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St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (Norton Critical Editions) 1st edition by Thomas Aquinas (1987) Paperback
The selections not only include St. Thomas Aquinas’s views on government, law, war, property, and sexual ethics, but also provide the theological, epistemological, and psychological background for his political and ethical thought, including the Five Proofs on the existence of God and Aquinas’s theories of knowledge, the soul, the purpose of man, and the order of the universe. Throughout the book,footnotes explain technical terms and historical, biblical, and classical references."Backgrounds and Sources" follows the text, with selections from the writings of Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Dionysius the Areopagite."Interpretations" traces Aquinas’s influence on medieval thought, on Roman Catholicism during the Renaissance, on early modern political thought (Richard Hooker and Francisco Suarez), on nineteenth-and twentieth-century papal social thought, and on contemporary Christian Democratic political parties in Europe and Latin America.The volume concludes with "Contemporary Problems in Thomistic Ethics",which contains eight analyses of the influence of Aquinas's thought on modern debates on war, contraception, and abortion.A Selected Bibliography is included.
Paperback
First published November 17, 1987
About the author
Thomas Aquinas
2,815 books1,229 followersPhilosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and theologian of Italy and the most influential thinker of the medieval period, combined doctrine of Aristotle and elements of Neoplatonism, a system that Plotinus and his successors developed and based on that of Plato, within a context of Christian thought; his works include the
Summa contra gentiles
(1259-1264) and the
Summa theologiae
or theologica (1266-1273).
Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.
People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."
Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.
Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.
People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."
Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 21, 2012
Another one I'm really wanting to reread, but need to get to some others first... I'm sure I'll wander back some day. The portion of Aquinas' writings that were included was far too abbreviated, but what was there was very good/interesting/thought-provoking. And the 'source' documents as well as the responses to Aquinas' works were great reads, if some bits denser and so, slower than others.
April 20, 2009
I heard an interesting interview with two Swiss medieval philosophy scholars, Joel Lonfat and Bettina Kreissl-Lonfat on The Saint Cast (a podcast I subscribe to on iTunes - this was episode #114), which got me interested enough to read more. Their website is here: http://scriptorium.mediaevaliter.com/...
November 18, 2008
Oh man I know he was all a big important thinker of the time, and I have to take into account the culture and where he was coming from but I am just not equipped to stomach all this weaksauce bullshit.
November 11, 2014
interesting in context. somewhat revolutionary attempt to embrace parts of Greek thought that were typically rejected at the time. Yet another religious dude that can only see the world through the lens of his dogma, starts with the conclusion, and insists on baptizing Plato.
February 6, 2017
Started really well then as most Catholic theologians do save Augustine he takes a harsh left turn and totally disagree with his assertion of the nature of sin, law and man. But was a good read overall.
July 10, 2007
interesting stuff. religion is some crazy stuff. amazing how much it affects. and also amazing how long some of those effects last/continue to last.
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November 21, 2009None
September 23, 2010
Three stars, mainly because i disagreed with his shrill and antiquated moral perspective. Still an interesting read, even for an agnostic.
March 5, 2011
Amazing read!!!
March 5, 2012
If I had only one book to offer someone on scholastic thought... this would be the one-volume I would pull down from the shelf.
April 26, 2013
Insightful, lucid, profound...
January 6, 2013
Reread from Civ. I really liked it this time around, and really appreciated how clearly his reasoning was, even though it's not always something I agreed with.
January 30, 2015
try as I might I could not get behind Aquinas' ideology. I do give it points for langauge and being well written though.
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August 28, 2026***
February 26, 2024
There is certainly no book that has taken me even close to this long, well over a year, to finish. Regardless of my enthusiasm to read more than one book at a time, this got very ridiculous. I would go in spurts of 20-30 pages before I would set it down and just kind of forget about it. Suffice to say, it was not always top of mind, but I have had Aquinas in the back of my skull for a long time now.
This is part of my program to read a bit of philosophy from each major era with loose chronology. I suppose it depends on how you divide it, but this brings my medieval philosophy to a close for now. I found it a bit painful because he is so straight forward and helpful without too much taste for flair. To be fair, I had the same complain about Aristotle, who is so important to him that he just calls him "The Philosopher". With that being said, it is impossible not to appreciate the lucidity of his arguments, and the elegance with which he combines his faith with the pagan Greek philosophy. We all owe a great debt to Thomas for bringing the ancient back into relevance in the west, who knows how much we would read them if he did not marry them so well with the catholic faith. Something the essays in this edition did well is pointing out the influence that Plato had in addition to Aristotle. Without Aquinas the Greek philosophers would surely not mean what they mean to us now.
I found this volume to be very interesting in the way it chops up his work into very bite sized selections, targeted at a specific question. This made it a bit easier to extract the actual opinion of Thomas, but maybe ruined a bit of the flow of his writing, if that is something that should be focused on. The essays in the back were also extremely interesting in the way that it brought Aquinas into the contemporary context, knowing what scholars today are saying about Thomism and how he still influences the Catholic faith and shapes opinion on modern issues. Certainly reading a bit of Aquinas seems necessary in tying together ancient philosophy and modern philosophy.
This is part of my program to read a bit of philosophy from each major era with loose chronology. I suppose it depends on how you divide it, but this brings my medieval philosophy to a close for now. I found it a bit painful because he is so straight forward and helpful without too much taste for flair. To be fair, I had the same complain about Aristotle, who is so important to him that he just calls him "The Philosopher". With that being said, it is impossible not to appreciate the lucidity of his arguments, and the elegance with which he combines his faith with the pagan Greek philosophy. We all owe a great debt to Thomas for bringing the ancient back into relevance in the west, who knows how much we would read them if he did not marry them so well with the catholic faith. Something the essays in this edition did well is pointing out the influence that Plato had in addition to Aristotle. Without Aquinas the Greek philosophers would surely not mean what they mean to us now.
I found this volume to be very interesting in the way it chops up his work into very bite sized selections, targeted at a specific question. This made it a bit easier to extract the actual opinion of Thomas, but maybe ruined a bit of the flow of his writing, if that is something that should be focused on. The essays in the back were also extremely interesting in the way that it brought Aquinas into the contemporary context, knowing what scholars today are saying about Thomism and how he still influences the Catholic faith and shapes opinion on modern issues. Certainly reading a bit of Aquinas seems necessary in tying together ancient philosophy and modern philosophy.
May 5, 2021
Aquinas, Thomas. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics. Edited and Translated by Paul E. Sigmund. Norton Critical Edition. W. W. Norton, 1987.
This collection contains new translations of selections from Aquinas and commentaries on the Thomist tradition from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is especially useful on the controversies over the meaning of natural law and the importance of Aquinas’s effort to reconcile Aristotle with the platonic tradition of Augustine. It was enlightening to see how the arguments of Aquinas were used by some twentieth-century theologians to support democratic and communitarian views that would have shocked Aquinas and his monarchist contemporaries. The selections from Jacques Maritain were especially enlightening. The translations of Aquinas were clear and readable. I will leave it to Latinists to assess their accuracy. I was surprised that there was not more substantial discussion of the principle of double effect and the arguments of abortion and contraception. After thirty years, this book is still a useful and relatively painless way to get to know Aquinas.
This collection contains new translations of selections from Aquinas and commentaries on the Thomist tradition from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is especially useful on the controversies over the meaning of natural law and the importance of Aquinas’s effort to reconcile Aristotle with the platonic tradition of Augustine. It was enlightening to see how the arguments of Aquinas were used by some twentieth-century theologians to support democratic and communitarian views that would have shocked Aquinas and his monarchist contemporaries. The selections from Jacques Maritain were especially enlightening. The translations of Aquinas were clear and readable. I will leave it to Latinists to assess their accuracy. I was surprised that there was not more substantial discussion of the principle of double effect and the arguments of abortion and contraception. After thirty years, this book is still a useful and relatively painless way to get to know Aquinas.
September 11, 2023
This book provides a great way to start reading Aquinas if, like me, you are a little overwhelmed by the volume of his works. The book provides not only a selection from his writings but selections from authors whose ideas he engaged--particularly Aristotle--and also a selection from authors who have reacted to or adopted his views. I hope to return to several of the non-Aquinas works, especially Dionysus the Areopagite, Pope Leo XIII and other Popes, and Jacque Maritain, and others. One complaint is that there are more pages devoted to writers other than Aquinas. A second (and unfair) complaint is that the secondary sources end in the 1980s. I would be very interested in an update to this book in which writers engage with Thomism on topics such as homosexuality, gender identity, Black Lives Matter, etc.
April 10, 2018
Fascinating stuff. His views on law and justice are more interesting, and more profound, than the theological stuff.
April 11, 2023
Read through selections assigned in a Political Philosophy class. Answers everything, obviously. Extremely interesting if something can get you to read it.
January 16, 2025
I liked the part where he called men who focus on getting buff stupid and sinful
December 5, 2018
Aquinas is a tough read. I enjoy Plato more than Aristotle and thus naturally do not gravitate towards Aquinas. This collection is essentially a summa of the summa of the summa, with some other collected writings.
Great introduction to Aquinas. But as of now, not sure how often I will be revisiting him.
Great introduction to Aquinas. But as of now, not sure how often I will be revisiting him.
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May 1, 2017Paperback
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews