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Abstract
This chapter argues for the contemporary relevance of Thomas Aquinas for political theology, though not primarily on the basis of his appeals to natural law. It shows that the chief importance of Aquinas for political theology is his belief that truth is stronger than kings, and his identification of truth with the God of Israel, incarnate in Jesus Christ. First, Thomas is concerned with both logic and metaphysics, seeking clarity of thought and speech to help our thought and speech conform to the order inherent in things. Second, Thomas thinks as a participant in the give and take of a living tradition. Third, Thomas's thought is scriptural. The confrontation between truth and other claimants to the throne of power is expressed perhaps most acutely in the Gospel of John's account of Jesus' appearance before Pilate, the representative of earthly power. Thomas follows Aristotle in claiming that the human being is by nature a “social animal”.
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This book examines Thomas Aquinas’s conception of “pagan virtue” – of whether non-Christians or those without grace can lead truly virtuous lives – and explains how that vision relates to the substance of his ethics and his way of doing moral theology. Placing Thomas’s account of pagan virtue within his historical context and overarching theological vision, the book’s first part considers his relation to Jews and other non-Christians and reinterprets central facets of his ethics – goodness, habit, virtue – in relation to the question of pagan virtue. Part two elucidates key texts and themes (e.g. virtue’s unity, proximate and final ends, “perfection” language, infidelitas) necessary to decipher his account of pagan virtue; part three details the significance of sin and grace for that account. Where almost everyone holds that Thomas either follows Augustine and rejects pagan virtue or honors Aristotle and affirms it, this book argues that Thomas welcomes pagan virtue not in spite but because of Augustinian commitments – commitments which lead him, in his way of interacting with the pagan Aristotle, to perform the very welcome he prescribes. Driven by charity, he constructs an ethics that is Augustinian by being Aristotelian and vice versa, that enacts welcome and honors insider and outsider alike. Sketching a vision for Thomas’s ongoing significance for religious and political life that it calls “prophetic Thomism,” the book offers a new vision of his synthesis, an interpretation of his ethics, and a constructive proposal for welcoming outsider virtue without abandoning one’s own commitments.
- Decosimo