* Previous issues of The Thomist can be accessed electronically through Project Muse.
* Previous issues of The Thomist can be accessed electronically through Project Muse.
Articles
Aquinas's Implicit Use of Proclus in De substantiis separatis 1-4
Abstract: It is well known that Thomas Aquinas was the first to demonstrate that Proclus’s Elements of Theology was the primary source for the Liber de causis. This article explores the further use that Aquinas made of certain propositions of Proclus’s Elements in his late work De substantiis separatis. Aquinas ascribes to Plato and the Platonists ideas that he likely collected from Proclus’s Elements: a scale of perfections arranged according to universality and simplicity crowned by the highest and most divine principle, which remains “unparticipated.” His use of Proclus may also have contributed to Aquinas’s curious attempt to harmonize the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle in De substantiis. Aquinas sees the Platonic One-Good as identifiable with an Aristotelian notion of maximal Truth and Being. Further concord is found among the notions of potency and act, participation, and divine providence.
Keywords: Aquinas, Proclus, Liber de causis, participation, Platonism, metaphysics, angelology
pp. 195-225
Reasonable Commandments: The Decalogue as Natural Law in Aquinas
Abstract: St. Thomas Aquinas consistently identifies the Decalogue as an expression of natural law, but what this means precisely has been the subject of some confusion. The claim that all ten precepts of the Decalogue belong to the natural law is often misunderstood, understated, or treated with suspicion by contemporary interpreters. Despite this, Aquinas’s position is coherent and deserves closer attention. Moreover, Aquinas’s position does not simply conflate the Decalogue with natural law; rather, it affirms the integrity and uniqueness of the Decalogue as a divinely given covenantal charter of friendship and fidelity with the God of Israel. The aim of this article is to clarify and deepen our understanding of Aquinas’s view by closely examining his nuanced distinctions. I address common misconceptions that arise when scholars overemphasize the limitations of natural knowledge, especially regarding the first table of the Decalogue. By bringing together Aquinas’s insights on natural knowledge of God, the obscuring effects of sin, and the virtue of religio, I offer a more comprehensive and nuanced interpretation of how Aquinas conceives the Decalogue as an expression of natural law. I argue that if we closely follow his logic in the articles of question 100 of the Prima secundae, we will be able to construct a natural law version of the Decalogue, which is contained within but not identical to the version found in the book of Exodus.
Keywords: Ten Commandments, Decalogue, natural law, biblical law, natural theology, faith, virtue of religion
pp. 227-250
The Suffering of Poverty and the Moral Life: A Thomistic Perspective
Abstract: For Aquinas, “suffering” includes not only the various evils (deprivations of good) which we encounter regularly in our fallen creaturely existence, but also the painful way in which we subjectively experience those evils. Consequently, suffering evil is itself an evil. And yet, suffering evil not only can be spiritually fitting but also can provide the occasion for good. Suffering can function medicinally within God’s providential design, oriented toward personal moral improvement and community betterment. Although suffering can impede growth in virtue, by imposing difficult physical, mental, and emotional obstacles, suffering also can provide the occasion for growth in virtue: either the acquisition of natural virtue or the deepening of infused virtue. This “moral meaning of suffering” can be explored by demonstrating how suffering interfaces with particular virtues. Focusing on the virtue of justice, suffering facilitates the transition from the vice of covetousness to the virtue of liberality; and hardships endured through voluntary poverty (as an expression of infused justice) can deepen one's relationship with God in Christian discipleship.
Keywords: Aquinas, virtue, justice, liberality, covetousness, voluntary poverty, suffering
pp. 251-289
Reforming Thomistic Ethics: The partes virtutum and Ecological Virtue
Abstract: Recent scholarship has shown that Aquinas’s metaphysics and theology are a much better fit for the environmental movement than previously thought. Nevertheless, this ‘Green Thomism’ has (mostly) been the work of metaphysics and systematic theology. Can we go further and conceive of a Thomistic ecological ethic? In other words, can Thomism adopt ecological virtues and vices? This article argues that Aquinas’s virtue ethics can incorporate ecological virtues and vices based on a built-in mechanism for adaptability: the partes virtutum. By conceiving of the virtues as wholes (tota), Aquinas allows for a reform of his ethics, but one that does not alter its fundamental principles. In this way, Aquinas’s virtue ethics are exemplary for their ability to anticipate and circumscribe reform. To argue these points, the article has three sections. The first attempts to specify the ecological virtues. The second section explains Aquinas's mereology and applies it to the virtues, concluding that both virtues and virtue ethics can change. Finally, the article puts forward a concrete proposal integrating (some) ecological virtues into a Thomistic virtue ethic and concludes with some wider implications for Thomism and the Church as a whole.
Keywords: Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, virtue, reform, ecology, moral theology
pp. 291-324
Thomism, Tradition, and Theology (review essay)
pp. 325-343
Reviews
pp. 345-349
pp. 350-354
Compassion-Justice Conflicts and Christian Ethics by Albino Barrera (review)
pp. 354-358
pp. 358-363
pp. 363-366
Bible Missals and the Medieval Dominican Liturgy by Innocent Smith, O.P. (review)
pp. 366-369
pp. 369-373
Al-Ghazālī & the Ideal of Godlikeness by Sophia Vasalou (review)
pp. 373-377
pp. 378-382
pp. 382-387