On the Danger of Equating Skill with Truth

We must beware of being influenced by the powerful communicator or the brilliant thinker. A superior argument does not necessarily equate with an absolute truth. In historic society, the church has been more influenced by its greatest thinkers rather than its purest servants. I am interested in the renowned Aquinas and his towering intellectual work, but I am more interested in his anonymous contemporaries and their quiet embodiment of his ideals.