit. Working through objections and Thomas's replies in turn, he digresses into personal recollections of Charles De Koninck and Msgr. Dionne and touches on euthanasia and Protestant belief as test cases for the principles at stake. The class ends just as Thomas opens q.3, a.1, distinguishing confession as an act of faith from confession as an act of penance or thanksgiving. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/011-explicit-faith-in-the-trinity-the-merit-of-believing-and/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/011-explicit-faith-in-the-trinity-the-merit-of-believing-and/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/006-1.mp3 1:02:27 11 full false Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Berquist closes the question on confessing faith before opening Question 4, working through Paul's definition of faith in Hebrews as "the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (ST II-II q.3 a.2, q.4 a.1). Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/012-confession-of-faith-and-the-definition-of-faith-substance/ Berquist finishes the objections and replies on whether confession of faith is necessary for salvation, showing how it depends on charity and the circumstances one is in, then turns to Question 4 and Paul's Hebrews text defining faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." He treats this not as a formal definition but an implicit one, unpacking how it links faith to hope and grounds the intellect's assent in divine authority rather than in seen evidence. Along the way he reaches for Aristotelian logic and geometry to pin down words like "substantia" and "argumentum," mixing in anecdotes and historical asides to make the scholastic vocabulary concrete. Notes and transcript: https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/012-confession-of-faith-and-the-definition-of-faith-substance/ https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/12-secunda-secundae/012-confession-of-faith-and-the-definition-of-faith-substance/ https://media.juskelis.com/episodes/v1/secsec/006-2.mp3 0:58:42 12 full false Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000