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76 Thomas Aquinas 10 0Thomas Aquinas is the most outstanding example of medieval scholastic theology . His thought has been a dominant force in Roman Catholicism to this day. As late as 1879 he was declared by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Aeterni Patris the standard theologian of that Christian communion. Indeed, Aquinas’s theology and ethics have been formative for Catholic social teaching on economic and political matters as well as sexual ethics. Born in 1225 in the castle of Roccasecca in Italy, the son of Count Landolf (of Aquin), Thomas spent his life in monasteries and universities studying and teaching. From 1259 to 1268 he was lecturer at the papal curia in Italy. He later taught in Paris and Naples. He died in 1274 on his way to the council of Lyon. Thomas’s major contribution is the utilization of the philosophy of Aristotle for a systematic and comprehensive articulation of the Christian faith. In this effort he also dealt creatively with social ethics not only as a theologian but also as a commentator on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. At the heart of his grand synthesis between Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology is the continuity of nature and grace and grace as the transformer of nature. In an era when the teachings of the Christian faith provided the foundations of the culture, Thomas had no need to defend the faith against competing philosophies. Therefore, he could confidently appropriate the thought of Aristotle and just as confidently provide an ethical system that would be taken as normative for his society. Selection 1: Summa Theologica, II/1, Question 90, Article 2 The strong role of reason, humanity’s loftiest gift, in Aquinas’s discussions of law and ethics and the emphasis on the common good as the end of law are signature features of his ethics. Commitment to the common good and the need for individual aspirations to find their validity in that context has perdured through the long history of Catholic Social teaching. Chapter 10: Selection 1 # 77 Article 2: Whether the law is always something directed to the common good? Objection 1: It would seem that the law is not always directed to the common good as to its end. For it belongs to law to command and to forbid. But commands are directed to certain individual goods. Therefore the end of the law is not always the common good. Objection 2: Further, the law directs man in his actions. But human actions are concerned with particular matters. Therefore the law is directed to some particular good. Objection 3: Further, Isidore says (Etym. v, 3): “If the law is based on reason, whatever is based on reason will be a law.” But reason is the foundation not only of what is ordained to the common good, but also of that which is directed private good. Therefore the law is not only directed to the good of all, but also to the private good of an individual. On the contrary, Isidore says (Etym. v, 21) that “laws are enacted for no private profit, but for the common benefit of the citizens.” I answer that, As stated above (A[1]), the law belongs to that which is a principle of human acts, because it is their rule and measure. Now as reason is a principle of human acts, so in reason itself there is something which is the principle in respect of all the rest: wherefore to this principle chiefly and mainly law must needs be referred. Now the first principle in practical matters, which are the object of the practical reason , is the last end: and the last end of human life is bliss or happiness, as stated above (Q[2], A[7]; Q[3], A[1]). Consequently the law must needs regard principally the relationship to happiness. Moreover, since every part is ordained to the whole, as imperfect to perfect; and since one man is a part of the perfect community, the law must needs regard properly the relationship to universal happiness. Wherefore the Philosopher, in the above definition of legal matters mentions both happiness and the body politic: for he says (Ethic. v, 1) that we call those legal matters “just, which are adapted to produce and preserve happiness and its parts for the body politic”: since the state is a perfect community, as he says in Polit. i, 1. Now in every genus, that which belongs to it chiefly is the principle of the others, and...

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