THE THOMIST - CURRENT ISSUE

* Previous issues of The Thomist can be accessed electronically through Project Muse.

Volume 89, Number 3 (July 2025)

Articles

Abstract: Prime Matter Pluralism (PMP) states that while the prime matter of all terrestrial bodies is the same, there is a unique prime matter for each celestial body. Prime matters are distinct in virtue of being in potentiality to different forms. Steven Baldner argues that although Thomas Aquinas endorsed PMP in Summa theologiae I, he ultimately rejected it in his De caelo commentary and De substantiis separatis. Besides exegetical evidence for this claim, Baldner presents a philosophical objection to PMP: according to PMP, distinct prime matters are restricted in their respective potentialities; such restriction requires form, however; therefore, prime matter is not pure potentiality. Since prime matter is pure potentiality, PMP is false. Pace Baldner, I argue that Aquinas endorsed PMP as heartily in the later works as in STh I. Moreover, he resisted substantially the same objection to PMP as Baldner’s several times. In particular, Aquinas repeatedly rejected the claim that the restriction of prime matter’s potentiality requires form. In that case, when Aquinas calls prime matter “pure potentiality,” he means that it is formless of itself, not that it is in potentiality to any form whatsoever.

Keywords: Aquinas, cosmology, hylomorphism, prime matter, substantial form

pp. 383-421

Verbal Injuries, Honor, and Custom: Towards a Thomistic Sociological Synthesis

Dominic M. Verner O.P.

Abstract: Thomas Aquinas teaches that custom (consuetudo) is remarkably powerful: custom can blot out secondary precepts of the natural law, can condition the quality and effectiveness of positive law, and can have the force of law itself. And yet, for all the power admitted to it, custom is remarkably undertheorized by Thomas, pointing to the need for a Thomistic sociological synthesis. Considering the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu as a candidate for such a synthesis, this article identifies promising conceptual “grafting points” in the rootstock of Thomistic moral theory and the branches of Bourdieu’s sociological theory especially by considering Thomas’s account of the goods of recognition harmed by verbal injuries. For Thomas, reviling, detraction, gossip, and derision are verbal injuries that harm a person’s goods of honor, reputation, friendship, and the glory of a good conscience. These goods are socially constituted and in turn constitute social structure in a manner like Bourdieu’s forms of capital. This conceptual similarity is explored to sketch the outlines of a Thomistic sociological synthesis along Bourdieusian lines, arguing that the power of custom can be explained in part by how customary acts of honoring and shaming establish the conditions according to which goods of recognition can be obtained.

Keywords: custom, honor, reputation, glory, sociology, Pierre Bourdieu, sociology

pp. 423-457

Understanding the Context of the “Natural Inclinations” and the Natural Law: Thomas Aquinas’s Use of Cicero’s De officiis in Summa theologiae I-II, Q. 94, A. 2

Randall B. Smith

Abstract: The thesis of this article is that, in his famous discussion of the natural law in ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2, Thomas borrowed the three “inclinations” he mentions there from Cicero’s De officiis 1.4.11-13. I argue that Thomas uses them as a structuring device to catalogue and distinguish different levels or kinds of natural law. This is his version of the lists of the different kinds or levels of ius naturale that were ubiquitous in the works of the canon lawyers in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Reading Thomas’s text in the context of Cicero’s discussion in book 1 of De officiis and in the context of the discussions of ius naturale among the decretists of the twelfth century and theologians of the thirteenth helps us to understand his concern to establish the proper sense of “nature” appropriate to any proper understanding of humannatural law. It also helps us understand why it is wrong to try to turn the natural law into a separate moral system apart from consideration of grace, the cardinal and theological virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Keywords: Natural Law, Cicero’s De officiis, Inclinations, Decretists, William of Auxerre, Ambrose, Isidore of Seville, Corpus Iuris Civilis

pp. 459-492

Double Effect Reconsidered: A Thomistic Reappraisal of Contemporary Accounts

Columba Thomas O.P.

Abstract: Ongoing disputes in bioethics and moral theology concerning double effect reasoning (DER) prompt a reevaluation of it—going back to its roots in Thomas Aquinas, who first considers an act with good and bad effects in his justification of killing in self-defense (Summa theologiae II-II, q. 64, a. 7). In my analysis of this article, I will argue that Aquinas’s account contains all the basic elements found in contemporary articulations of DER. However, more recent accounts contain modifications that suggest a departure from natural teleology. I will propose revised criteria for DER that more accurately reflect Aquinas’s appreciation for natural teleology: (1) the act must be naturally ordered to the good effect, but not the bad effect, which is per accidens (the bad effect may foreseeably follow sometimes or in few cases); (2) the good effect must be intended, but the bad effect must be praeter intentionem; (3) the act must be proportioned to the good effect, such that the chances of the bad effect occurring are not unduly increased; and (4) the act must have priority over a foregone act that would prevent the bad effect.

Keywords: Double effect, intention, Aquinas, natural teleology, proportion, moral theology, bioethics

pp. 493-524

Is Being Better Than Not Being? (review essay)

Gabriel Richardson Lear

pp. 525-538

Reviews

Love Become Incarnate: Essays in Honor of Bruce D. Marshall ed. by David L. Whidden III, Justus H. Hunter and T. Adam Van Wart (review)

Robert Barry

pp. 539-543

The Liturgical Cosmos: The World through the Lens of the Liturgy by David W. Fagerberg (review)

John F. Baldovin S.J.

pp. 543-545