Aquinas and Modernity The Lost Promise of Natural Law

In this startling book, Shadia B. Drury overturns the long-standing reputation of Thomas Aquinas as the most rational exponent of the Christian faith. She reveals that Aquinas was one of the most zealous Dominicans (Domini Canes) or Hounds of the Lord. The book contains incisive criticisms of Aquinas's reconciliation of faith and reason, his defense of papal supremacy, his justification of the Inquisition, his insistence on the persecution of Jews, and his veneration of celibacy. Far from being an antiquarian exercise, Drury shows why the study of Aquinas is relevant to the politics of the twenty-first century, where the primacy of faith over reason has experienced a revival. For Drury, religion is as incompatible with political moderation and sobriety in our time as it was in the thirteenth century. This is why she defends a secular version of Aquinas's theory of natural law-a theory that he betrayed in favor of what she calls "the politics of salvation." Book jacket.

Shadia B. Drury is professor of philosophy and political science at the University of Regina in Canada, Canada Research Chair in Social Justice, and Director of the University of Regina Masters Program in Social and Political Thought