The augustinianism of Thomas Aquinas's moral theory

Thomist

Volumn 67, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 279-305

  Osborne Jr , Thomas M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 60950174608     PISSN: 00406325     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tho.2003.0027     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Bonnie Kent, "Moral Provincialism," Religious Studies 30 (1994): 269-85;
2. Virtues of the Will: The Transformation of Ethics in the Late Thirteenth Century (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995), 27-33.
3. Kent attacks the interpretation of Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988).
4. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., "Aquinas on Pagan Virtue," The Thomist 63 (1999): 553-77.
5. Shanley contrasts his position primarily with that of Jacques Maritain, Science and Wisdom, trans. Bernard Wall (London: Lowe and Brydone, 1940), 138-61.
6. and also that of John of St. Thomas, Cursus Theologicus, d. 17, a. 2, in De Virtutibus, éd. Armand Mathieu and Hervé Gagné (Québec: Laval, 1952), 419-81.
7. The position of Maritain and John of St. Thomas is held by many Thomists and Commentators. See Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life, trans. M. Timothea Doyle (St. Louis: Herder, 1951), 1:58-59;
8. idem, "L'instabilité dans l'état de péché mortel des vertus morales acquises," Revue Thomiste 42 (1937): 255-62.
9. Kent, "Provincialism," 281;
10. Virtues of the Will, 30-31.
11. Shanley, "Aquinas on Pagan Virtue," 554-55, 567-72.
12. Kent, "Provincialism," 277-79;
13. Shanley, "Aquinas on Pagan Virtue," 563-64.
14. My interpretation of Augustine in large part follows John M. Rist, Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 168-73.
15. Domingo Bañez lists Augustine's relevant texts in his Commentaria in Secundam Secundae, q. 10, a. 4 (Salamanca, 1583), 587.
16. Augustine, De civitate dei 5.19, ed. Bernard Dombart and Alphonus Kalb, CCSL 47 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1955), 154-55.
17. B Dombart, A Kalb, CCSL, Ibid., 5.12 (CCSL 47:142-46).
18. For Augustine's famous disparagement of pagan virtue, see ibid., 19.25 (CCSL 48:696).
19. Augustine, Contra Julianum 4.3.21, PL 44 (Paris: Migne, 1841), 749.
20. Augustine, Contra Julianum, Ibid., 4.3.22 (PL 44:749).
21. Cf. Augustine, De spiritu et littera 28, in Charles Urba and Joseph Zycha, eds., CSEL 60 (Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1913), 203.
22. Augustine, Epistula 138, in Al Goldbacher, ed., CSEL 44:144. This episde is listed as 5 by Bañez (see above, note 6).
23. For the love of God over self in Augustine's moral thought, see especially John Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study in the Religion of St. Augustine (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938);
24. Oliver O'Donovan, The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980).
25. Matt 22:37-41;
26. see also Deut 6:5;
27. Lev 19:18.
28. "unde est in hominibus charitatis Dei et proximi nisi ex ipso Deo? nam si non ex Deo, sed ex hominibus, vicerunt Pelagiani : si autem ex Deo, vicimus Pelagianos" (Augustine, De gratia et libero arbitrio liber unus 18.37 [PL 44:903]).
29. Cf. Augustine, De peccatorum meritis et remissione 2.5.5 (CSEL 60:75);
30. De natura et gratia 59.69 (CSEL 60:285).
31. For a discussion of these issues, see Jean-Pierre Torrell, "Nature et grâce chez saint Thomas d'Aquin," Revue Thomiste 102 (2001): 167-202.
32. See also Steven A. Long, "On the Possibility of a Purely Natural End for Man," The Thomist 64 (2000): 211-37.
33. Quodl. I, a. 8, in Opera Omnia (Rome: Leonine Commission, 1882-), 25.2:187-88;
34. STh I, q. 95, a. 1.
35. For the Summa Theologiae I have used the Leonine edition as reprinted in Summa Theologiae, 4 vols. (Turin: Marietri, 1948).
36. For the background to this debate, see Artur Michael Landgraf, Dogmengeschichte der Frühscholastik (Regensburg: Pustet, 1952), 1.1, 43-50.
37. Thomas de Vio Cajetan, Commentaria in Primam Secundae, q. 109, a. 2 (Leonine 7:293);
38. Domingo Bañez, Commentaria in Primam Secundae, q. 109, a. 2 (Madrid, 1948), 3:34.
39. For the development of Thomas's understanding of gratia sanans, see Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. J. Patout Burns (London: Darton, Longman and Todd; New York: Herder and Herder, 1971), 46-55.
40. Thomas Aquinas, II Sent., d. 28, q. 1, a. 3, in Scriptum super Libros Sententiarum, ed. R. P. Mandonnet (Paris: Lethielleux, 1929), 724-26.
41. For the dating of Thomas's works, I follow Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person and His Work, trans. Robert Royal (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996).
42. De Verit., q. 24, a. 14 (Leonine 22:722-24).
43. "Utrum homo sine gratia per sua naturalia legis praecepta implere possit" (STh I-II, q. 109, a. 4).
44. In Epistolam ad Romanos, c. 2, lect. 3, n. 216, in Super Epistolas S. Pauli Lectura, ed. Raphael Cai (Marietti, 1953), 1:39.
45. Henri Bouillard, Conversion et grâce chez S. Thomas d'Aquin, Théologie 1 (Aubier: Monatigne, 1944), 92-122.
46. STh I-II, q. 109, a. 3.
47. For the importance of this issue, see M-R. Gagnebet, "L'amour naturel de Dieu chez saint Thomas et ses contemperains," Revue Thomiste 48 (1948): 294-446; 49 (1949): 31-102;
48. David M. Gallagher, "The Role of God in the Philosophical Ethics of Thomas Aquinas," in Was ist Philosophie im Mittelalter?, ed. Jan. A. Aertsen and Andreas Speer, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 26 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1998), 1028-31.
49. For a discussion of Thomas's various texts, see especially Gregory Stevens, "The Disinterested Love of God according to St. Thomas and Some of His Modern Interpreters," The Thomist 16 (1953): 307-33, 497-541.
50. STh II-II, q. 26, a. 3.
51. Cf. STh I-II, q. 100, a. 3, ad 1; I-II, q. 94, a. 4.
52. For more on God and the natural law, see Gallagher, "The Role of God," 1031-33.
53. Kent, "Moral Provincialism," 282;
54. In this she partially follows Etienne Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. L. K. Shook (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), 333-50. For the possibility that Gilson might have been deceived by the word "political," see below, note 44.
55. STh II-II, q. 81, a. 5.
56. STh II-II, q. 81, a. 6.
57. STh II-II, q. 85, a. 1.
58. STh II-II, q. 85, a. 4.
59. STh II-II, q. 82, a. 3.
60. III Sent., d. 35, q. 1, a. 2, qcla. 3, sol. 1, in Scriptum super Sententiis, vol. 3, ed. Maria Fabianus Moos (Paris: Lethielleux, 1933), 1177.
61. See R-A. Gauthier, "Trois Commentaires 'Averroistes' sur l'Éthique à Nicomaque," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 22-23 (1947-48): 268-69;
62. G. Mansini, "Similitudo, Communicatio, and the Friendship of Charity in Aquinas," in Thomistica, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, Supplementa, 1 (Leuven: Peeters, 1995), 11.
63. For the importance of this position in Augustine's thought, see Rist, Augustine, 173.
64. STh I-II, q. 109, a. 8.
65. See also ScG III, c. 160 (Leonine 14:466).
66. e siècles, vol. 3 (Louvain: Abbaye du Mont César; Gembloux: Duculot, 1949), 105-9.
67. William of Auxerre, Summa Aurea 3.11.1, ed. Jean Ribaillier, Spicilegium Bonaventurianum 16-19 (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Rome: Collegium Bonaventurae, 1980-85), 3:172;
68. Summa Aurea 2.13.1 (2:470-75).
69. See Lottin, Psychologie et morale, 142-46.
70. For the danger of reading too much into the word "political," see Gauthier, "Trois Commentaires 'Averroistes' sur l'Éthique à Nicomaque," 312 n. 2.
71. For Thomas's theory in context, see M. S. Kempshall, The Common Good in Late Medieval Political Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
72. For Thomas himself, see especially Charles de Koninck, De la primauté du bien commun contre les personalistes (Québec: Laval; Montréal: Éditions Fides, 1943);
73. idem, "In Defence of St. Thomas: A Reply to Father Eschmann's Attack on the Primacy of the Common Good," Laval théologique et philosophique 1.2 (1945): 9-109;
74. Lawrence Dewan, O.P., "St. Thomas, John Finnis and the Political Good," The Thomist 64 (2000): 337-74.
75. STh II-II, q. 47, a. 10, ad 2.
76. IV Sent., d. 39, q. 1, a. 2, ad 5, in Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1871-1872), 11:226.
77. STh I-II, q. 99, a. 3, ad 2. See Dewan, "St. Thomas, John Finnis and the Political Good," 364 n. 34.
78. Shanley, "Aquinas on Pagan Virtue," 565;
79. Maritain, Science and Wisdom, 147-54;
80. For John of St. Thomas, see especially Cursus Theologicus, d. 17, a. 2, 53-71 (De Virtutibus, 463-81).
81. For the historical context of the question of whether acquired moral virtues are "true" virtues, see Odon Lottin, "Les vertus morales acquis sont-elles de vraies vertus? La réponse des théologiens de Pierre Abélard à saint Thomas d'Aquin," Recherches de théologie ancienne et mediévale 20 (1953): 13-39;
82. idem, "Les vertus morales acquis sont-elles de vraies vertus? La réponse des théologiens de saint Thomas à Pierre Auriol," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 21 (1954): 101-29.
83. For the different ways in which an act can be referred to God, see Bañez, In II-II, q. 10, a. 4 (Salamanca, 589-90).
84. For the difficult question of whether without grace such a virtue would be a habit or merely a disposition, see especially Garrigou-Lagrange, "L'instabilité," 260-62.
85. De Malo, q. 2, a. 5, ad 7 (Leonine 23:45).
86. For Thomas's position, see Ralph McInerny, Aquinas on Human Action: A Theory of Practice (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1992), 80-83.
87. seems influenced by Denis J. M. Bradley, Aquinas on the Twofold Human Good: Reason and Human Happiness in Aquinas's Moral Science (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997).
88. Bradley seems to argue that since the natural end of humans cannot be completely obtained through natural powers, humans are naturally endless. For criticisms of Bradley, see Long, "A Purely Natural End for Man," passim;
89. Peter A. Pagan-Aguiar, "St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Finality: Paradox or Mysterium Fidei" The Thomist 64 (2000): 211-37.
90. I follow Jean-Hervé Nicolas, Les profondeurs de la grace (Paris: Beauchesne, 1969), 375-99, who argues that the supernatural end is a further determination (surdétermination) of the natural end of man, continuous although not identical with it.
91. Garrigou-Lagrange, "L'instabilité," 260.
92. "Utrum virtutes sint connexae; ut qui habet unam, habeat omnes." (De virtutibus cardinalibus, q. un., a. 2, in Quaestiones disputatae, ed. P. Bazzi et al. [Turin: Marietti, 1965], 1:817).
93. "The natural virtues are indeed connected in prudence but prudence concerns the order of means to the end, and presupposes rectitude in willing the end" (Maritain, Science and Wisdom, 148).
94. See Louis Capéran, Le problème du salut des infidèles, vol. 1, Essai historique (Toulouse, 1934), 186-99.
95. For Thomas's rejection of this latter position, see Bouillard, Conversion et grâce.
96. For the passage under discussion, see also Joseph P. Wawrykow, God's Grace and Human Action: "Merit" in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 38 n. 84.
97. For a criticism of Maritain on similar grounds, see Bradley, Aquinas on the Twofold Human Good, 495-506.
98. Kent, "Moral Provincialism," 279;
99. Cajetan, Commentaria in Secundam Secundae, q. 23, a. 7 (Leonine 8:172).
100. "Difficultas ergo est in hoc statu presenti, in quo non potest quis carere gratia et charitate nisi propter peccatum, et consequenter cum aversione ab ultimo fine, quae aversio non potest esse ab ultimo fine supernaturali quin sit etiam a fine ultimo naturali, siquidem omne peccatum est contra naturam rationalem, quod non esset, si maneret peccator conversus et conjunctus Deo fini naturali, qui est finis rationalis naturae, ex cujus recto amore maneret rectificatus in ordine naturali" (John of St. Thomas, Cursus Theologicus, d. 17, a. 2, 55 [De Virtutibus, 465-66]).
101. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 7.7 (1150a1015).
102. STh, I, q. 23, a. 7, ad 3.