Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Divine Law

This close reading of Thomas Aquinas explores the relevance of the Divine Law to the modern world.

J. Budziszewski (Author)

9781108831208, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 April 2021

500 pages, 2 b/w illus. 244 tables
15 x 23 x 3.5 cm, 0.94 kg

'Professor Budziszewski's commentaries on Aquinas' treatises are a unique resource. He is a friendly and expert guide to Aquinas' text, method and world, putting us at our ease in what can seem a strange landscape, and empowering us to explore it further. He makes everything clear by explaining terms, unpacking arguments, and offering analogies. This commentary fills a long-standing gap, since Aquinas' Treatise on the Divine Law is relatively neglected, yet is essential for understanding his teaching on Natural Law, on legislators' tasks, and on the Spirit's role in Christian life. It is an important part of the reception-history of the Bible. A knowledge of Aquinas' positive attitude towards the Torah can contribute to Jewish Christian dialogue. Budziszewski has done an invaluable service to scholars, students and 'interested amateurs' of many backgrounds and many disciplines.' Richard Conrad, University of Oxford

Thomas Aquinas's classic Treatise on Divine Law is brought to life in this illuminating line-by-line commentary, which acts as a sequel to Budziszewski's Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law. In this new work, Budziszewski reinvestigates the theory of divine law in Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, exploring questions concerning faith and reason, natural law and revelation, the organization of human society, and the ultimate destiny of human life. This interdisciplinary text includes thorough explanations, applications to life, and ancillary discussions that open up Aquinas's dense body of work, which tends to demand a great deal from readers. More than a half-century has passed since the last commentary on Thomas Aquinas's view of these matters. Budziszewski fills this gap with his consideration of not only the medieval text under examination, but also its immediate relevance to contemporary thought and issues of the modern world.

Personal preface: on discovering Thomas Aquinas
Commentator's introduction
1. Was a divine law needed?
2. Does divine law come in one edition, or in two, old and new?
3. Were any of the old law's precepts moral?
4. Were any of the old law's precepts judicial?
5. Were the promises of benefits and threats of penalties appropriate?
6. Are all of the old law's moral precepts also included in the natural law?
7. Why does the old law contain just these moral precepts?
8. Were the old law's moral precepts appropriately formulated?
9. Can any exceptions be made to the old law's moral precepts?
10. Was it enough to obey the old law's moral precepts, or did they have to be obeyed in a certain way?
11. Did the old law's moral precepts have to be obeyed according to love or charity?
12. How are the moral precepts of the decalogue related to the old law's other moral precepts?
13. Did the moral precepts of the old law make man just and acceptable in the sight of god?
14. Were the old law's ceremonial precepts arbitrary, or given for intelligible reasons?
15. Reasons for old law judicial precepts about relations between citizens and rulers
16. Reasons for old law judicial precepts about relations among citizens
17. Reasons for old law judicial precepts about relations with non-citizens
18. Is the new law a written law, or is it poured into us?
19. Does the new law make men just and acceptable in the sight of god?
20. Is it appropriate that the new law includes not only precepts but also 'counsels'?
21. Afterword: Implications of St Thomas's teaching for the world of the present.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]