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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: Challenges in Contemporary Theology
- Sprache: Englisch
This new work clarifies Aquinas' concept of natural law through his biblical commentaries, and explores its applications to U.S. constitutional law. * The first time the use of Aquinas on the U.S. Supreme Court has been explored in depth, and its applications tested through a rigorous reading of the biblical commentaries * Shows how key judgments in the Supreme Court have rested on medieval natural law, and applies critical gender theory to discuss problems with these applications * Offers new research data to give a different picture of Aquinas and natural law, and a fresh take on Aquinas' biblical commentaries * New research based on passages in the biblical commentaries never before available in English
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Seitenzahl: 609
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Table of Contents
Challenges in Contemporary Theology
Epigraph page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Bibliographic Note
List of Abbreviations
1: Aquinas on the Supreme Court – and on the Bible, or How to Read This Book
Aquinas on the Bible and the Court
Aquinas and the Court in New Natural Law Theory
How to Read Aquinas
How to Read This Book
Part I: Aquinas on the Failure of Natural Law
2: What Aquinas Thinks We Cannot Know
Knowledge and Unfathomability Belong Together
Nature Belongs Together with Failure
Nature Belongs Together with Grace
3: How God Moves Creatures: For and Against Natural Law
Aquinas Meets Finnis
Ten Things that Natural Law Is For
Love and Gravity
4: How Aquinas Reads Scripture
An Interpreter’s License
A Sample of Figurative Exegesis
An Ordered Diversity: Fitting Explications and Spiritual Senses
Theological Interests and Purposes
An Interpreter’s Virtues (Applying Stout)
Between Providence and Prayer
5: How the Law of Nature Is a Character in Decline
Natural Law in the Commentary on Romans 1
Natural Law and Natural Knowledge of God in Parallel
6: How the Narrative Sexualizes Nature’s Decline
Improving the Standard Account
Commentary on Romans
Aquinas, Scripture, and Moral Norms
Part II: Aquinas on the Redemption of Natural Law
7: How Aquinas Gets Nature and Grace Back Together Again: Aquinas Meets Karl Barth
Introduction
Conclusions about the Natural Cognition of God from Aquinas’s Romans Commentary
Aquinas and Barth
8: How Faith and Reason Follow Glory
Controversy
Trinity
Knowledge of the Son
The Law of the Spirit
The Ecumenical Future of Faith and Reason
9: How Aquinas Makes Nature Dynamic All the Way Down: Aquinas Meets Judith Butler
The Construction of Natural Law in the Summa and the Commentary on Romans 1
Theses on Aquinas and Butler
Lying and Lying Together, or How Do Bodies Tell the Truth?
10: How the Spirit Moves the Law
11: How Natural Science Becomes a Form of Prayer
Three Aristotles
Discovery, Description, Deduction
Philosophy versus Theology of Science
12: How the Semen of the Spirit Genders the Gentiles: Rereading Romans
Conclusion: Questions Answered and Unanswered
Subject Index
Index of Thomistic Citations
Challenges in Contemporary Theology
Series Editors: Gareth Jones and Lewis Ayres
Canterbury Christ Church University College, UK and University of Durham, UK
Challenges in Contemporary Theology is a series aimed at producing clear orientations in, and research on, areas of “challenge” in contemporary theology. These carefully co-ordinated books engage traditional theological concerns with mainstreams in modern thought and culture that challenge those concerns. The “challenges” implied are to be understood in two senses: those presented by society to contemporary theology, and those posed by theology to society.
Published
Natura comparatur ad caritatem . . . sicut materia ad formam.
Nature is compared to charity . . . as matter to form.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II-II.2.9 ad 1
Mosaics flanking dedication inscription above the west portal of Santa Sabina in Rome, ca. 432. For commentary see Conclusion. © Holly Hayes / Art History Images
This edition first published 2013
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rogers, Eugene F.Aquinas and the Supreme Court : Race, Gender, and the Failure of Natural Law in Thomas’s Biblical Commentaries / Eugene F. Rogers Jr.pages cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-118-39116-7 (cloth)1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. 2. Natural law. I. Title.B765.T54R623 2013189′.4–dc232012046976
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Ecclesia ex gentibus and Ecclesia ex circumcisione, details of 5th century mosaic in the church of Santa Sabina, Rome. © Holly Hayes / Art History Images
Cover design by Workhaus
For my father, who wanted me to be a lawyer
Acknowledgments
The chapters of this book accumulated over many years in many venues, while other books came in between. For that reason these chapters also incurred many debts of gratitude both to readers and institutions, as well as to editors and anonymous referees at this and other publishers. Among the former I wish to thank the University of Virginia for summer grants in several years and an appointment to the Shannon Research Center in 1996–1997, enabling me to publish the earlier articles. The National Humanities Center supported a delightful year in 1998–1999 that saw the publication of Chapters 5 and 6 in Sexuality and the Christian Body. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro awarded me a Research Assignment in 2007–2008 and a Summer Excellence Grant in 2012 to work on the project, as well as Regular Faculty Grant and a Kohler Grant in 2008 to visit images of Ecclesia and Synagoga, such as the one on the cover. Most pleasantly the Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Jerusalem, a division of Notre Dame University, hosted me for seven months in 2009–2010. The National Endowment for the Humanities also awarded me a Summer Stipend in 2012. Finally, I completed the book and saw it through the press while at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton on a generous grant from the Templeton Foundation, at the same time writing my next book, The Analogy of Blood.
Readers who offered comment and administrators who offered support on at least one chapter or piece of argument, some in the distant past, include Lewis Ayres, Jim Buckley, John Bowlin, David Burrell, Jim Childress, Brevard Childs, Bob Connor, Joe-Gus DiNoia (who gave me my first Summa), Reginald Foster (who taught me to look up the Latin words you already know), Paula Fredriksen, John Gager, Stanley Hauerwas, Russ Hittinger, Robert Jenson, Greg Jones, Serene Jones, Mark Jordan, John Kelsay, David Kelsey, Fergus Kerr, George Lindbeck, Gerard Loughlin, Michael McGarry, Kent Mullikin, Ernan McMullin, Rob MacSwain, Joe Mangina, Bruce Marshall, Dale Martin, David Novak, Otto Hermann Pesch, Victor Preller, Max Seckler, Kendall Soulen, Janet Soskice, Will Storrar, Jeffrey Stout, Kathryn Tanner, Bill Werpehowski, Dan Westberg, Diane Yeager, and David Yeago. I also wish to thank the groups who invited me to give papers on parts of this material: the Narrative Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion, the Religion Department of Princeton University, the Papal Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, and the American Theological Society. For errors of fact, tact, interpretation, and judgment I have only myself to thank.
I have almost more gratitude to anonymous reviewers for journals, presses, and granting agencies who could be more frank, whether in puzzlement or praise. I have special thanks for Dean Timothy Johnston for his generous support of the Religious Studies Department in fat years and lean, and for Pat Bowden, its beloved administrator. Above all I thank my student and research assistant Joseph Naron, without whom I could hardly have finished the book, and who made the marvelous indices. At Wiley-Blackwell I wish to thank Rebecca Harkin, my editor for several books now; Isobel Bainton, her able assistant; Leah Morin, the project manager, and Jacqueline Harvey, my patient copy-editor. Finally I wish to thank my partner, Derek Krueger, who takes wonderful care of me when I am beset by the demon of finishing and who married me when the church was ready, in 2006.
With the exception of Chapters 1 to 3, the essays in this volume first came out in other settings and appear here with light to moderate revisions. Where the copyright lies with the earlier publisher, Wiley-Blackwell and I gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce the material in this book. Details of original publication are as follows:
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful for notification of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Bibliographic Note
Bare references appear in parentheses in the text. For that reason I give the shortest possible version of the smallest textual unit. For modern authors, this is the author’s name and page number, differentiated by date (before a colon) only if necessary. Full information appears in the list of references at the end of each chapter. For medieval authors like Aquinas, however, the author (date) page system yields ludicrous results.
For readers unused to the Summa theologiae, let me explain that it is divided into four parts – I, I-II (the First Part of the Second Part), II-II (the Second Part of the Second Part), and III – which in turn are divided into numerous “questions,” or inquiries, and the questions into “articles,” the main units of argument. It is the article, rather than the “question,” that takes a yes–no form, beginning with “whether.” Thus, “Whether God exists” is an article. A “question” is a quaestio, or search, collecting several articles. An article’s structure builds in a real or constructed dispute, opening with at least three “objections,” which briefly state positions that Aquinas does not hold. They begin “it would seem,” but you know, from the form, that the objection is not really Aquinas’s considered view. The objections are followed by a very short citation of authority, a warrant or pivot, called the sed contra, or “on the other hand.” The sed contra usually does indicate Aquinas’s own view. The sed contra is followed by a response, also called the body or corpus of the article, in which Aquinas explains his own position. Frequently Aquinas’s view qualifies the “yes” or “no” implied by the sed contra to concede correct points and make distinctions. Replies to the objections follow the response. In rare cases, the response goes down the middle between the objections and the sed contra, and we find a reply also to the sed contra (then called the objection on the other side).
Readers unused to this system may prefer to read the response first, taking in the sed contra, and then the replies to the objections, and finally, to check the context, the objections that occasion the replies and frame the response. After some practice, it will come to seem more natural to start, as Aquinas does, with the objections, so that the response has some drama to it. One learns to read the objections thinking “it would seem” means he’s going to disagree, but how is he going to get out of this bind?
Two sorts of remarks lie outside the article structure. Paragraphs introducing whole parts are called prologues (= prol.). Organizing material that comes before an article, baring the structure, is called a proemium (= proem.) to it.
Most of my references come from the Summa theologiae or from the biblical commentaries. I refer to the Summa theologiae as the Summa and cite it by part, question, article, and part of article (sed contra = sc; body = corpus = response = respondeo = c; reply to an objection = ad 1, ad 2, etc.; and an objection itself = obj.). Thus I-II.90.1 ad 2 refers to the First Part of the Second Part, question 90, article 1, reply to the second objection. Since the response is the longest part of an article, references can specify where in a response to look: in init. = at the beginning; ca. med. = around the middle; post med. = after the middle; and in fin. = at the end. A citation consisting only of roman numerals and numbers in that format always refers to the Summa theologiae. If I refer to the Summa contra Gentiles or the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, then I will specify Contra Gentiles or SCG or In Sent.
The Latin preposition in means, in citations, a commentary “on” another work. Thus In Sent. is the Commentary on the Sentences. In Rom. is the Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In Jo. is the Commentary on the Gospel of John, and so on. Aquinas’s biblical commentaries are traditionally cited by book and lecture, or lectio (= lect.). But the paragraphs receive numbers in the best edition, published by Marietti in Turin, whereas the lectio looks like a verse number, of which it gives no indication, so that the reader cannot tell from the citation itself which verse Aquinas is treating. So I have modified that system to be more precise. I cite according the Marietti paragraph numbers, and if relevant I also note the verse on which Aquinas is commenting. Thus In Rom. 1:20, §97 means Marietti paragraph 97, where Aquinas comments on Romans 1:20.
Translations from the Summa theologiae are my own or depend upon the older, Benziger Brothers edition because it is often so literal that the practiced reader can back-translate into the Latin (except for Chapter 5, which uses the Blackfriars edition). I have, however, modified it without comment to bring out nuances of the Latin, avoid gendered pronouns, or make corrections. I reserve comment for the very rare cases in which the Benziger edition makes it impossible to recover the sense of the Latin. Translations of other works, including the Commentary on Romans, are my own unless noted.
In the phrase “Thomas Aquinas,” “Thomas” is his name and “Aquinas” is a Latin adjective of place, meaning “from Aquino.” Theologians, medievalists, and Latinists prefer to call him simply “Thomas,” and I would too, except that nonspecialists tend to call him Aquinas. I do so here out of hospitality to them.
List of Abbreviations
I have used the Marietti editions of the Summa theologiae and the commentaries on the Pauline epistles. The other texts can be found in S. Thomae Aquinatis opera omnia ut sunt in indice thomistico, ed. Roberto Busa, 7 vols. (Stuttgart–Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann-Holzboog). The texts are sometimes catalogued as an appendix to the index, Index thomisticus. References are cited by abbreviated title from the largest to the smallest text division, separated by periods. The texts can also be accessed online at www.corpusthomisticum.org.
Dates are from Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1: The Person and His Work, trans. Robert Royal (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1996).
References to the Vulgate, cited by chapter and verse, are to Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. Robert Weber, with the assistance of Boniface Fischer, Johannes Gribmont, H. F. D. Sparks, and W. Thiele, 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1983).
1
Aquinas on the Supreme Court – and on the Bible, or How to Read This Book
Aquinas on the Bible and the Court
Contemporary accounts of what’s “natural” for human society still cite the thirteenth-century system of Thomas Aquinas – even on the Supreme Court. But those accounts ignore his biblical commentaries, which reveal something much stranger. Against the reigning impression, the commentaries embed all law, even the law of nature, in a sexually charged story of decline by specific ethnic groups – Jews and Gentiles – gendered in changing ways and redeemed by the reinsemination of divine grace. This book uses accounts of ethnicity and gender, nature and grace in Aquinas’s biblical commentaries to reframe the systematic works (especially his Summa theologiae) still quoted in court.
The whole advantage of natural law is supposed to lie in its independence from any particular group, history, or religion. That is why rival views of gender and sexuality both appeal to “nature” and cite Aquinas. But Aquinas’s Summa ties natural law to specific biblical passages, where his commentary describes a nature that differs by ethnicity, varies over time, and changes sexuality by God’s decree. This destabilizes turn-of-the-twenty-first-century uses, liberal or conservative.
Consider a story of decline and rise from Aquinas’s commentary on the biblical book of Romans: In the beginning, God impressed or (in a parallel passage) “inseminated” human minds with a moral “law of nature” – God presses or fathers them in God’s image. According to the law of nature, human beings would multiply and do justice. But after the fall of Adam, they came to love injustice. To hide that injustice, they “bound” (detinent) or “tied up” (ligatur) the law of nature until they “held it captive” (captivatur) and “put an end to it” (terminatur) (In Rom. §§112, 127). The verbs reveal this as a tale of bondage. By the time of Abraham, particular ethnic groups (“Gentiles”), having “put an end to” nature, began to worship dead idols (tempore Abrahae, quando creditur idolatria incoepisse). The living God punished them by giving them up to “the vice against nature” (same-sex sexuality) – so that they would die out (). The author finds the punishment strictly appropriate (), since according to the story nonprocreative sex befits the binding of nature and the worship of dead idols (§151; see Chapters 5, 6, and 9). After the coming of Jesus, the Holy Spirit reinseminates them with natural law as “the semen proceeding from the Father.” “How they become again children of God is clear,” says the author,
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Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
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Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
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Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
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