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    SHERWIN, Michael. “St. Thomas and the Common Good: The Theological Perspective: An Invitation to Dialogue”. Angelicum, v. 70, n. 3, p. 307-28, 1993.

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    SHERWIN, Michael. “St. Thomas and the Common Good: The Theological Perspective: An Invitation to Dialogue”. Angelicum, v. 70, n. 3, p. 307-28, 1993.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    145 vues12 pages

    SHERWIN, Michael. St. Thomas and The Common Good - pdf01

    Transféré par

    Odir Fontoura
    SHERWIN, Michael. “St. Thomas and the Common Good: The Theological Perspective: An Invitation to Dialogue”. Angelicum, v. 70, n. 3, p. 307-28, 1993.

    Droits d'auteur :

    © All Rights Reserved
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    ANGELICUM PERIODICUM TRIMESTRE PONTIFICIAE STUDIORUM UNIVERSITATIS A SANCTO THOMA AQUINATE IN URBE CONSILIUM DIRECTIONIS: Stjepan Keasté, OP. Alfred Wea, OL. Edward Kaczynski, OP. Carlos Sora, OF. Angelo Useu, OP. CURATOR RECENSIONUM: ‘Tommaso SraNcavt, OL. ADMINISTRATIO: Albertus Scuvneacuen, 0. REDACTIO ET ADMINISTRATIO: Rivista ANGELICUM Largo Angelicum, 1 ‘00184 ROMA (Italia) ‘Telefax: 679.0407 Subnotatio pro anno: C.C.P, 11019049 Angelicune - Universita 8. Tommaso Largo Angelicum, 1 - 00184 ROMA Italia. L. 5.000 Extra Italiam + $ 5000 (USA) St. Thomas and the Common Good: The Theological Perspective: an Invitation to Dialogue ‘The notion of the common good, after having suffered an almost total eclipse during the last quarter century, is now ‘enjoying a renaissance of renewed interest. AS David Hollen bach has observed, there is pereseatly a debate concerning the meaning and utility of the common good » arising t various levels of contemporary intellectual Ufe.() This debate is also marked by a nev curiosity concerning pre-enlightenment concee- tions of the common good. In this context some are turning their attention once again to St. Thomas. Does Aquinas have Jnsights about community life and the value of the common good that we in this century have lost sight of, and if so, does he still have something positive to contribute to the contemzorary Gebate?? He may indeed, Yet, before we could know this, ‘we would have to undertake an’ analysis of the many diverse tnd often brief statements concerning the common good scat fered thoughout the Thomistic corpus. From these we could then attempt to glean the underlying, conception of the common good from which these statements flow. ‘The pages that follow are an initial attempt to begiz such ‘an analysis, In them emphasis will be placed upon the teological foundation of Aquinas’ understanding of the common good. St Thomas was a theologian and his principle concern was to help the Christian wayfarer, in the company of his fellow () Davo Housnaice, «The Common Good Revised,» Th Studies 50 (1983): oat ae Michael Sherwin, OF, ‘wayfarers, to navigate safely through the turbulent waters of our eathly existence and so reach our heavenly homeland, Al. though he believed that much of what he taught about te com mon good could be known by natural reason, it was his Christian faith which brought it into Focus and gave it clarity 1. God and Human Fulfillment God is the universal common good and humans are directed toward him as to their end and ultimate fulfillment, @ This is the cornerstone of Thomas’ conception of the common goad. But what is human fulfillment in God and how does one Thomas asserts that to exist is good: «every being as being is good » (ST, I, 5, 3). Moreover, since God is existence itself, he is preeminently good (ST, 1, 5, 3; I, 6, 2). Yet in lation to creation, goodness principally pertains to the end, Aquinas explains that an object is called good by being the ‘end which something strives to attain. @) This too preeminently pertains 10 God, All things strive to attain God as their end (ST, T 44, 4, ad 3). Tn relation to creatures therefore God is @ « good» because he is their end, God is not, however, the end of every creature in the same way. In creation’s striving toward God, the human person shares with the ‘unique vocation: he or she arrives at God by way of union, All other creatures attain God as theit end by way of a certain likeness, By being fully what they fare — an eagle or a lion — they reflect a particular aspect (°) SP EM, 10,3 1 46,2, 95 TH 5.5, ae 1 SCG TTLIT; $ Sent. 4, aa, ads Qiodtb SEGAL ad 5 adds Li 18) De Pert Vier Shiri. TS’ For two compilations of Thomas” txts’ conceraing the com: so god 1 Hae, (ST, TH, 3,1) — is the ultimate common good of he human’ person, Yet, printally and simultaneausly theultimate common good is Got asthe source hich Is something (0) $1,141 45. There has been a considerable amount of coring this: seo B.C, Pony. «The. Solel Characle of Hoseeety Beatiades Thome, 7 i068, Sesh os ay ‘St Thomas nd the Common Good, ete 2 ‘of human fulfillment. (") The Thomistic conception of the common goods is therefore relational. We cannot properly lunderstand the common good except in relation to a Lover (God), and the beloved, the rational creature who is drawn into God's love. From the outset, therefore, Thomas places the common good in the context of @ love relationship. God is love (1 Jn 4:16) and he is the ultimate good. To share in this good Is to enter into the love of God, and ultimately to enter into the community of love which is the Trinity: God does not love the creature simply as an artist loves his works bat also as a friend loves a friend accordng 0 a artim Glendly society exating Between hem, nas much a fe draws them into the society of his own trultlon which 1s Goes own bentitude and. in which thelr glory and beatitede ‘Thi Trinitarian community is the existential Foundation of every common good, because in this community the good shared fs essentially, eternally and equally shared by each of the three divine Persons. All other goods are common goods only to the fextent that they share ia this unereated common gol. The common good of the human person, therefore, is sicultaneously the lover and the beloved united in that friendship which is charity, in that community which is the Trinity. (0) SP, 1,28, 3, 242, Gori and the human person's enjownent of God are yo: cominon goods (ny exacty the tame sense.” God fs the com ‘Son good by being numetically and dentally the same objet of our Rifitieeat.’Homoh happiness, however, Is. 2 common good by being CSoentally he same inv evergone, but numerically multiple. as existing Fein rte two analognas ues Df term. ecommon goad » corespond {2 the fo ways in whieh something cau be common. Thomas explains that's fang i common in one wy by predicaton, and a ting which is Tae Som i dis way nom cor ident nimero ov diversis repertien, end 2 SHRP Etiton seem paretptionere wins ot chr rt Sethdn momerum (Sent, 9, 1, b, 3). ‘Thomas makes s.siallar Soalyls wen congideiag the wage fa Which something can be general SP inhr 58,6. See Imeatat Newnan, Fetndations o} Juste (Cork Coin Univesity Pree 1950), 8, Adler and Farrel, 385; De Keninck, #2 02 Sorts QoL 2 See Sh, 1,38, 1 Sent, 24,2, 2,2. See also Marist, 11 £7,690; 7i; Day Hossancn,» The Conamion Good Revised x Thclogion! Studies 90 (199). #6. a Michact Sherwin, OF, In summary, Thomas holds that God is the common good of the human person. He is the proper good of each by being the end which each strives to attain and which makes him or her perfectly happy; yet he is the common good of all by being that which each and every individual simultaneously enjoys as his or her end. Thomas calls both God and ti created enjoyment of God the common good and explains thet only in heaven in the vision of the divine essence will created Deatitude reach perfection. In the vision of God, God is loved as being the good common to all, and he is loved communally by the society of the blessed. The blessed, by lovingly con templating the unereated common good, participate in the mutually ‘shared love of the three divine Persons. For St ‘Thomas, therefore, God and the subjective enjoyment of God are the ultimate common good of the human community TT, Human Fulfillment and Temporal Society Although Thomas argues that ultimate human fulfillment 4s found only in the vision of God in the society of the blessed, hhe nevertheless concedes that ono can attain a certain imperfect boeatitude in this life. This temporal human fulfillment is the life of virtue. ‘Thomas explains that the citizen of this ‘world can acquire an imperfect happiness and fulfillment. by living a virtuous life, the summit of which is the free conten: plation of truth (ST, Fl, 5, 5). One who contemplates the truth and freely lives in accord with the truth he or she contemplates lias attained the happiness and human fulfillment proper to this life. Yet, Aquinas vigorously reminds the reader that perfect happisess is found only in the vision of God in heaven. The weakn ss of human nature and the misfortunes Uf life make it abuidancly clear that the happiness of this (0% ST, UAE, 3,6: ts De Vit, ix Comy 9, a6; 46,2; 2 So. dl 1. Foe detailed entment of Thomas’ conception of lippertect beatliade ane Kevin’ Stim, « Happiness! The Natural End of Many» Those 33.989) 215, St Thomas and the Cormmon Good, ete us life is incomplete and fleeting. Far from fulfilling the desires of the human heart, the temporal happiness one experiences in ‘one's earthly travels only lead him or her to long all the more for one's heavenly home where ane's happiness will be complete (ScG, 1, 48). ‘Thomas holds, however, that even though this fulfilment is not perfect, it provides the means for acquiring perfect fulfillment, It is in and through the life of virtue tat we advance toward perfect beatitude, God gave the human person f& nature which is perfected through virtuous living and he tlevates this nature with his gift of grace. We cannot attain the vision of God without his grace, but neither do we attain it apart from the nature God has given us. Spocificaly, the hhuman person acquires wisdom and the freedom to love what is truly good, stet by growing — with the help of grace — in the speculative and practical virtues. Thus, God's plan for us fs that by acquiring these virtues (by acquiring temporal ful fillment) we acquire the freedom ta choose God's offer of salvation (S7, TH, 5, 5, ad 1; 5, 7) ‘Thomas asserts that growth in these virtues is acquired in society. God made humans social, and they acquire temporal fulfillment in and through human ‘society. In light cf this, fas Jacques Maritain has pointed out, Aquinas has a twofold understanding of human society. On the one hand, humans seek to live on society because of the dignity of their spiritual ature (ST, THI, 94, 2). Humans as persons, endowed with intellect and will, have an «inner urge to the communications of knowledge and love which requite relationship with other persons.» (®) Maritain states it thus: In its rages! gonesost, the human person fends to ctefiow into rocial communleatlons Jn response to the law of super sundance inscribed in the depis of being life. intl dnt ives) (9) owes Mowurns, The Person and the Common Good (New Ye Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), 37. “C5 Tam. For a catclee cummary of Msrtlan’s views on the social ature of the person, ree Mollenbach, 88 316 Michae! Sherwin, OF. Yet, humans also seck society for another season: human need. OF himself or herself the individual is not able to acquire those things necessary for human fulfilment. Thus in order to grow and flourish, the human person must live in society Macitain is right to place emprasis upon the positive fondation of Aquinas’ conception of society. For St. Thomas, humans necessarily live in society In the same way that fish necessarily live in water. One can say that fish need water because without it the fish will die. True, but the greater wonder is that God made 2 creature that swims in water. ‘Thus concerning human society, it is true that we need society to attain human fulfillment; but the greater wonder is that God created us 10 come to fulfillment in and through human fellow ship. For Thomas the civitas, the earthly state, is not a neces sary evil which provides for the neediness of fallen human nature, Rather, God made humans social by nature, as a reflection of the divine goodness, and he leads them to beatitude jn and through society. « There is in all men a certain natural Impulse toward civil communion and toward virtue.» (°) In society the individual is not only helped in his or her need, but finds fulfilment by helping and giving aid to others (ST, HI, 19, 10). Indeed, Thomas holds that even in the state of original integrity before the fall, men and women would have lived in society (ST, T, 96, 4) Nevertheless, humans are neody from birth and itis society which supplies the need.(% Aquinas explains that, onthe natural level, the human person has a twofold need, neither of which can he or she fulfill for himself or herself. First, fone needs those goods which will allow one to grow and ma ture physically: food, clothing, shelter. This principally pertains to the domestic community of the family. Yet, the individual hhas a more properly human need: the need to grow and mature (23) In Polit 1,1. See als, De Regno 1,12; $06, I, 127 (6) (G6, Sc, i, 128, YFor'an excelent colccion of Thomiste texts on the sotat nature of amanity, soe Ammen Ure «Texter de’ S, Thoines fur la nature socsle de Uothane"s in Bthigwe Sociele, by arin Ut (ribours:Paltions Universitaires Feiboure, 196), Tome Tl, 2 (Ap: ‘St Thomas and the Common Good, ete intellectually and morally. The individual is born in ignorance, but with a desive to know. He or she thus needs someone to direet him or her in his or her striving for knowledge (SCG, TH, 128; ST, Lf, 95, 1). One also is born with a desire to love the good and to be good in one's actions. Thus he or she needs someone to help him or her to distinguish what is truly good and useful from what is detrimental (SCG, IIT, 128). And finally, one is born with the wounds of origiml sin, fand thus he or she needs someone to help him or her control his or her passions through growing in the moral virtues (ST, TTI, 188, 8). This education for virtue also pertains 10 the family, but transcends it and is the concern of the community at large, Thomas explains therefore that human community oth the family and civil society) is necessary in order both to provide the individual with the goods necssary for virtue and to offer him or her training in virtue: Man is helped by a altitude of eich he is @ part, toward scquiving the perfect fulness of ile! namely, that Re may not ‘aly live but also Tie wel, heving all he things which are ne (essary for the perfection of lving. For this reason man is Yelped by the eiil multitude of which he is = part This as SIstance concerns not enlysnaa's corporal needs. but also Kis torah neede (Com. Ethie. 1 1 And in another place he states: 1 Js, however, clear that tae end of a multcude gathered together is to lve vituously, For men form 2 group for the Dpurpose of ving well togetier, a thing oc the trdvldut fan living slane could not attain, ad pod life Ie virtuous Me Thertore, virtuous If 6 the end for which men gather together (De Regio, 1,14 In short, human s individual toward ph Yet, as stated above, this f cour being able to say « Yes to God's offer of grace and to grow in that grace until we reach our heavenly beatitude, From this Aquinas argues that the state does not simply direct us towards virtuous living. Rather, since we are directed to God as our end, the community must also ditect us to our ultimate ciety is necessary in order to direct the sical and moral excellence. Iment is directed toward 38 Michael § erwin, OP. fulfillment in the kingdom of God. ‘Thomas states it thus: Since society must have the same end as the ladvidual man, it & not the ultimate end of on estembled multitude 10 lie Virwously, But through vietuoae Hving to attain tthe” pos Session of God (De Regn, 1 1) Elsewhere he asserts even more bluntly, «The end of Jhuman life and of human society is God» (SF, LI, 100, 6) In community, therefore, the individuel grows in virtue, and in cooperation with God's grace advances toward divine fruition, My intention in this section has been to show that Thomas holds that the human person can attain imperfect Fulfillment ‘this life, and that this fulfilment consists in the life of virtue, Further, T have sought to show that the individual can only achieve this fulfilment in society. In society the individual grows both in virtue and in grace. Yet, thus far I have only shown that virtuous living is a particular good of each person, It remains to be seen, however, how virtuous living is ordered to the temporal common good. III. Temporal Society and the Common Good Ts imperfect happiness a common good? If our crested enjoyment of the vision of God is a common good, then by analogy it would seem that imperfect beatitude is also a com ‘mon good. As with the enjoyment of ultimate beatitude, tem poral beatitude would seem to be a common good by way of predication: A good — « the good of virtue » — is being enjoyed in diverse individuals. This good is common by being a good enjoyed by the many. It Is the good human living of the ‘multitude. Some Thomists interpret Thomas in this way. For example, Jeremiah Newman argues that the common good of the state consists principally in ~ the attainment of the good life by each and every member of the State and in the consequent happiness which is virtue's reward.» ) He follows Adler and Parrell who state: (07) Newman, 38, Ho also sits in support of tis view Viren. Mic ‘St Thomas and the Common Good, ete a9 fone ie asked whether happiness and virus aro naidual for commen goods, one cannot answer simply, because the dl jomma, lacking proper qualictions, ea false one. Those goods are certiniy individual as they exist his ‘mars ap Diness o his virtue are perfections of is Individual being snd life. But they are also common fa thst this mar’s hap Diness or virus, being essentially human, are essentially the fame as that man's. Hence the answer to the question must bor that they sre essentially common and existentlly in alvicual (=, Others, however, argue that, for Thomas, temporal bestitude isa private good and not a common good at all (%) Whether or not Thomas holds that temporal beatitade is common good, both groups of Thomists agree that when considering those goods which promote the well being of the community Thomas calls these goods « common goods.» Sev. feral things are required in order for the individual to be free to live a life devoted to contemplation, as Thomas explains: Perfoct contemplation requires that the body shuokd be Alsencumbered, snd to his elfeet are directed all the products (of art that are'nocessary for life. Mareover, it yequres freedom rom the disturbance caused by the passione, wich ie scioved by means of the moral virtues and prudence; and freedom fore external disturbance, 2 which sll" tho rogulatos of c¥al Ife axe direted (SCG, iN, 37) Im light of this, society has the task of providing. its members with all those goods which promote and which are necessary for the flourishing of virtue among its citizens. For ‘Thomas this collectivity of goods is the temporal ccmmon ood. Specifically, the temporal common goods is the totality of all those goods which promote virtuous living aod which can be shared by all, The «common good comprises many Christin Social Reco he Coramon Goods (Gi) MJ Aouor ond Wasee Fuge, «The Theory of Democracy (Part Two), Thowist 3 (1941) 0, 2. 8 ‘s) For cxample, see B- HUGUINY,

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