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Research Paper On Thomas Aquinas

952 Words4 Pages

Thomas Aquinas’ works, the Summa Theologica and the Ethics, all answer questions proposed to him. In the Summa Theologica, many of the questions deal with law and the reason for the existence of laws, natural, human, and divine. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, all law is intertwined with each other. Natural law connects with divine law, and human law connects with both. Each type of law constitutes an important role in shaping and guiding the human being and hold an intrinsic purpose within the many human communities throughout the world: the common good. Law, overall, is attributed to human beings’ capability to reason. Law is the use of reason to order and guide human political life. “The purpose of law is to command and forbid, and since commanding belongs to reason, law is therefore an act of reason” (Jones 2015, 603). Specifically, Aquinas states that “law …show more content…

In fact, without one or the other, the laws would lose their ultimate purpose and ultimately lose hold over shaping and guiding humanity towards the common good. For divine law specifically, Aquinas states that humans are under divine law just as much as natural and human law. Divine law is the best moral guideline out of the three types of laws. Human laws are subject to human discretion, and human discretion is unreliable and sinful if humans do not follow the laws that God has put into place in His creations, as God’s reason is perfect in all aspects. Divine or eternal law would be all-encompassing since God is ruler of all of creation. “…law is simply a dictate of practical reason by a ruler who governs a perfect community. But supposing that God’s providence rules the world, as I maintained in the First Part, his reason evidently governs the entire community of the universe.” (Aquinas 2002,

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