Thomas Aquinas on Natural Law and the Twofold Beatitude of Humanity

Description

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.*