The Christian Structure of Politics: On the De Regno of Thomas Aquinas

289 Pages·2022·2.608 MB·English

by  William McCormick

The Christian
Structure of
Politics

Copyright © 2022
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the
minimum requirements of American National
Standards for Information Science—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39. 48-1984.
∞
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
from the Library of Congress
isbn 978-0-8132-3447-2
For my mother
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contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on the Text xiii
Introduction: Christianity and Politics 1
1.The Aristotelian State of Nature 23
2.The Augustinian Earthly City 61
3.The Reward of the King 99
4.The Politics of Revelation 151
5.The Christian Structure of Politics 205
Conclusion: On Actions and Words 255
Bibliography 261
Index 269

acknowledgments
This book is the fruit of friendship, and I am happy to open it
with an expression of gratitude for those friendships. This proj-
ect originated as a dissertation, and I remain most grateful to my
dissertation committee: J. Budziszewski, Benjamin Gregg, Rus-
sell Hittinger, Rob Koons, Devin Stauffer, and the late Father
James Schall, SJ. For their kindness and guidance at Texas, I also
thank Zoltan Barany, Cathy Boone, Dan Brinks, Erik Dempsey,
Al Martinich, Rob Moser, Lorraine Pangle, Thomas Pangle, and
Kurt Weyland.
College mentors and friends nurtured in me a deep love and
reverence for texts in the best Chicago tradition, a reverence that I
hope comes across in this text. There are too many people to thank,
but I wish to single out Nathan Tarcov, Danielle Allen, Constan-
tin Fasolt, Leon Kass, Thomas Levergood, Jacob T. Levy, John P.
McCormick, Emily Nacol, Patricia Nordeen, Father Patrick Rugen,
and the late Father Michael Yakaitis. I owe a special debt to Jennie
Ikuta, who has been a constant friend throughout this project. 
This project took final form during my Jesuit regency at
Saint Louis University, and I owe great thanks to many friends
and colleagues there: Sharilyn Bazile, Greg Beabout, Jeff Bishop,
J. D. Bowen, Ellen Carnaghan, Sarah Cate, Bob Cropf, Chris
Duncan, Ali Fisunoglu, Chad Flanders, Jim Gilsinan, Ruth Groff,
Morgan Hazelton, Grant Kaplan, Nori Katagiri, Mary Lapusan,
Michelle Lorenzini, Wynne Moskop, Matt Nanes, Scott Ragland,
Steve Rogers, Eric Royer, Julie Hanlon Rubio, Eleonore Stump,
Emmanuel Uwalaka, Ken Warren, and Penny Weiss. 
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