Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law

J. Budziszewski

Sep 2014 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Natural moral law stands at the center of Western ethics and jurisprudence and plays a leading role in interreligious dialogue. Although the greatest source of the classical natural law tradition is Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law, the Treatise is notoriously difficult, especially for nonspecialists. J. Budziszewski has made this formidable work luminous. This book - the first classically styled, line-by-line commentary on the Treatise in centuries - reaches out to philosophers, theologians, social scientists, students, and general readers alike. Budziszewski shows how the Treatise facilitates a dialogue between author and reader. Explaining and expanding upon the text in light of modern philosophical developments, he expounds this work of the great thinker not by diminishing his reasoning, but by amplifying it.

About the author

J. Budziszewski is a Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin. He also teaches courses in the religious studies department and in the law school, and he maintains a personal scholarly website, www.undergroundthomist.org. Dr Budziszewski has published widely in both scholarly journals and magazines of broader readership. His books include The Resurrection of Nature: Political Theory and the Human Character (1986), The Nearest Coast of Darkness: A Vindication of the Politics of Virtues (1988), True Tolerance: Liberalism and the Necessity of Judgment (1992), Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law (1997), winner of a Christianity Today book award in 1998, The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man (1999), What We Can't Not Know: A Guide (2003), Evangelicals in the Public Square: Four Formative Voices (2006), Natural Law for Lawyers (2006), The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction (2009) and On the Meaning of Sex (2012).