Thy-Week6 Transes

THY: THEOLOGY
WEEK 6: UNIT II. CALLED TO HAPPINESS

LESSON A: SEARCH FOR THE TRUE HAPPINESS
1st Semester AY 2022-2023
ADAPTED FROM: PPT
1. SENSE OF LAW ACCORDING TO
AQUINAS
WHAT IS A JUST LAW?

TWO ELEMENTS
LAW is not limited to:
● Law is an ordination of reason
● A legislative or judicial domain
o Law involves some kind of ordering and
● Commands, obligations, moral imperatives
specifically an ordering according to
● Controlling what other people are free to
reason.
do.
o Law is not a command of the will of the
superior.
Law is a Teacher
o Law is an expression of his (superior)
● It is about a rational or reasonable principle
reason consisting in a kind of reasoned
of order by which things are directed to
plan or ordering of things towards the
their ends. In this way, law is a teacher.
common good.
● Law is an Ordering to the Common Good
Law is a Ruler
o Common good is the end that law aims
● A measure of human acts
at and serves.
● A guide in drawing straight lines.
o Common good is a good of radically
o The straightness and length of the rule
different kind because it is an end and it
is also the measure of the line you’ve
can be shared by many without loss or
drawn.
diminishment, e.g. truth, justice. Goods
o The law guides us in our actions to
that can be shared by many, it is higher
make sure that they are upright and
and nobler.
ordered to the common good.
o It is not a private property of none of
o It also gives us a way to judge our
them and yet it is genuinely good for
actions. It measures them, whether we
each of them because it is a common
have conformed our actions to the
good.
standard of the law.
o The common good is the explanation of
why a law exists and what it is doing.
2. DEFFINITION OF LAW ▪ law is an ordering based on reason
ACCORDING TO AQUINAS for the sake of and directing the
● An ordination of reason for the common community towards the common
good from him who has care of the good.
community, which is promulgated or made ▪ Common good can be found in the
known. right ordering to God as the
common good and final end of all
The LAW that is.
● Is an ordinance of reason for the common
good, made by him who has care of the LAW
community, and promulgated. ● is for the common good of the society, not
- St. Thomas Aquinas just for the good of the individual.
● is a rule of reason, made and promulgated Natural Law
by one who has charge of the community ● The rational creature’s participation in the
or society. eternal law.
● aims to make men and society good. It o The way that rational creatures, like
directs men through reason and virtue to human beings, participate in God’s plan,
their true end in life. It aims at what is good i.e., in the eternal law.
for the people. Law makes us good! o Unlike lower creatures, we human
beings are not only moved to our end
from the outside, but we use our reason,
3. TYPES OF LAW ACCORDING TO minds, to actively participate in directing
AQUINAS ourselves, ordering ourselves, and
ordering and directing others towards
FOUR TYPES OF LAW their ultimate end and we do this insofar
● Eternal Law as we understand what kind of beings
● Natural Law we are and what is really good for us
● Divine Positive Law and so act accordingly.
● Human Law o
- These are arranged as a hierarchy where

the lower law types of law participate in and
make more specific the higher types.
Eternal Law
● The order of creation as it preexists in the
divine mind.
o Ultimately, that creation would reflect
and share in the glory and splendor of
God.
o Aquinas begins with the Highest
possible level: God himself, who not
only is the creator of the universe but
also its end, the source of its order, and
who governs it by his providential plan.
o This plan of order emerges from God’s
divine reason as an idea in God’s mind
and like God himself this plan is eternal.
Thus, eternal law.
o Eternal law is not only in God’s mind but
is in the things that God makes.
o Because God has created all things
according to a plan as coming from him
and ordered back to him, he imprints on
their very being, in their very nature an
inclination for creatures towards their
proper acts and ends. So, they will tend
to their perfection and fulfillment
precisely as the kinds of things they are
according to the nature God has given
them.

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THY: THEOLOGY

WEEK 6: UNIT II. CALLED TO HAPPINESS

WHAT IS A JUST LAW?

- These are arranged as a hierarchy where

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