Neo-scholasticism, also known as neo-scholastic Thomism, or neo-Thomism because of the great influence of the writings of Thomas Aquinas on the movement, is a revival and development of medieval scholasticism in Catholic theology and scholastic philosophy, which began in the second half of the 19th century.
Origins During the medieval period, scholasticism became the standard accepted method of philosophy and theology. The Scholastic method declined with the advent of humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries, after which time it came to be viewed by some as rigid and formalistic. "Scholastic philosophy did not, however, completely disappear. An important movement of Scholastic revival took place during the 16th and 17th centuries and enriched Scholastic literature with many eminent contributions, in addition to adapting scholastic thought to modern problems and synthesising the currents of thought of various authors of medieval scholasticism, such as Thomism, Scotism or nominalism. Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546), Thomas de Vio Cajetan (1469–1534), Gabriel Vásquez (1551–1604), Francisco de Toledo (1532–1596), Pedro da Fonseca (1528–1599), and especially Francisco Suárez (1548–1617) were profound thinkers, worthy of the great masters whose principles they had adopted."Joseph Louis Perrier, The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, "Chapter VIII: "Chapter VIII: Forerunners of the Neo-Scholastic Revival," Accessed 30 October 2025. Moreover, as J. A. Weisheipl emphasises, within the Dominican Order Thomistic scholasticism has been continuous since the time of Aquinas: "Thomism was always alive in the Dominican Order, small as it was after the ravages of the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic occupation. Repeated legislation of the General Chapters, beginning after the death of St. Thomas, as well as the Constitutions of the Order, required all Dominicans to teach the doctrine of St. Thomas both in philosophy and in theology." "The Revival of Thomism: An Historical Survey", James Weisheipl, 1962. A further idea of the longstanding historic continuity of Dominican scholasticism and neo-scholasticism may be derived from the list of people associated with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
In the mid-19th century, interest in scholastic thought began once again to flourish, in large part in reaction against the Modernist current inspired by thinkers such as René Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel, whose principles were perceived to conflict with Christian dogma.Fergus Kerr, Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians, (Blackwell, 2007), p. 1. Theological Modernism never coalesced into an authoritative doctrine; perhaps it was most clearly defined by Pius X in 1907, when he condemned it as ‘the synthesis of all heresies’. However, the most consistent threads of Modernist thought include: (1) the belief that revelation continues up to the present day and did not stop after the apostles; (2) the belief that dogmas are not immutable, and their formulas could change both in interpretation and content; (3) the use of the historical-critical method in biblical exegesis.See Jürgen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle Théologie – New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II, (London: T&T Clark, 2010), p. 20.
For many thinkers, the dangers of Modernism could only be overcome by a complete restoration of scholastic theology which culminated in Aquinas. His writings were increasingly viewed as the ultimate expression of orthodox philosophy and theology, to which all Catholic thought must remain faithful.This way of approaching Thomas was itself scholastic in inspiration. The scholastics used a book by a renowned scholar, called auctor, as basic course literature. By reading this book thoroughly and critically, the disciples learned to appreciate the theories of the auctor and, thus, of the problems studied in the whole discipline, in a critical and self-confident way. Scholastic works therefore have a tendency to take the form of a long list of "footnotes" to the works studied, not being able to take a stand as theories on their own.
This was particularly vigorous at first in Italy. "The direct initiator of the neo-Scholastic movement in Italy was Gaetano Sanseverino (1811–1865), a canon at Naples."Joseph Louis Perrier, The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, "Chapter IX: The Neo-Scholastic Revival in Italy", The influential German Jesuit Joseph Kleutgen (1811–83), who taught at Rome, argued that post-Cartesian philosophy undermined Catholic theology, and that its remedy was the Aristotelian scientific method of Aquinas.Fergus Kerr, ‘Thomism’, in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology (Cambridge, 2011), p. 507. From 1874 to 1891, the Accademia di San Tommaso published the review La Scienza Italiana. Numerous works were produced by Giovanni Maria Cornoldi (1822–92), Giuseppe Pecci, Tommaso Maria Zigliara (1833–93), Satolli (1839–1909), Matteo Liberatore (1810–92), Barberis (1847–96), Schiffini (1841–1906), de Maria, Talamo, Lorenzelli, Ballerini, Mattiussi and others. The Italian writers at first laid special emphasis on the metaphysics of Scholasticism, and less on the empirical sciences or the history of philosophy.
Papal support for such trends began under Pope Pius IX, who praised the movement in various letters. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and the proclamation of papal infallibility (1870) all heralded a move away from Modernist ideas.Jürgen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle Théologie – New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II, (London: T&T Clark, 2010), p. 19.
The most decisive impetus was Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Aeterni Patris of 4 August 1879, which set out and strongly endorsed the principles of neo-scholasticism, calling for "Christian philosophy to be restored according to the spirit of St Thomas".
Key principles
"Neo-Scholasticism is characterized by systematic investigation, analytical rigor, clear terminology, and argumentation that proceeds from first principles, chief among them that objective truth is both real and knowable."Iovino, James. "Can Neo-Scholasticism Make a Comeback?", New Oxford Review, January-February 2018 Neo-scholasticism sought to restore the fundamental doctrines embodied in the scholasticism of the 13th century, which may be summarised as follows:
1. God is pure actuality and absolute perfection, substantially distinct from every finite thing. He alone can create and preserve all beings other than Himself. His infinite knowledge includes all that was, is, or shall be, and all that is possible.
2. As to our knowledge of the material world: whatever exists is itself, an incommunicable, individual substance. To the core of self-sustaining reality, in the oak-tree for instance, other realities (accidents) are added—size, form, roughness, and so on. All oak-trees are identical in respect of certain constituent elements. Considering this likeness and even identity, our human intelligence groups them into one species and again, in view of their common characteristics, it ranges various species under one genus. Such is the Aristotelian solution of the problem of universals. Each substance is in its nature fixed and determined; and Scholasticism excludes a theory of evolution which would regard even the essences of things as products of change.
But this static conception requires as its complement a moderate dynamism, supplied by the central concepts of act and potency. Whatsoever changes is, just for that reason, limited. The oak-tree passes through a process of growth, of becoming: whatever is actually in it now was potentially in it from the beginning. Its vital functions go on unceasingly (accidental change); but the tree itself will die, and out of its decayed trunk other substances will come forth (substantial change). The theory of matter and form is simply an interpretation of the substantial changes which bodies undergo. The union of matter and form constitutes the essence of concrete being, and this essence is endowed with existence. Throughout all change and becoming there runs a rhythm of finality; the activities of the countless substances of the universe converge towards an end which is known to God; finality involves optimism.
3. Man, a compound of body (matter) and of soul (form), puts forth activities of a higher order—knowledge and volition. Through his senses he perceives concrete objects, e.g. this oak; through his intellect he knows the abstract and universal (the oak). All our intellectual activity rests on sensory function; but through the active intellect (intellectus agens) an abstract representation of the sensible object is provided for the intellectual possibility. Hence the characteristic of the idea, its non-materiality, and on this is based the principal argument for the spirituality and immortality of the soul. Here, too, is the foundation of logic and of the theory of knowledge, the justification of our judgments and syllogisms.
Upon knowledge follows the appetitive process, sensory or intellectual according to the sort of knowledge. The will (appetitus intellectualis) in certain conditions is free, and thanks to this liberty man is the master of his destiny. Like all other beings, we have an end to attain and we are morally obliged, though not compelled, to attain it.
Natural happiness would result from the full development of our powers of knowing and loving. We should find and possess God in this world since the corporeal world is the proper object of our intelligence. But above nature is the order of grace and our supernatural happiness will consist in the direct intuition of God, the beatific vision. Here philosophy ends and theology begins.
Late-19th-century spread In the period from the publication of Aeterni Patris in 1879 until the 1920s, neo-scholasticism gradually established itself as exclusive and all-pervading.Jürgen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle Théologie – New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II, (London: T&T Clark, 2010), p. 20.
On October 15, 1879, Leo XIII created the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and ordered the publication of the critical "Leonine Edition", of Aquinas' complete works.Previous critical editions of Thomas’s work had been published before, at Parma in 1852–73, and in Paris in 1871–80, but the Leonine edition, produced under the guidance of Tommaso Maria Zigliara, professor of theology at the Collegium Divi Thomae de Urbe (the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum), superseded both of these. The pope expanded Thomist studies in the Collegium Divi Thomae de Urbe (the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum), founding its Faculty of Philosophy in 1882 and its Faculty of Canon Law in 1896.
The thought of Thomas Aquinas gained papal ascendency over all other ‘modern’ systems of thought. In particular, the Aristotelianism of Thomas preferred to the thought of Kant.For example, Boutroux thought that Aristotle's system might well serve as an offset to Kantism and evolution. Aristote, Etudes d'histoire et de philosophie, (Paris, 1901, 202). Moreover, Paulsen, ‘Kant der Philosoph des Protestantismus’, Kantstudien, (1899) and Eucken, Thomas von Aquino u. Kant, Ein Kampf zweier Welten, loc. cit., 1901 declared neo-Thomism the rival of Kantism, and the conflict between them the "clash of two worlds". Adolf von Harnack, Lehrbuch d. Dogmengesch, III, 3rd. ed., 327, Seeberg, Realencyklopädie f. Prot. Theol. 5. v. "Scholastik" and others argued against underrating the value of scholastic doctrine. Other ‘modern’ forms of thought, including ontologism, traditionalism, the dualism of Anton Günther, and the thought of Descartes, were also seen as flawed in comparison to Thomism.