Aquinas Augustine Aquinas Vs. Augustine Term Paper

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Even if they may not have the same force as divine law, the laws should not contradict the laws of heaven. This binding injunction to the people to obey also applies to rulers -- monarchs should not contradict the will of the divine, and endeavor to create a state that mirrors that of God. For example, Aquinas prohibited usury, or charging money at interest given Christ's condemnation of money changing, and stated that the governments should not allow such transactions to take place.

Although Aquinas at times cites Augustine in support of his ideas, Augustine's own ideas regarding the correct relationship between state and humankind seem to suggest that the laws of the state are less crucial and less significant in creating a moral framework for human beings. After all the state, human property, and the concerns of worldly affairs are transient. In his remarks upon the Gospel of John, Augustine states: "Look, there are the villas. By what right do you protect those villas? By divine or human right? Let them reply: 'Divine right we have in the Scriptures; human right in the laws of the king.' On what basis does anyone possess what he possesses? Is it not by human right? By divine right, 'The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord' (Psalm 24:1). God made the poor and the rich from the one clay, and the one earth supports both the poor and the rich. Nevertheless, by human right one says, "This villa is mine; this house is mine; this servant is mine." Thus, by human right, by the right of the emperors.

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Why? Because God has distributed these same human rights through the emperors and kings of the world. (Augustine, p.101) In other words, on earth, there will be inequalities, and just as Jesus did not resolve this inequalities of property, for example, for the meek, human beings must accept the need to obey laws that do not directly relate to their moral fitness as Christians. The earth, in short, is good and God-created, but human beings have imposed their own transient needs upon the earth.

Augustine stressed the need for free will and choice when accepting God and living by the laws Christ. Augustine believed that the spiritual realm was innately superior to such terrestrial aspects of the world as property. The monarch should behave correctly as a Christian, because Christ was right and good, not because he had an added responsibility, as Aquinas believed, to lead the populace to a better moral state of being. Augustine thus has a more optimistic view of the individual human spirit, and a darker view of the nature of human governance and its power to create a better, and transformed world.

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