Essay - Aquinas Augustine Aquinas Versus Augustine on the Responsibilities of the...

Aquinas Augustine

Aquinas versus Augustine on the Responsibilities of the State and the ***** of the Ruler

***** Hebrew Scriptures were produced from the traditions of the ancient Israeli people. These scriptures fused moral, along with political injunctions as to how the state should create a just as well ***** a holy society, ***** defined the responsibilities of ***** leaders in relation ***** the *****, as well as defined the citizen's relationship to ***** state. Christianity, which derived from Judaism, w***** spawned during a different politic*****l and historical point in Israeli history. The relationship ***** the state to ***** citizens proved more evasive to the authors of these *****. The Christian scriptures focus on the duties of the *****dividual, and less up***** the relationship of the rulers to the ruled. Later, both the theologians St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, when examining the responsibilities of the state, ***** ruler and the ***** in the Christian world, would also offer two different portraits of this judicial *****, in attempting ***** reconcile scriptural prescriptions about correct behavior. Aquinas saw ***** state as a moral, teaching instrument that w***** necessary to control the urges of humanity. ***** saw ***** laws ***** the state regarding ********** matters such as property rights as separate from the laws revolving around divine practice, ***** offered a ***** optimistic assessment of humanity's ability ***** adopt Christ into their behavior of ***** own free will, as he had done during his ***** lifetime. Augustine rejected all aspects ***** the human-created worldly law and rule as b*****e and inferior, and ***** God-created soul of humanity, although fallen, as good.

***** the emerging *****ian faith fused ***** the ***** Hebrew scriptures and the words of ***** gospels and epistles into one, inclusive text, numerous contradictions are immediately manifest within this textual structure regarding ***** **********, which both ***** and Augustine felt a need to explain. For example, the books of Leviticus ***** Deuteronomy of the Hebrew Bible seem to contain detailed instructions as ***** how a state ***** be governed by a leader. ***** ruler h***** a responsibility to govern wisely, but according to the principles of God, and not subsume ***** worship owed to God, ***** compel the populace ***** ***** idolatry. Leaders who have an inflated, divine sense ***** *****ir own import*****ce go mad, like King Saul, or are afflicted like the Egyptian Pharaoh. The heroes of the Bible ***** Daniel and David, who refuse to indulge in mindless o*****dience under the direction of a godless ***** who dem*****nds his or her ***** violate the divine commandments, ***** rewarded. Prophets like Ezekiel condemn overly zealous and self-imp*****tant leaders. Thus, within the legal framework of ***** *****, the ***** of the Hebraic religion and the laws of the state are essentially intertwined, and prescriptions as to the severity of punishment leaders can inflict ***** paired along with dietary laws for all persons. ***** law of God controls all. God's ***** infiltrates the power of all ***** laws ***** the state