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Religion As a Virtue: Thomas Aquinas on Worship Through Justice, Law

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Religion As a Virtue: Thomas Aquinas on Worship Through Justice, Law RELIGION AS A VIRTUE: THOMAS AQUINAS ON WORSHIP THROUGH JUSTICE, LAW, AND CHARITY Submitted by Robert Jared Staudt A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctorate in Theology Director: Dr. Matthew Levering Ave Maria University 2008 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: THE CLASSICAL AND PATRISTIC TRADITION CHAPTER TWO: THE MEDIEVAL CONTEXT CHAPTER THREE: WORSHIP IN THE WORKS OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHAPTER FOUR: JUSTICE AS ORDER TO GOD CHAPTER FIVE: GOD’S ASSISTANCE THROUGH LAW CHAPTER SIX: TRUE WORSHIP IN CHRIST CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY ABBREVIATIONS 2 INTRODUCTION Aquinas refers to religion as virtue. What is the significance of such a claim? Georges Cottier indicates that “to speak today of religion as a virtue does not come across immediately as the common sense of the term.”1 He makes a contrast between a sociological or psychological evaluation of religion, which treats it as “a religious sentiment,” and one which strives for truth.2 The context for the second evaluation entails both an anthropological and Theistic context as the two meet within the realm of the moral life. Ultimately, the study of religion as virtue within the moral life must be theological since it seeks to under “the true end of humanity” and “its historic condition, marked by original sin and the gift of grace.”3 Aquinas places religion within the context of a moral relation to God, as a response to God’s initiative through Creation and 4 Redemption. 1 Georges Cardinal Cottier. “La vertu de religion.” Revue Thomiste (jan-juin 2006): 335. 2 Joseph Bobik also distinguished between different approaches to the study of religion, particularly theological, philosophical, and scientific, all of which would give different answers to the question “what is religion?.” Veritas Divina: Aquinas on Divine Truth: Some Philosophy of Religion. (South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine’s Press, 2001), 19. See also page 24. For an example of different approaches to the study of religion see What is Religion? An Inquiry for Christian Theology. ed. Mircea Eliade and David Tracy. (New York: The Seabury Press, 1980). This work (an issue of Concilium) includes essays that approach religion from a theological, sociological, cultural, philosophical, anthropological, and historical context. In the editorial David Tracy notes that “no clear consensus on the nature of religion emerges from these studies. What does emerge, however, is a clear vision of the importance of heightening Christian theological consciousness on these issues as well as an analysis of some major contemporary ways by means of which the question of religion is focused for Christian thought and praxis in both context- dependent and cross-cultural manners.” ix. 3 ibid. 4 Robert Sokolowski makes a key distinction, which provides an important backdrop for understanding Aquinas’ treatment of religion. He states: “Religion is not simply a genus for Christianity as a species. The way Christian religion and its discourse differ from religion and its discourse is complex, and this difference is based on the way the divine is understood in both cases. Sociologically or anthropologically, natural religion might be considered a genus for Christianity, but it cannot be so considered theologically.” “Christian Religious Discourse.” in Religions and the Virtue of Religion. ed. Thérèse-Anne Druart and Mark Rasevic. (Washington, D.C.: The American Catholic Philosophical Association, 1992), 45. Aquinas places religion within the moral life as part of a response to God’s initiative in the world. Religion does not refer to a human phenomenon or religious body primarily for Aquinas, but entails the way in which one relates to God. 3 At its very core, this dissertation concerns the relation between humanity and God.5 There is a natural order toward God established through Creation. This forms the foundation of the moral life insofar as human nature provides the rationale by which to understand the order of the intellect and will toward God. Justice is the virtue by which the soul orders all of its life to God, justly acknowledging and advancing toward Him as its end. However, this order runs up against a twofold limit: the distortion of sin and the intrinsic limits of nature. The true relation through which one must examine the state of the soul in relation to God is that of grace. It is charity which orders the soul toward God in a supernatural manner as its happiness in the beatific vision. Both justice and charity express themselves in worship, by which the soul acknowledges the greatness of God and gives oneself and one’s goods to Him in sacrifice. Worship holds a prominent place in the thought of Aquinas. He treats this topic in almost all of his major works and it compromises a large number of questions in the Summa Theologiae. The topic is multi-faceted, finding a place within discussions of natural law, virtue, Old Law ritual, the Ten Commandments, the religious state of life, the theological virtues, Christ’s priesthood and the sacraments. The word for worship also varies widely: religio, cultus, latria, pietas, adoratio, servitus, laudatio, eusebia, and theosebia. Thomas treats this topic as part of a long tradition stretching from pagan understandings of justice to the textbook treatment found within medieval commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. This crucial and complex topic comprises a significant portion within Aquinas’ account of the way in which one relates to God and therefore deserves a thorough exposition. 5 In his introduction to The Worship of God, M.-D. Philippe stresses the supreme importance of understanding the proper relation to God. He does so as follows: “Only in so far as he recognizes his Creator’s sovereign rights over him can man fully realize his own nature. If he does not discover God, and does not recognize God’s rights, but looks at himself as his own master, he fails to discover the source and object of his being, and then he is like a traveler who has lost his way, knowing neither where he comes from nor where he is going.” trans. Dom Mark Pontifex. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1959), 7. Worship reveals the fundamental reality of humanity as dependent upon God for its existence and ordered toward Him as its end. 4 The most prominent treatment of worship in Aquinas’ thought comes with his exposition of the virtue of religion, which stands at a crucial juncture in his account of the moral life. It is indeed through this virtue that all of one’s actions are devoted to God as an offering for His praise and glory. This is something justly demanded due to the debt that exists from having received one’s life and sustenance from God and from the ordering of human life to God as its end. Furthermore, the just ordering of one’s life to God arises from the natural law, which has been instilled into Creation and has been developed by human and divine law, which gives it its determinate shape. The virtue of religion’s relation to the New Law brings about discussion of the way in which religion orders one to God: while it is the chief of the moral virtues due to its proximity to God, nevertheless, it cannot bring about final union with God, the beatitude which comes from a direct vision of God. Therefore, these three themes of religion—as a part of the virtue of justice, its relation to law (of all kinds), and its relation to the Christian life of grace— will be discussed as the key themes of Aquinas’ treatment of religion. Before engaging in this discussion, however, it is crucial to recognize that Aquinas built upon and synthesized many elements of the Classical and Christian tradition to arrive at this treatment of religion. Servais Pinckaers argues for the need to study Aquinas’ sources to better understand his own thought. He states that a speculative examination of his work is rounded out by a historical consideration that reveals the genesis and unfolding of his thought, helping us to perceive better its vitality and richness. Such a study also aids us discovering the timelessness of a teaching nourished by the great scriptural and patristic traditions and those of Augustine and Aristotle.6 In particular this study takes into account his major influences in the area of virtue, law, and religion. His main Classical source on religion was Cicero, who himself drew upon many 6 “The Sources of the Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas.” in The Pinckaers Reader: Renewing Thomistic Moral Theology. ed. John Berkman and Craig Steven Titus. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005), 3. 5 strands of the Greek philosophical tradition. Through the writings of Cicero, the Latin West gained inspiration for its own conception of law in its relation to justice, of the connection between reason and action, and of the role of nature in disposing toward virtue. Significantly, it is also from Cicero that Western theology drew its definition of religion. Nevertheless, it would not be appropriate to say that Latin Christianity merely appropriated the writings of Cicero without its own significant contributions. Chief among Aquinas’ influences on religion from within the Church stands St. Augustine. St. Augustine did draw upon Cicero for inspiration, yet he insisted that the deepest understanding of religion must come from Scripture. Therefore, while he recognized Cicero’s definition of religion as valid, he nevertheless turned to the word latria to more adequately describe the Christian religion in distinction from the idolatrous practices of the pagans. Furthermore, Augustine points to Christ as the true embodiment of religion, who offered Himself on the Cross as a true sacrifice, and who enables humans to engage in a similar offering and surrender of self to God.
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