Men of Valor: Tacitus and Thomas Aquinas on Virtue
When it played in the movie theaters, the terrific movie Act of Valor (2012) earned notoriety for two reasons. First of all, for its casting it used…
Legal Ontology: Does “The Law” Exist?
Greetings to those of you in Seattle, who now know the answer to the age-old question: “Where would we be without law?” Answer: “Seattle.” The title of…
Medieval Dignity, Modern Education
In the conclusion of her review of David Walsh’s book, The Politics of the Person as the Politics of Being, Macon Boczek challenges the author’s assertion that…
On Debate and Existence
In our capacity as political scientists, historians, or philosophers we all have had occasion at one time or another to engage in debate with ideologists — whether…
René Girard and the Common Good
I argue that Girard’s understanding of the political order is largely in line with Thomistic thinking on the common good. In following Girard in his extrapolations of…
Death to the Death Penalty? René Girard’s Challenge to Thomas Aquinas
The Catholic Church’s recent definitive revocation of the death penalty[1] suggests that something in the zeitgeist demands a rethinking of one strand of conservative thought. Always the…
The Enchanted Cosmos With Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas was described as the foundational philosopher for all philosophers by Pope Pius XII. There are many faces to the angelic doctor. He is the…
The Thomistic Roots of Vatican II Humanism
Apart from the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Trent, the Second Vatican Council is arguably one of the most consequential ecumenical councils in the history…
Aquinas’s Mediated Cosmopolitanism and the Impasse of Ancient Political Philosophy
While Saint Thomas Aquinas roots his political thinking in the natural law whose community is cosmopolis, with God as its ruler, he provides the basis for affirming…
Understanding Law with Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas’ definition of law is very brief and straight-forward. Most lawyers and even college students will at least have heard tell of it. It reads: “Law is…
Virtue and the City
“We see that every city is some sort of community, and that every community is constituted for the sake of some good, since everyone does everything for…
From the Multiversity Cave: Aquinas and Synthesis
Thus far we have looked at three prominent thinkers who have offered us some ways to reform the multiversity so it can become an institution that pursues…
Saint Thomas Aquinas on History, Politics, and Law
Sic enim est dispositio rerum in veritate, sicut in esse. - Saint Thomas, Contra Gentiles History: Truth and Being The work of Saint Thomas (1225-1274) absorbed…
Yves R. Simon: A Thomist looks at a Divisive Invasion
The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought. Yves R. Simon with Anthony O. Simon, ed., and Robert Royal, trans. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press,…
Freedom of Conscience
The humanists may well be right if they do not follow the classical philosophers in developing principles based on the bios theoretikos, or Christian thinkers into a…