Paul E. Sigmund

Aquinas, Thomas. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics. Edited and Translated by Paul E. Sigmund. Norton Critical Edition. W. W. Norton, 1987.
This collection contains new translations of selections from Aquinas and commentaries on the Thomist tradition from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is especially useful on the controversies over the meaning of natural law and the importance of Aquinas’s effort to reconcile Aristotle with the platonic tradition of Augustine. It was enlightening to see how the arguments of Aquinas were used by some twentieth-century theologians to support democratic and communitarian views that would have shocked Aquinas and his monarchist contemporaries. The selections from Jacques Maritain were especially enlightening. The translations of Aquinas were clear and readable. I will leave it to Latinists to assess their accuracy. I was surprised that there was not more substantial discussion of the principle of double effect and the arguments of abortion and contraception. After thirty years, this book is still a useful and relatively painless way to get to know Aquinas.… (meer)