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Is Thomism Secular?

Considering St. Thomas Aquinas came in 9th in this poll of "Who are the most important philosophers of all time?", I was curious which of the universities in the Philosophical Gourmet Report's 2009 "ranking of the top facilities in the English-speaking world" is most Thomist. Here is how they performed, based on the number of Google results for "Aquinas" (cf. this, too) at each university's entire website:

Sorted by Google Hits (1st # shown)

1. University of Toronto 24400 6777.8
2. Yale University 6790 1741.0
3. University of Pennsylvania 5150 1775.9
4. University of Notre Dame 3650 1013.9
5. University of Colorado, Boulder 3590 1196.7
6. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2810 685.4
7. Cambridge University 2780 817.6
8. University of Chicago 2000 606.1
9. Stanford University 1920 505.3
10. University of Texas, Austin 1710 502.9
11. Oxford University 1040 221.3
12. City University of New York Graduate Center 981 272.5
13. Princeton University 942 219.1
14. Harvard University 860 215.0
15. Cornell University 801 228.9
16. Rutgers University, New Brunswick 782 170.0
17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 734 183.5
18. University of Wisconsin, Madison 677 211.6
19. University of Massachusetts, Amherst 629 209.7
20. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 589 155.0
21. Columbia University 583 157.6
22. University of California, Los Angeles 493 129.7
23. Duke University 493 164.3
24. New York University 440 89.8
25. University of Pittsburgh 423 100.7
26. University of Western Ontario 385 142.6
27. Indiana University, Bloomington 383 119.7
28. University of Maryland, College Park 380 131.0
29. London School of Economics 380 135.7
30. University of California, Berkeley 339 89.2
31. University of California, Riverside 326 112.4
32. Australian National University 296 80.0
33. University of Southern California 295 84.3
34. University of California, San Diego 246 74.5
35. University College London 229 71.6
36. University of Miami 190 67.9
37. King's College, London 183 59.0
38. Syracuse University 181 64.6
39. University of Arizona 179 48.4
40. Washington University, St. Louis 173 59.7
41. Ohio State University 170 56.7
42. Brown University 155 44.3
43. University of Warwick 148 54.8
44. University of California, Irvine 143 44.7
45. University of Nottingham 121 44.8
46. University of Sheffield 66 22.8
47. University of Sydney 52 17.3
48. Birkbeck College, University of London 33 11.0
49. University of Reading 5 1.9

Sorted by Ratio (2nd # shown) of Hits to Mean Ranking

1. University of Toronto 24400 6777.8
2. University of Pennsylvania 5150 1775.9
3. Yale University 6790 1741.0
4. University of Colorado, Boulder 3590 1196.7
5. University of Notre Dame 3650 1013.9
6. Cambridge University 2780 817.6
7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2810 685.4
8. University of Chicago 2000 606.1
9. Stanford University 1920 505.3
10. University of Texas, Austin 1710 502.9
11. City University of New York Graduate Center 981 272.5
12. Cornell University 801 228.9
13. Oxford University 1040 221.3
14. Princeton University 942 219.1
15. Harvard University 860 215.0
16. University of Wisconsin, Madison 677 211.6
17. University of Massachusetts, Amherst 629 209.7
18. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 734 183.5
19. Rutgers University, New Brunswick 782 170.0
20. Duke University 493 164.3
21. Columbia University 583 157.6
22. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 589 155.0
23. University of Western Ontario 385 142.6
24. London School of Economics 380 135.7
25. University of Maryland, College Park 380 131.0
26. University of California, Los Angeles 493 129.7
27. Indiana University, Bloomington 383 119.7
28. University of California, Riverside 326 112.4
29. University of Pittsburgh 423 100.7
30. New York University 440 89.8
31. University of California, Berkeley 339 89.2
32. University of Southern California 295 84.3
33. Australian National University 296 80.0
34. University of California, San Diego 246 74.5
35. University College London 229 71.6
36. University of Miami 190 67.9
37. Syracuse University 181 64.6
38. Washington University, St. Louis 173 59.7
39. King's College, London 183 59.0
40. Ohio State University 170 56.7
41. University of Warwick 148 54.8
42. University of Arizona 179 48.4
43. University of Nottingham 121 44.8
44. University of California, Irvine 143 44.7
45. Brown University 155 44.3
46. University of Sheffield 66 22.8
47. University of Sydney 52 17.3
48. Birkbeck College, University of London 33 11.0
49. University of Reading 5 1.9

The second sorted list gives one a good idea what are the best secular Thomist universities.

Law is a Teacher

The law is a teacher. Here is an example of why civil laws should outlaw abortion:

1. Women are generally ignorant about reproductive issues.
2. Abortion is a reproductive issue; therefore,
   
   1. women are generally ignorant about abortion.
   2. Women are less ignorant about the law; therefore,
      
      1. women know more about the law than abortion.
      2. The law tells one what is right or wrong; therefore,
         1. women know abortion's rightness or wrongness based on the law.
         2. The law currently makes it legal; therefore,
            1. the law teaches women that abortion is right.
            2. People more often than not do what they think is right; therefore,
               1. women more often than not choose abortion because they think it is right.
               2. Women choosing abortions more often than not is contrary to keeping abortions rare; therefore,
                  1. Abortion should be illegal.
                     

With what premise or conclusion do you disagree?

Learning Order

St. Thomas Aquinas, founder of Thomism (vide 24 Thomistic Theses and Pope St. Pius X's Doctoris Angelici), describes in his Sententia Ethic., lib. 6 l. 7 n. 17 [1211.] which subjects and in what order boys must learn (my emphases):

[T]he proper order of learning is that boys first be instructed in things pertaining to logic because logic teaches the method of the whole of philosophy. Next, they should be instructed in mathematics, which does not need experience and does not exceed the imagination. Third, in natural sciences, which, even though not exceeding sense and imagination, nevertheless require experience. Fourth, in the moral sciences, which require experience and a soul free from passions [...]. Fifth, in the sapiential and divine sciences, which exceed imagination and require a sharp mind.

Can you believe this? If St. Thomas thinks boys (pueri in the Latin of Sententia Ethic., lib. 6 l. 7 n. 17) should learn these, a fortiori college students must.

Master Advice

St. Thomas Aquinas said in De modo studendi: "non respicias a quo audias, sed quidquid boni dicatur" ("Do not heed by whom a thing is said, but rather what good is said").

Similarly, Fr. Sertillanges, O.P., said in his The Intellectual Life (p. 163-164):

    St. Thomas, whose idea I base myself on here, concludes from these observations that we owe gratitude even to those who have thus tested us, if because of them and their action we have made any kind of progress. Directly, we owe everything to truth alone, but indirectly we owe to those who are in error the mental development that, thanks to them, Providence provides for us. [In II. Metaphys. lect. I.]
    Think what the Church owes to heresies and philosophy to its great conflicts of opinion. If it had not been for Arius, Eutyches, Nestorius, Pelagius, Luther, Catholic dogma would not have been constituted. If Kant had not shaken the foundations of human knowledge, criteriology would still be in its childhood; and if Renan had not written on Christian origins, the Catholic clergy would be far from having the historical and exegetical formation they now possess.
    What is true collectively is true individually. We must learn right thinking principally by contact with the wise; but folly itself contains a lesson; he who escapes its contagion draws strength from it. "He who stumbles without falling makes a bigger step forward."

Hume vs. Aquinas on Transubstantiation

Benedict Ashley, O.P., in his book The Way toward Wisdom (p. 511 n. 53), cites Hume's claim, which he borrowed from Dr. Tillotson, that the transubstantiation, "since it denies the evidence of the senses on which all certitude rests," "leads to skepticism:"

I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures.

[...]

Suppose, for instance, that the fact, which the testimony endeavours to establish, partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous; in that case, the evidence, resulting from the testimony, admits of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual. The reason why we place any credit in witnesses and historians, is not derived from any connexion, which we perceive a priori, between testimony and reality, but because we are accustomed to find a conformity between them. But when the fact attested is such a one as has seldom fallen under our observation, here is a contest of two opposite experiences; of which the one destroys the other, as far as its force goes, and the superior can only operate on the mind by the force, which remains.

—David Hume's Enquiry of Human Understanding, sec. 10 "On Miracles" part 1

Benedict Ashley, O.P., responds:

Yet we experience that very unusual events do in fact occur! Why must we, then, always doubt the testimony of others about such events? Sense experiences are signs to be intellectually interpreted always in their contexts. The proper accidents of bread and wine naturally signify these substances, but for the Catholic faith the context of the Eucharist established by God permits the appearance of bread and wine to signify without deception [Summa Theologiæ, IIIª q. 75 a. 5 arg. 2 et ad 2] Christ's body and blood. Although this is not strictly a "miracle" (since the change is not evident to our senses and hence is extremely improbable as regard natural reason), as Aquinas shows [Summa Theologiæ, IIIª q. 75 a. 5 arg. 3 et ad 3], it is not impossible; and if the Catholic faith is credible, as apologetic seeks to show, reason demands that it be believed on the testimony of the Church. Similarly, the context of the Bible as read in the tradition of the Church (which one would suppose Tillotson accepted) permits it to signify the mind of God, not merely the intent of its human authors. Hume's argument amount to declaring that he is determined to interpret his experiences a way that will not disturb his "common sense" habits; but life is full of uncomfortable events.

The above-mentioned St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiæ quotes are:

Objection 2. Further, there ought not to be any deception in a sacrament of truth. But we judge of substance by accidents. It seems, then, that human judgment is deceived, if, while the accidents remain, the substance of the bread does not. Consequently this is unbecoming to this sacrament.

Objection 3. Further, although our faith is not subject to reason, still it is not contrary to reason, but above it, as was said in the beginning of this work (Summa Theologiæ, Iª q. 1 a. 6 ad 2 et a. 8). But our reason has its origin in the senses. Therefore our faith ought not to be contrary to the senses, as it is when sense judges that to be bread which faith believes to be the substance of Christ's body. Therefore it is not befitting this sacrament for the accidents of bread to remain subject to the senses, and for the substance of bread not to remain.

[...]

Reply to Objection 2 and 3. There is no deception in this sacrament; for the accidents which are discerned by the senses are truly present. But the intellect, whose proper object is substance as is said in De Anima iii, is preserved by faith from deception. And this serves as answer to the third argument; because faith is not contrary to the senses, but concerns things to which sense does not reach.