preview

The Theology Of Thomas Aquinas

Good Essays

Thomas Aquinas was a one of the few philosophers to interpret the theology as a whole distinguishing the difference between theology and philosophy by explaining Law in general in a detailed account and focusing on kinds of law which he classified as Eternal, Human, Divine and Natural law. Aquinas suggests in order for law to be understood some reasoning has to be provided which is why as a philosopher what he explained could not provoke Christian beliefs, but establish a relationship between theory and religion.

As a philosopher he understands and describes law as being influenced by certain actions that man chooses to act upon or refrain from, which is entirely up to us or as he may put it, "an ordered rule". Because of this assumption …show more content…

For these laws to be effective and understood he explains the essence of law breaking it down into three important aspects; "Reason" a superior order, "Common Good" some sort of satisfaction through law (not suggesting he doesn 't care) and "One who has care" in the sense that in the community trust is put into the hands of someone of higher authority who has common good as their main objective.

Eternal Law is considered a law by Aquinas in the sense that since God being the creator of the universe, every command will be passed as God understands it and will stand in its eternal form becoming eternal law. Thomas has portrayed art of eternal law being community ruled through divine reasoning provided by God meaning his reasoning must have a proper and perfect order making it eternal.

Since Thomas has used an organizational structure as I explained previously, Divine Law being based on revelation and extracted from Eternal Law, we learn how the bible has worked in correspondence with Divine law mainly because of how it is split into Old and New Law similar to the Old Testament and New Testament in the bible. To my understanding Aquinas bases his facts about the Old law on the Ten Commandments with an assumption that humans are driven by the fear and the rewards expected to be benefited from obeying the Law whereas the New

Get Access