THOMAS AQUINAS ON NATURAL LAW AND THE TWOFOLD BEATITUDE OF HUMANITY Taylor Reed Marshall, Ph.D. University of Dallas, 2011 Father James Lehrberger, O.Cist. Abstract Human persons naturally desire happiness. Beginning with Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have sought to articulate both the nature of happiness and how it is that man both knows and desires this happiness. This present dissertation examines the history of this question of natural desire as it regards natural law, and the way in which Thomas Aquinas synthesized this tradition. The current academic debate over Thomas' synthesis centers on the question of whether Thomas asserted a natural human desire for one beatitude or two beatitudes. The former position posits that man has but one supernatural end. The latter posits that man has both a natural end and a supernatural end. This thesis proposes that a proper interpretation of Thomas Aquinas incorporates both ends by identifying the analogical relationship between the natural and the supernatural throughout the Corpus Thomisticum. Since Thomas treats human teleology most clearly while treating law, natural law becomes an analogue by which one may analyze whether man has one end or two ends. The analogical relationship of natural law to divine law is related to the way in which Thomas treats natural reason and supernatural faith in his commentary of De Trinitate by Boethius. This "twofold" analogical order is further confirmed by the fact that Thomas repeatedly employs the term duplex to speak of the natural end and supernatural end of humanity. Duplex or "twofold" is neither one nor two, but "two in one." An appreciation for "twofold beatitude" is the missing key in most debates concerning Thomas' teaching on natural beatitude and natural law. The controversy between advocates of Henri de Lubac (one end) and advocates of Thomas Cajetan (two ends) can be overcome by referring back to Thomas' analogical arrangement of human beatitude. Moreover, Thomas is able to incorporate the teaching of Aristotle regarding human happiness without denying the Christian teaching of supernatural beatitude by appealing to this analogical relationship between natural happiness and the supernatural happiness. So then, the language of typology, analogy, or participation rightly defines the way that natural beatitude is oriented to supernatural beatitude. Thomas consistently presents a twofold order: natural/supernatural, reason/faith, and natural law/divine law. The distinction between natural beatitude and supernatural beatitude is just that—a distinction but not a division. Beatitude is duplex non duo. THE BRANIFF GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS THOMAS AQUINAS ON NATURAL LAW AND THE TWOFOLD BEATITUDE OF HUMANITY by TAYLOR REED MARSHALL B.A., TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, 2000 M.A. WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 2003 M.A. UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, 2009 A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Dallas in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Institute of Philosophic Studies December 13, 2011 Approved by the Examining Committee: 'yWjoadfauQ cZx^-eA-A^-o UMI Number: 3496865 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3496865 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uest ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Thomas Aquinas on Natural Law and the Twofold Beatitude of Humanity Copyright 2011 © Taylor R. Marshall All rights reserved To my patient bride Joy, and to our children Gabriel, Mary Claire, Rose, Jude, Becket, and Blaise. And also to the Reverend Father James Lehrberger, O.Cist. —a true Doktorvater. And chiefly to my Mother and Queen: Videmus nunc per speculum in enigmate, sed Mater tu Speculum Iustitiae es. O Domina Immaculata, in lumine gloriae tu eum vides maxime. Sedes Sapientiae, ora pro nobis, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi, Multcefilice congregaverunt divitias tu supergressa es universas. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER ONE: ONE-ENDERS AND TWO-ENDERS 15 Status Quaestioms 15 Does Man Have One End or Two Ends? 35 Aristotle on Nature and Inclination 42 CHAPTER TWO: EARLY HISTORY OF NATURE AND TELEOLOGY 45 Cicero on Nature and Teleology 45 Judaism and Saint Paul on Nature and Teleology 66 Augustine on Nature and Teleology 77 CHAPTER THREE: PATRISTIC & MEDIEVAL DEVELOPMENTS IN NATURAL TELEOLOGY 94 Early Patristic Accounts 94 Medieval Accounts of Law and Teleology 99 Early Scholasticism on Law and Beatitude 100 Aquinas on Natural Law and Natural Inclinations 102 Thomas Aquinas on Synderesis 106 Aquinas on the Practical Intellect . 108 Connaturality Ontological and Epistemological Elements 111 The Insufficiency of Natural Law for Beatitude . 117 CHAPTER FOUR: NATURAL LAW AND NATURAL TELEOLOGY AFTER AQUINAS 125 John Duns Scotus on Law and Teleology 125 Strict and Extended Commandments of Decalogue 134 Scotus contra Thomas 139 Hugo Grotius & Natural Law after Scotus 146 CHAPTER FIVE: RECENT ACCOUNTS OF NATURAL LAW AND TELEOLOGY 149 Analysis of the pnmumpraeceptum legs ("bonus est faciendum, etc ") 151 Suarez vs Grisez 153 New Natural Law Without Law 160 CHAPTER SIX: AQUINAS ON NATURAL LAW AND BEATITUDE 162 Pedagogical Role of Law 163 Aquinas on Natural Law and Divine Law 169 The Decalogue and the Secondary Precepts of the Natural Law 175 First Table of Decalogue 179 Second Table of Decalogue 179 Conclusion Decalogue as a Teleological Instrument 180 CHAPTER SEVEN: DUPLEX OR DUO? 184 Cardinal Ca|etan vs Cardinal de Lubac 186 Summa theologiae on Obediential Potency 195 De ventate on Obediential Potency 200 Problem Passages for the Cajetanians 206 "Two Ender" Response Toward Henri de Lubac 208 Philosophical Difficulties with "Two Ender" Thesis 210 History of Nature/Grace Problem Pure Nature and Baianism 211 Suarez and the State of Pure Nature 217 CHAPTER EIGHT: ANALOGY & THE TWOFOLD ORDER 222 Plato & Anstode on the Philosophical End of Man . 222 De Deo An Sit? Quid Deus Sit? 227 Could Man Have Two Ends? . 229 Why is Man's End Disproportionate to His Nature? 232 "Duplex Beatitudo" in the Corpus Thomisticum 235 Thomas on "Duplex" and Natural Desire 244 CHAPTER NINE: SYNTHESIS OF THE DUPLEX ORDO 250 Natural Desire of Wonder 255 Synthesizing through Typology & Analogy 278 EPILOGUE 283 APPENDIX A: "POTENTIA OBEDIENTIALIS/OBEDIENTIAE" IN THE CORPUS THOMISTICUM 284 APPENDIX B: "PURA NATURALIS" IN THE CORPUS THOMISTICUM 294 APPENDIX C: "DUPLEX FELICITAS/BEATITUDO" IN CORPUS THOMISTICUM 304 BIBLIOGRAPHY 309 Works of Saint Thomas Aquinas 309 Primary Sources 309 Secondary Sources 310 7 INTRODUCTION The past twenty years have experienced a proliferation of philosophical research on the subject of human teleology with regard to human beatitude. Recent interpreters of Thomas Aquinas, for example those following Henri de Lubac, have sought to overturn the received scholastic interpretation of Thomas positing a natural end of man and a See Denis J. M. Bradley, Aquinas on the Twofold Human Good: Reason and the Human Happiness in Aquinas's Moral Science (Washington, DC: Catholic University of American Press, 1997). Bernard Lonergan, "The Natural Desire to See God" in Collection: Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993). Lawrence Feingold, The Natural Desire to See God according to St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters (Rome: Apollinare Studi, 2001; Sapientia Press, 2010). John Milbank, The Suspended Middle: Henri de Lubac and the Debate concerning the Supernatural (Cambridge: William B Eerdmans, 2005). Steven A. Long, "On the Loss, and the Recovery, of Nature as a Theonomic Principle: Reflections on the Nature/Grace Controversy," Nova et Vetera 5 (2007): 133-83. Steven Long, "On the Possibility of a Purely Natural End for Man," The Thomist 64 (2000), 233. Reinhard Hutter, "Desiderium Naturale Visionis Dei—Est autem duplex hominis beatitudo sive felicitas: Some Observations about Lawrence Feingold's and John Milbank's Recent Interventions in the Debate over the Natural Desire to See God," Nova et Vetera 5 (2007): 81-131. 8 supernatural end of man, a task that required a reinvestigation into the relationship between the natural and supernatural. Notably, this debate is the only philosophical question that received a corrective reaction from a pope in the twentieth century. Fundamentally, the answer to the question raised by de Lubac will define the position of philosophy to theology and the final purpose for the human person. Is the human person naturally inclined to the supernatural end of the beatific vision of God's essence or not? Lamentably, recent scholarship has generally neglected one pertinent work of Thomas with respect to the natural powers of man and the supernatural. I refer to the Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate by Thomas Aquinas. Super de trinitate investigates the relationship of faith and reason, particularly as it relates to our knowledge of God when we consider the existence of a First Cause. The proposed thesis of this dissertation is that Thomas himself circumvents the contemporary Delubacian "one- enders" and the traditional