THE THOMIST - CURRENT ISSUE

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

Volume 90, Number 3, July 2026

Articles

The Natural Law and Thomas Aquinas’s Debt to Maimonides

Abstract: The natural law, which many take to be a constant presence in Catholic moral theology, was not of much interest to moral theologians in the twelfth century. Treatises on the moral life dealt mostly with the virtues, the Ten Commandments, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Considerations of the natural law were of interest primarily to canon lawyers. It was not until the thirteenth century that considerations on the natural law began to find their way into the works of theologians. What changed? I argue that it was the remarkable popularity of the third book of Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed, in which he attempted to provide rational explanations for what have seemed to many, both then and now, to be rather odd, somewhat arbitrary precepts in the Mosaic Law. This discussion in the Guide was made popular by prominent figures such as William of Auvergne and John de la Rochelle, and it inspired theologians such as Thomas Aquinas to consider more seriously how the precepts of the Old Law could be reconsidered in the light of the natural law tradition. Hence, we find in the Summa theologiae a rather short discussion of the natural law which is prefatory to a much longer discussions of the Old Law and the New Law.

Keywords: Thomas Aquinas; Maimonides; natural law; Mosaic Law; Guide for the Perplexed

pp. 389-432

The Natural Knowledge of God and the First Principles of the Natural Law in Thomas Aquinas

Brett W. Smith

Abstract: A special challenge in interpreting Thomas Aquinas on the natural law concerns his assertion that the command to love God is a self-evident (per se notum) first principle of the natural law. This seems prima facie unlikely, since atheists exist, and since Thomas himself holds that the very existence of God is not self-evident in this life. The present article builds upon earlier studies by Lawrence Dewan and Randall Smith to offer a solution to this problem. By examining texts Dewan has identified as relevant, this article will trace Thomas’s development on the question of man’s natural knowledge of God with a view ultimately to explaining what Thomas means in STh I-II, q. 100 when he says that the obligation to love God is self-evident. Also important to the solution here offered is a clear understanding of what Thomas means by “self-evident” (per se notum) in that context.

Keywords: Aquinas; natural law; natural knowledge; inclinations; self-evidence

pp. 433-472

John of St. Thomas’s Challenge to Analogy of Intrinsic Attribution

Domenic D’Ettore

Abstract: This paper takes up the inter-Thomist debate over whether analogy of proportionality or some form of analogy of attribution is required for metaphysics by considering the argument of John of St. Thomas that there can be no such thing as analogy of intrinsic attribution. I propose that John of St. Thomas’s critique of analogy of intrinsic attribution is more compelling as a philosophical position than the positions defended by John Wippel and Benedict Ashley. I also point out difficulties with John of St. Thomas’s position and appeal for feedback. I hope that this article will serve to motivate readers familiar with contemporary treatments of Aquinas on analogy to reinvestigate the assumptions and principles governing these treatments and to discover and compare the often quite different assumptions and principles operative in the debate between late Scholastic Thomists, Scotists, and Suárez.

Keywords: Aquinas; analogy; John of St. Thomas; Poinsot; Cajetan; Suárez; metaphysics; Scholasticism

pp. 473-499

Defending Maritain on Church and State from the Perspective of the Nature–Grace Principle

Joshua R. Brotherton

Abstract: Every Catholic theologian is aware of the Grundaxiom that grace does not destroy nature but, rather, presupposes and perfects it by healing and elevating it. However, it seems that many forgot to pay attention to the implications of this principle for certain debates in recent centuries, such as what ought to be the proper relationship between the Church, primarily considered in terms of its hierarchical authority, and civil society (especially, the modern nation-state). Leaving aside the details of the relevant debates in political philosophy and theology as well as the polemics regarding interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, this essay purports to make a simple application of this nature–grace principle (as found in perennial Christian intellectual tradition) to the project of reconciling the development of secular society with a theology that maintains the essential rights of the Church in the world, which characterized much of Jacques Maritain’s career. In response to Thomas Pink’s critique especially, I defend Maritain’s pertinent proposal on the basis of the view that ecclesiastical and civil realities ought to be distinguished and related to each other in a way that mirrors the relationship between the supernatural and natural orders of reality as such.

Keywords: nature and grace; Church and state; Jacques Maritain; integralism; Thomas Pink

pp. 501-532

Saint Augustine’s Role in the Formulation of the Dogma of Original Sin: A Review Essay

J. Augustine Di Noia O.P.

pp. 533-545

Reviews

Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation by Anthony R. Lusvardi, S.J. (review)

Dominic M. Langevin O.P.

pp. 547-552

Aristotle on Accidental Causation by Tyler Huismann (review)

Thomas Tuozzo

pp. 552-556