Disputed Questions on Virtue

by Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny (Translator)

During his second stint as regent master of theology at the University of Paris in 1269-1272, Thomas Aquinas fulfilled the threefold magisterial task: legere, disputare, praedicare -- to lecture, to dispute, to preach. On Virtues in General and On the Cardinal Virtues are two series of disputed questions which date from this period. In them Thomas, at the height of his powers and under the pressure of the raging dispute over Aristotle, discusses the central feature of his moral doctrine, virtue. During the same period he was composing his commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and completing the moral part of the Summa Theologiae.These disputed questions are the work of a theologian for whom philosophy was the necessary prerequisite of his discipline. Thomas discusses virtue with reference to the definitions of St. Augustine and Aristotle and develops a distinction between the acquired virtues and the virtues which are infused into the soul by grace. The subtle interactions of the natural and supernatural have never been discussed with more clarity. Justice, prudence, courage, and temperance -- the cardinal virtues -- are shown to have both acquired and infused instances.

McInerny's translation includes On the Virtues Q1 Articles 1-13 and Q5 Articles 1-4.

Genres: Philosophy

140 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1999

About the author

Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and theologian of Italy and the most influential thinker of the medieval period, combined doctrine of Aristotle and elements of Neoplatonism, a system that Plotinus and his successors developed and based on that of Plato, within a context of Christian thought; his works include the Summa contra gentiles (1259-1264) and the Summa theologiae or theologica (1266-1273).

Saint Albertus Magnus taught Saint Thomas Aquinas.

People ably note this priest, sometimes styled of Aquin or Aquino, as a scholastic. The Roman Catholic tradition honors him as a "doctor of the Church."

Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that obtained for centuries. This crisis flared just as people founded universities. Thomas after early studies at Montecassino moved to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican order. At Naples too, Thomas first extended contact with the new learning. He joined the Dominican order and then went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, formed out the monastic schools on the left bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master, Thomas defended the mendicant orders and of greater historical importance countered both the interpretations of Averroës of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result, a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy, survived until the rise of the new physics. The Catholic Church over the centuries regularly and consistently reaffirmed the central importance of work of Thomas for understanding its teachings concerning the Christian revelation, and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource, now receiving increased recognition.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great translation, and it has all the texts related to the virtues so it is more comprehensive than the older translation by McInerny.