St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics contains translations of carefully chosen and central selections from The Summa Against the Gentiles, On Kingship or The Governance of Rulers, and The Summa of Theology.

The selections not only include St. Thomas Aquinas’s views on government, law, war, property, and sexual ethics, but also provide the theological, epistemological, and psychological background for his political and ethical thought, including the Five Proofs on the existence of God and Aquinas’s theories of knowledge, the soul, the purpose of man, and the order of the universe. Throughout the book, footnotes explain technical terms and historical, biblical, and classical references.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics contains translations of carefully chosen and central selections from The Summa Against the Gentiles, On Kingship or The Governance of Rulers, and The Summa of Theology.

The selections not only include St. Thomas Aquinas’s views on government, law, war, property, and sexual ethics, but also provide the theological, epistemological, and psychological background for his political and ethical thought, including the Five Proofs on the existence of God and Aquinas’s theories of knowledge, the soul, the purpose of man, and the order of the universe. Throughout the book, footnotes explain technical terms and historical, biblical, and classical references.

"Backgrounds and Sources" follows the text, with selections from the writings of Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Dionysius the Areopagite.

"Interpretations" traces Aquinas’s influence on medieval thought, on Roman Catholicism during the Renaissance, on early modern political thought (Richard Hooker and Francisco Suarez), on nineteenth-and twentieth-century papal social thought, and on contemporary Christian Democratic political parties in Europe and Latin America.

The volume concludes with "Contemporary Problems in Thomistic Ethics", which contains eight analyses of the influence of Aquinasís thought on modern debates on war, contraception, and abortion.

A Selected Bibliography is included.

Introduction

Note on Translation

Selections from the Work of St.Thomas Aquinas

The Summa against the Gentiles (Summa contra Gentiles, 1259–1264)

BOOK Ⅰ

3.The Two Ways of Knowing the Truth about God.

4.Truths about God that Known by Reason are also Properly Made Available to Man by Faith.

7.The Truths Based on Reason Are Not Contrary to the Truth of the Christian Faith.

8.The Relationship between the Human Reason and the Primary Truth of Faith.

BOOK Ⅱ

68.How an Intellectual Substance Can Be the Formative Principle of the Body.

BOOK Ⅲ

2.Everything that Acts Acts for an End.

3.Everything that Acts Acts for a Good.

25.The End of Every Intellectual Substance Is to Know God.

27.Human Happiness Does Not Consist in Bodily Pleasures.

32.Happiness Does Not Consist in the Goods of the Body.

37.Man’s Ultimate Happiness Consists in the Contemplation of God.

48.Man’s Ultimate Happiness Is Not in this Life.

51.How God May Be Seen in His Essence.

53.A Created Intellect Needs the Influence of (Divine) Light in Order to See God in His Essence.

63.In that Final Happiness Every Human Desire Will Be Fulfilled.

64.God Governs the Universe by His Providence.

81.Order among Men and in Relation to Other Things.

BOOK Ⅳ

54.It Was Fitting for God to Become Man.

76.On the Rank of Bishop and (the Pope) Who Is Highest in That Rank.

On Kingship or The Governance of Rulers (De Regimine Principum, 1265–1267)

1.Men in Society Must Be under Rulers.

2.Is It Better for a Group to Be under One Ruler or Many?

3.Just Rule by One Person Is the Best Form of Government; Its Opposite Is the Worst.

4.The Kinds of Government in Rome, and How the Republic Sometimes Prospered under Popular Rule.

5.Tyranny is More Likely to Develop from the Rule of Many than of One Person.Therefore Monarchy Is Preferable.

6.The Rule of One Man Is Best.How to Limit the Possibility of Tyranny.Tyranny Is to Be Tolerated to Avoid Greater Evils.

12.The Duties of a King.The Likeness of the King in His Kingdom to the Soul in the Body and to God in the Universe.

14.The King Should Follow the Example of God’s Rule.The Similarity between Government and Piloting a Ship.A Comparison of the Rule of Priests and Kings.

15.To Gain the Ultimate End, the King Should Direct His Subjects to a Life of Virtue as Well as to Intermediate Ends.What is Needed for the Good Life.

The Summa of Theology (Summa Theologiae, 1266–1273)

I PART I (1266–1268)

Qu.2.The Existence of God

a.3.Does God Exist?

Qu.12.How We Know God

a.12.Can We Know God in this Life by Natural Reason?

a.13.Do We Know God Better through Grace than through Natural Reason?

Qu.20.On God’s Love

a.2.Does God Love All Things?

……

Backgrounds and Sources

Interpretations

Selected Bibliography