Thomas Aquinas synthesized Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy, producing new justifications for political rule and greater separation of church and state authority. He depicted human nature as rational and social, necessitating political society for moral and collective well-being. Aquinas developed a framework of eternal, divine, natural, and human law to define the relationships between individuals, political communities, and God. Political rulers derive authority from God but must serve justice, reason, and the common good. The state has independent purposes from the church, though rulers must still be Christian.

1. THOMAS AQUINAS
• LIFE: 1225-1274

2. INTRODUCTION
• A Christian theologian
• Wrote a synthesis of
Christian ideas and
Aristotelian
• Produced a new
grounding for Christian
faith, redefinition of
Christian political
thought:
– Allowing for independent
authority of secular
government.

3. Introduction
• (1)He incorporated
Aristotle’s telos,
commitment to human
reasons, views on
forms of government.

4. Human Nature and Society
• (2)He depict people as
rational and social, and as
political society as natural
– Not as a remedy for and a
consequence of humanity’s
fallen nature
• Man’s rational and social
capacity, not human sin
or his practical inability
to live alone, necessitates
a political government
• “Man is by nature, however, a social and
political animal, living amid a multitude
of his kind; more so, indeed, than is the
case with all other animals, which natural
necessity itself makes clear…For men,
however, none of these were provided
by nature, but instead of all of these,
reason was given to him….It is therefore,
natural for man that he live in the
companionship of his kind.”
– Thomas Aquinas

5. Human nature and society
• (3) One principle that
ought to rule the
government is reason.
• But to achieve justice and
to serve people, a ruler is
also required to follow
God’s natural law
• State is no longer a
product of human sin;
– It has both important and
positive purposes of
securing both Christian and
secular goals.

6. Human nature and society
• (4)Politics is important
to individual and
collective moral growth
and well-being.

7. Types of law
• Law defines the
connections among the
individual, the polity,
and God.
• He combine Aristotle’s
reason and telos,
Cicero’s natural law,
Christian notion of God
to construct a theory of
law that guides human
affairs:

8. Types of law
• (1) Eternal Law
– The unchanging reason
of God
– The God’s plan for the
universe, affecting
everything

9. Types of law
• (2) Divine law:
– Applies to religion and
church issues
– Apprehended through
revelation

10. Types of law
• (3) Natural Law
– This is the eternal law
that is etch upon the
human mind
– Found only in human
kind
– It determines one’s telos
– It help one seek his or
her essential human
purposes
– It is the “rule and
measures” of our actions
• Two types of natural
law:
– (a)speculative reasons:
apply to sphere like
mathematics
– (b)practical reason:
contains rules to guide
human actions through
general principles of
justice, to seek good, to
preserve the self

11. Types of law
• (3) Natural Law:
– Two ways of operations:
• Particular actions:
– It serves as guide for
personal behaviour
– To know what is right or
correct on a particular
situation
• Human law:
– It must emulate natural
law
– Seeking to promote
justice and the will of
God
– To helps individual when
their own reasons fails,
to guide community to
serve justice

12. Types of law
• (4)Human Law:
• How to be true law?
– Must follow natural law;
cannot depart from it
– Must help to fulfill one’s
telos, functions as
rational creature or
vision of God.
– It obligates through
conscience so long it
emulates natural law; if
not, it is not binding.
– It is ordinance of reason,
promulgated for the
common good, by who
has the care for the
community
– if it depart from the law of
nature it is no longer a law
but a perversion of law.

13. Types of law
• (4) Human law
• Thus if unjust law is not a
law, it means also unjust
ruler is not a ruler also
• Thus human law has a
telos, a goal in furthering
an end.
• It is a religious telos; and
the purpose of the state
and duty of the
magistrate is to further
that end.

14. Kingship, Tyranny and the Family
• Political authority /
Ruler
– must obey God and
natural law.
– There is a set of external
restrictions on rulers
– Must act based on the
precepts of justice and
reason.
• “ Human government is
derived from the divine
government and should
imitate it.”

15. Kingship, Tyranny and the Family
• Aquinas also review the merit of
one, few, many rulers:
– Based on Christian teaching he
supported the Kingship
– Divine government is also ruled by
One entity
– Rule of one for a community
• “ Accordingly, the best form of
government is in a political
community or kingdom where
one is given the power to preside
over all according to his virtue
while under him are others
having governing powers
according to their virtue, and yet
a government of this is shared by
all, both because all are eligible
to govern, being party kingdom
since there is one at the head of
all, party aristocracy insofar as a
number of persons are set in
authority, partly democracy, i.e,
government by the people,
insofar as the rulers can be
chosen from the people…”

16. Kingship, Tyranny and the Family
• Political authority: the
reasons:
– (1)To invest secular
governments with some
direct divine authority,
not indirect authority
through the church
• They have some
independent justification,
not from the church
– (2)the government is
necessary because of
human sociability, not
because of the sin
– (3)One entrusted to rule
must do so for the
common good, not to
serve personal desires or
interest.

17. Kingship, Tyranny and the Family
• Political authority:
– God may act to address
tyranny.
– Even mild tyranny should
not be tolerated.
– However, public action
may be necessary to
address excessive tyranny,
including killing the tyrant
if God does not act; the
use of internal and
external check ti ensure
the authority stays in line
• Political authority;
– Family and polity:
• The parallel between
family, father and ruler
• “Therefore , he who rules a
complete community, that
is,a city or a province, is
justly termed king; he who
rules a household is called
father of the family, but not
king. A father has certain
likeness to aking, because
of which kings are
sometimes called the
fathers of the people.”

18. Kingship, Tyranny and the Family
• The individual good, the
good of the family, and
the good of the political
community and the
kingdom are different
ends.
– Need different rules or
types of prudence
– The different opens a
distinct space for secular
rulers and secular goals,
independent of the church.

19. Church-State Relations and Tolerance
• Separation between the two:
– Not a complete separation.
– Church still holds authority
over the king
– The king is still subordinate to
the church
– Church still has limit in state
affairs
• “ The spiritual and the secular
power alike derive from divine
power, and that, as a result,
secular power is subject to
spiritual power insofar as God
so disposes,i.e, in those things
pertaining to the salvation of
souls. In such matters, one
should obey the spiritual
rather than the secular power.
But in those things which
pertain to civic welfare, one
should obey the secular rather
than the spiritual power;
“render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s.”

20. Church-State Relations and Tolerance
• The statement retains the
traditional Christianity
assumption that secular
governments are
subordinate to the church
• It also offer independent,
divine justification for
political rule.
• A secular ruler must be a
Christian and serve
Christian purposes, but the
state is not a mere
extension of the church.
• The synthesis produced
concerns for tolerance:
– Christians are obligated to
obey secular powers.
– Non-christian should not be
forced to obey.
– Nonbelievers cannot rule
over the faithful
– Rulers must be Christian and
Christlike in their behaviour.

21. Church-State Relations and Tolerance
• The tolerance;
– Christians heretics need
not be tolerated, except
the Jews deserve
tolerance, though they
cannot rule over
Christians.

22. Conclusion
• The Muslims
philosophers like Al-
Farabi, Averroes and
Avicenna provided
Christians with an
example of how it was
possible to reconcile God
and religion with Aristotle
by making God the first
and final cause within an
Aristotelian-Christian
metaphysics.
• Thomas Aquinas’s
contribution was the
reorientation of
Christianity into a more
rational-based theology