The journey of an idea: maimonides, albertus magnus, thomas aquinas and ramon martí on the undemonstrability of the eternity of the world

This article examines a central chapter in Ramon Marti's Pugio fidei, Book I (c. 1278), concerning the relationship between faith and reason (the issue of the rational demonstrability of religious belief). Marti's chapter draws on text from Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologiae) and Arabic philosophical sources translated into Latin for the first time by Marti. The article traces the heritage of an argument Marti uses to his Dominican brothers Albertus Magnus and Aquinas, and to Maimonides before them, showing how the Dominicans relied on the rabbi in defending Creation against Aristotle's theory of the Eternity of the World. It also demonstrates that Marti based the structure of his chapter, its argument, and his selection of philosophical sources supporting it, on a series of chapters in Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed.