St Thomas Aquinas – Treatise on Law (Comprehensive Notes)

Apostolic Commands to Obey Civil Authority

• Peter (1 Pet 2:13-17) & Paul (Rom 13:1-3)

  • Instruct Christians to submit to emperors & governors as God-ordained authorities.

  • Paul emphasizes:

  • "No authority except from God."

  • Resistance = resistance to God → incurs judgment.

  • Contextual tension: written during Nero’s reign (active persecutor of Christians).

• Core eschatological mindset

  • Christians are "pilgrims" awaiting the Second Coming & eternal life.

  • Delay of Parousia raised urgent practical questions:

  • How to live as citizens & soldiers in a still-unredeemed world?

  • Relation of “turn the other cheek” to civic/military duties.

Transition to Medieval Political Theology

• Early Christian dilemma leads to systematic reflection → climax in St Thomas Aquinas.

Historical Re-Introduction of Aristotle (12th–13th c.)

• Aristotelian corpus re-enters West via Islamic commentaries (especially Averroes).

• Islamic & Jewish Platonic political readings (al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides):

  • Scripture as multilayered rhetoric → noble lies for masses; esoteric truths for philosophers.

  • God portrayed as impersonal, devoid of emotions; denies retributive justice.

• Muslim backlash

  • Al-Ghazālī’s critique → philosophy branded subversive, forced underground.

• Initial Christian reaction

  • Condemnation & attempts to suppress Aristotelian studies as heretical.

Aquinas’s Grand Synthesis

• Life span: 1225\text{–}1274.

• Goal: Harmonize pagan rationalism (esp. Aristotle) with Christian revelation.

  • Reason points toward faith; faith presupposes & crowns reason.

• Strategic response to Averroism:

  • Rejects subordination of Scripture to philosophy while retaining philosophical tools.

  • Ultimately wins within Catholicism; yet sparks minority of "Latin Averroists" (Marsilius, Dante).

Major Works & Method

• Commentaries on Aristotle & Scripture.

• Two "Summas":

  • Summa contra Gentiles – apologetic; argues against pagan/Jewish/Islamic positions.

  • Summa Theologiae (unfinished)

  • Pedagogical aim: brief, clear compendium "for beginners".

  • Disputed-question format

    • Each question = objections → Aquinas’s answer ("sed contra" & "respondeo") → replies.

    • Promotes critical thinking; objections sometimes judged valid.

Key Political Teaching Locus: Treatise on Law (ST I-II 90-108)

• Foundational claim: Unassisted human reason grasps much moral truth (via Aristotle) yet remains incomplete without revelation.

Concept of Natural Law

• Sharp contrast: natural vs. divine law

  • Natural law = universally knowable moral code.

  • Divine law = revealed commands inaccessible to reason alone (e.g., Sabbath observance).

• Practical authority:

  • Grounds universal moral critique (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil-rights appeal).

Cognition of Natural Law – Synderesis / Conscience

• Inborn "habit" within practical reason, not a faculty above reason.

• Parallel to innate logical principles (non-contradiction, causality).

• Universality illustrated by cross-cultural prohibitions (murder, theft, adultery).

• Distortions & violations

  • Passion, bad custom, and original sin cloud conscience.

  • Natural punishment = pangs of guilt.

Hierarchy of Laws

1. Eternal Law – God’s providential governance of all creation.

2. Natural Law – Human participation in Eternal Law through reason.

3. Human (Positive) Law – Concrete statutes promulgated by legitimate rulers to apply natural law.

4. Law of Concupiscence – Disordered impulses; punishment for original sin.

• Divine (Revealed) Law (Old & New Covenants) overlays the system:

  • Supplements natural law for clearer civil legislation.

  • Points beyond political happiness to supernatural beatitude.

Four-Part Definition of Law (ST I-II 90.4)

• "An ordinance of reason, for the common good, made by one who has care of the community, and promulgated."

  • Each element is normative; defective statutes = “perversions of law.”

  • Moral obligation arises only when law aligns with reason & common good.

Natural Law Detailed (ST I-II 94)

• Three tiers of natural inclination → precepts

  1. Self-preservation (shared with all beings)

  • Prohibitions: suicide, murder.

  • Duties: safeguard life, provide material sustenance, defend polity.

  1. Reproduction & family (shared with animals)

  • Duties: honor parents, marital fidelity, nurture children; bans on incest/adultery.

  1. Rational/social perfection (unique to humans)

  • Pursuit of virtue, knowledge, contemplation of God.

  • Civic duties: establish just government, combat tyranny, wage just wars, respect property.

Role & Limits of Human Law (ST I-II 95–97)

• Primary aim: make citizens virtuous (echo of Aristotle).

  • Virtue inculcated via habituation; coercion often necessary → punishment and reward.

  • “To advise” ≠ law; law’s efficacy lies in coercive power.

• Model legislation: Mosaic civil & moral code.

  • Ten Commandments’ “second table” mirrors categorical natural prohibitions.

  • Extended ordinances: honor elders, outlaw prostitution/scandal, enforce charity, regulate luxury (sumptuary laws), mandate civic education, censor harmful arts.

• Spectrum of regulation

  • Cannot outlaw every vice; targets external acts affecting common good.

  • Commands every virtue indirectly (public dimension of all virtues).

• Categorical Imperatives

  • Absolute bans: murder of innocents, adultery, theft, perjury, covetousness → no dispensation.

  • Common good transcends mere utility; spiritual welfare may override material prosperity or safety.

Comparison with Aristotle

• Continuities

  • Happiness as ultimate end; humans “by nature political.”

  • Emphasis on communal duties over individual rights.

• Divergences

  • Aquinas: Natural law (fixed, universal) vs. Aristotle’s context-dependent “natural right.”

  • Biblical revelation supplies an actual historical best regime (Mosaic polity).

  • Adds doctrines of original sin, hierarchy of laws, supernatural destiny.

Divine Law: Old & New

• Lower function: Clarify/supplement natural law for legislation.

• Higher function: Orient to eternal life; impose ceremonial & charity obligations unknown to reason.

  • Old Law: Ritual worship, dietary laws, temple sacrifices.

  • New Law: Eucharist, universal love (even enemies), evangelical counsels.

• Political upshot:

  • State should privilege and support true religion wherever possible.

  • When Christian majority absent, appeal to natural law remains viable basis for civic discourse (cf. MLK’s strategy).

Practical/Ethical Implications & Examples

• Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) cites Aquinas: unjust segregation laws violate Eternal/Natural Law by degrading personality.

• Condemnation of usury/capitalism

  • Charging interest = "selling what does not exist" → injustice & inequality (ST II-II 78).

• Military & civic obedience

  • Obedience itself is a high virtue; lawful authority fosters moral character.

• Religion as highest virtue

  • Government duty to promote worship and theological reflection—even in non-Christian societies (natural knowledge of God).

• Modern liberal democracies viewed as “mutilated” societies: tolerate rather than perfect; Thomists work to insert virtue ethics within pluralistic frameworks.

Philosophical & Theological Significance

• Demonstrates integration of faith & reason without reducing one to the other.

• Provides perennial framework for natural-law ethics influencing:

  • Catholic social teaching.

  • Human-rights discourse.

  • Jurisprudential theories (Finnis, Grisez, etc.).

• Raises unresolved debates:

  • Did Aquinas distort Aristotle or correct him?

  • Tension between coercive virtue legislation and modern liberty.

  • Viability of absolute moral norms ("categorical imperatives") in multicultural contexts.

Recap of Core Takeaways

• Humans naturally know & are bound by moral law; reason supplies universal ethical floor.

• Political authority legitimate when rational, ordered to common (esp. spiritual) good, and promulgated.

• Human law must foster virtue, punish vice, never contradict natural law.

• Divine revelation elevates moral horizon to eternal destiny, intensifying civic obligations toward religion and charity.

• Aquinas’s synthesis—uniting Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology—remains foundational for Western moral, political, and legal thought.