Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good

Description

Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good, first published in 2006, claims that contemporary theory and practice have much to gain from engaging Aquinas's normative concept of the common good and his way of reconciling religion, philosophy, and politics. Examining the relationship between personal and common goods, and the relation of virtue and law to both, Mary M. Keys shows why Aquinas should be read in addition to Aristotle on these perennial questions. She focuses on Aquinas's Commentaries as mediating statements between Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics and Aquinas's own Summa Theologiae, showing how this serves as the missing link for grasping Aquinas's understanding of Aristotle's thought. Keys argues provocatively that Aquinas's Christian faith opens up new panoramas and possibilities for philosophical inquiry and insights into ethics and politics. Her book shows how religious faith can assist sound philosophical inquiry into the foundation and proper purposes of society and politics.

Mary M. Keys is assistant professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. She has received fellowships from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame; the Martin Marty Center for Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago, and the George Strake Foundation, among others. Her articles have appeared in American Journal of Political Science and History of Political Thought.

"[A] surprisingly timely book. As the Bush era winds down, critics aim broadsides at the 'faith-based' approach to social problems that has been a signature policy of the administration. While hostility to government collaboration with religion has varied sources, one of these is the suspicion that common-good theory grounded in natural law is disguised sectarianism in conflict with democratic pluralism. [This book] is no mere exercise in academic antiquarianism. Its argument is relevant to efforts to reform the ethos of American public life today." Russell Shaw, Crisis Magazine "Both methodologically and substantively, Keys has charted new paths for thinking about Aristotle, Aquinas, and the common good in contemporary political thought." - Todd Breyfogle, University of Denver, Perspectives on Politics "Key's well written work implicitly invites readers to test her theses by going back to the primary sources." J.Brian Benestad, Ph.D., The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly