Saint Thomas Aquinas, an Italian philosopher and Dominican friar who lived during the thirteenth century, was the greatest of the medieval theologians. His writings harmonized faith and reason, which resulted in a Christian form of rationalism.
This treatise comprises questions 90–97 of the Summa Theologica, in which St. Thomas presents a philosophical analysis of the nature and structure of law. Believing that law achieves its results by imposing moral obligations rather than outright force on those subject to it, he proceeds to explore vital questions about the essence of law, kinds of law, effects of law, eternal law, natural law, human law, and changes in law.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican priest of the Roman Catholic Church and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived in development or refutation of his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood.