12/6/21

The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas, edited by Dino Bigongiari, is a selection of writings from the Summa Theologica and De Regimine Principum (On Kingship). Taken together, they represent an effort by the Saint to make Aristotle’s politics Catholic.

Of the two books sampled, the Summa is the more important but On Kingship the easier to digest because there Aquinas makes his points directly. In the Summa, Aquinas identifies a subject for discussion, which he calls a Question (e.g. Question 90: Of the Essence of Law), and then breaks the subject down into “articles” stating related questions. Objections are proffered in each article and Aquinas gives replies. Sounds lively enough but the objections rarely provoked me to wonder what the rebuttals would be. It became wearisome.

Aquinas founds his discussions on Law, which he classifies as Divine, Eternal, Natural, or Human. He sort of circles around these categories with remarks the reader can try to assemble into coherent concepts. A notable point about Human laws is that they “do not forbid all vices from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices from which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those that are to the hurt of others.” Not only that, “faith in Christ does not excuse the faithful of the obligation of obeying secular princes.” Interesting assertions, what with Aquinas accepting that some laws or regulations originating in Christian preference need not be put in force. Of course, violating biblical proscriptions not civilly prohibited still leaves a person liable to divine punishment. Also, “Though man is not always bound to will what God wills, yet he is always bound to will what God wills him to will.” Just in case we were worried or confused.

All this Law talk should have implications for Power—its acquisition, use and abuse, and forms--and Justice. I found it hard to decide just what the roster of precise implications should be. I ended by accepting the editor’s assertion that Aquinas thought anarchy the worst of all evils and that our goal should be to immunize society from it. In view of that, some saintly directives:
(1) Don’t be an anarchist. (That word looks a bit like “antichrist.” Don’t be that either.)
(2) Obey local civil authorities.
(3) If you are a civil authority, obey the Pope, if it comes to that.
(4) Injuries inflicted on persons are due for punishment in proportion to the status of the injured, so don’t be a person of low status or injure a person of high status.

Conscience counts too, only not quite as much as I might have expected a Saint to say. How that is, I’ll leave unsaid, as a bit of suspense for the reader. ( )

BIBLIOGRAPHY; GLOSSARY; NOTES