St. Thomas Aquina Analysis

Improved Essays
Register to read the introduction… Augustine a law that is not just is no law at all. As a result of this, these laws do not stay in your conscience, except at times when you need to avoid conflict because is still the law and it needs to be followed. Matthew stated, “If a man…Take away your coat, give him your cloak also; and whoever forces you to go one mile, go the second within” (Matthew 2). This quote seems to explain that if someone takes something away from you, you should give him more than what he asks for and make it harder on yourself, and if they force you to do something go beyond what they forced you to do. Laws can be unjust and not good when they oppose god’s divine laws. Such laws include the ones made by tyrants, the ones that make you love other things more than God and the ones that oppose the divine laws. These laws should never be followed because according to the Acts the Apostles said that we have to obey God instead of men. In this document Aquinas gives three objections concerning these laws. The first objection he makes is that that human law never stays in a man’s mind because a person with a weaker power can’t enforce power on a higher one and that also …show more content…
However, changing these laws will affect society and the common good because we are already accustomed to these laws whether they are good or bad. When a society sees that laws are being changed they are going to think that things can be easily changed from now and on and that’s not a good thing. When any law is changed the power of that law decreases as well as the custom. As result of this human laws shouldn’t be changed unless it benefits the common good and if it fixes what the last law was doing wrong. These laws are changed only when the common good is rewarded by the new law and the benefits are obvious, or because the last law is so unjust that it needs immediate change. (Aquinas

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    For instance, In Law 21: If a man broke into a house they shall be stab. Also, In Law 23: If the robber is not caught, the people who got robbed should declare whatever he has lost before a god. In Law 48: If a man borrowed money to plant his fields and storm has flooded his field, the man doesn't need to pay back the creditor. In Law 53,54: If a man had opened his trench for irrigation and the waters have flooded his neighbor’s field, the man must restore the crops and he has caused to be lost.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction The appeal of spiritual leaders is displayed by their life and the impact on others, based on that life that they live. This can be determined by their families first, then their congregations, and lastly the impact that they leave. Aurelius Augustinus’ life was not at all perfect. However, he has had a positive impact on numerous theologians and philosophers.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However, since are nation sees them as such then, when we break them, we are bound to be punished. If we break the law without violence then we are just being good citizens and upholding just laws. If someone did not break unjust laws it could lead to bigger anarchy and soon people might begin to break just laws. When we break unjust laws we are upholding humanity and our fellow…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Laws and Morals The importance of laws and the concepts of their inherent values change. These laws that are imposed on our people today save freedom for others, but when laws restrict these morals, multitudes of opinions and different motives arrive. Such feelings as possibly felt by Equality 7-2521 in Anthem by Ayn Rand include rebellion, regret, and greed. We would change our opinion…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe Flannery O’Connor is an epistemological Thomist because she agrees with Aquinas when discussing knowledge, abstract ideas, and reason. O’Connor agrees with Aquinas by citing him multiple times in her essay and uses his statements as starting points and support for her discussions about art and writing and how each relates to knowledge. Firstly, O’Connor begins her essay discussing the nature of fiction by relating it directly to the beginning of knowledge. According to Gilson, Thomistic epistemology states that “‘whatever is received into something else is received according to the mode of the receiver’” (210).…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As humans, we make choices every single day from the moment we wake up each morning. Some of these choices do not seem to affect our lives with much significance, such as what we choose to eat for breakfast. On the other hand, some may change our lives forever, like deciding where to attend college. The choices we make lead to the experiences we have. The texts of Antigone, Saint Augustine: Of Choice and Free Will and Into the Wild contain instances of decisions that led to experiences, which result in the realization of what is deemed right and good in life.…

    • 1669 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Code of Hammurabi Reading Response 1. Laws are critical to any society; in The Code of Hammurabi this criticality is stated in the introduction where it is said that law is in place “…to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak…” (The Code of Hammurabi 1) and to “…further the well-being of mankind” (1). These laws, had such an emphasis on protecting the weak that it is emphasized that the one to enforce said laws would be the “…shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves…” (3). Protection of the weak, oppressed, and of the slaves is only done in a centralized and static rule, the rule of law – for the benefit of all.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Arc Of Justice Essay

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "Law is not law, if it violates the principles of eternal justice." - Lydia Child. The rule of law attests to the idea that the people are to be protected by these very principles. Unfortunately, throughout the world there've been earmarks of injustice from police brutality in the US to the marginalization of women in Afghanistan. Hence, the very reason I want to become a lawyer - to end these perversions.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Martin Luther King Unjust

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Conscience saves Souls Man makes mistakes, man-made law might be a product of mistakes. Disobey the law when your conscience tells you the law is unjust and against humanity. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes, “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law” (King). Authorities always create the unjust law and cover them with beautiful lies to fake them as just laws, then trick the people to obey them.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Eternal Law In Antigone

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Thomas Aquinas, natural law involves the belief of practical law. He argues that natural and practical reason are intertwined so much that they see to accomplish and understanding and appreciation of what society should value, what society should seek out and the proper means by which to fulfill these goals. In essence, Aquinas contended that “good is to be done and evil avoided.” An example of natural law would be the the returning of a borrowed item to its rightful owner. This under natural law is viewed as a morally sound and necessitated gesture, it is the “right” thing to do.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    According to King, “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God” whereas “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law” (King, 3). Both authors specifically tell us that we must only refuse to follow unjust laws since they deny us of our natural…

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is civil disobedience? Civil disobedience by definition is refusal to obey government demands or commands especially as a non-violent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government. According to Martin Luther King Jr civil disobedience is “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” (Boss 89). Martin Luther King Jr, showed in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” that civil disobedience can be morally justified under the right circumstances.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If society feels that a law needs to be established, than society will establish it. I believe that this too, applies to our society. We dislike murder, so what do we do? We make murder illegal. The same thing applies to seemingly insignificant things, like traffic violations.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Free will, without which no one can live rightly, is a good and divine gift.” (Augustine 65). In the book, On the Free Choice of the Will, Augustine argues that humanity’s will, which is given by God, is indeed free. As the book proclaims, free will is something that has the ability to produce righteousness and happiness; it is a gift that produces peace and prosperity. Yet, at the same time, there is the possibility of the will to be fixed on the all too enticing temptations of this world.…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The concept of ‘law’ has proven itself a tricky one to articulate. Despite its relevance within society, it is hard to condense the idea of law down to its core tenets. In their quest for a concise definition, legal theorists have approached law from different angles, and have tended to divide themselves into two groups – those who believe that any summation of law must include reference to morality, and those who believe that the idea of law either can or must be completely distinguished from any moral considerations. This essay will consider the views of hard and soft legal positivists Joseph Raz and H.L.A. Hart, and natural law theorist Thomas Aquinas, in order to argue that, while all of these theories capture something of the relationship…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays