Official Explanation Magoosh:
A question about the use of philosophy of Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Split #1: the subject of the first half. The second half of the sentence, after the underlined section, begins with the pronoun "he." What is the antecedent of this pronoun? The antecedent should be Aquinas, but in order to make that clear grammatically, Aquinas should be the subject of the sentence. Moreover, Aquinas is the subject, the star, of the second half, so if he were also the subject of the first half, that would give the entire sentence rhetorical unity. For a couple reasons, it's important to have Aquinas as the subject of the underlined half of the sentence. Only choices (D) & (E) do this.
Split #2: noun/verb/adjective. Choices (A) & (B) & (E)have "had a deep resonance with", a noun formulation. Choice(C) has the participle "resonating," that the first half, which should be a full [noun] + [verb] clause, is simply a noun + a noun modifier, so this is grammatically incorrect. Only choice (D) has the verb construction, "deeply resonates with," which is far more active, direct, and powerful. This is by no means a glaring error, but often the GMAT will include it in an answer choice that is almost right. In this case, that “almost correct answer” is (E), which also includes the unnecessary “that,” which does not have a clear antecedent. It would be odd to say, “had a deep resonance with the <relation> of Christian theology."
FAQ: The sentence is not referring to Aristotle's physical body, so how can the phrase "in Aristotle" be correct?
The phrase "in Aristotle" is an idiomatic expression that is often used in academic writing. We can say "in Aristotle" to mean "in Aristotle's works" or "in Aristotle's philosophy." It does not mean "inside Aristotle's body."
As another example, we could say something like "common themes in Shakespeare," which would refer to common themes in Shakespeare's works and not in his physical body. Similarly, if we talked about "the use of rhythm in Beethoven," we would mean in Beethoven's music, not in his physical person.
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