Thomas Aquinas
I don’t think morals have a context. It is wrong to steal, to kill. There is no context, there is but natural law. This law of nature — which Paul referred to in Romans 1 and the Psalmist stated was declared in the heavens — is added to by covenant or contract. The contracts became the law.
Covenants give rights. The high priest had the right to seek atonement for Israel once a year. Jesus, who made a new covenant (and I refer the reader to Hebrews for this) allows us the right to approach him unhindered.
John Calvin
Calvinists tend to think about Covenant and relationship. We tend to think of God as sovereign and him choosing to make a contract with us, through Jesus, from which we have confidence in our salvation. We then see ourselves as not our own.
Thomists tend to think of natural law. They tend to build up, using reason, a sense of property and of rights that are in nature and then how these rights are given away in return for the grace of God freely bestowed upon us.
The sense of reasoning is different. Hearthrose took the classical Calvinist position better that I could.
Theologically speaking, we have rights as adopted children of God. I can boldly approach His throne to pray, to ask for justice, healing, strength, mercy… anything I will, I may ask my Father for. I can bring others to His throne and pray over them. Amazing as it is, one day I will have the right to walk the streets of Heaven.
I don’t have any rights as a person outside of that relationship… I am a bondslave of Christ. Slaves may be treated by their masters in any way it suits the master, and martyrdom has occasionally suited my Master with others in His care. (Not that that is negative, it’s an honor – but it does indicate that I don’t have a right to my own life).
Alte thinks like a Thomist. She replied….
No, it doesn’t indicate that. You do have a right to your own life. You also have the duty to sacrifice your own life for your faith. That sacrifice is only so valuable because it’s voluntary, after all. You could always renounce Christ and keep your life. If it were involuntary then it would be simple murder (someone infringing upon your right to life).
Jesus, after all, “gave up His life.” You can’t give away something you don’t possess.
I consider one can overstate the natural law position. In this time, we find that many people do not accept either (a) that the beauty in our world is a shattered remnant of the glory before the fall (b) that there is such a thing as beauty (c) that there is such a thing as law.
You can argue around contract and oaths. Just. Barely. But many people now say that there is no covenant and no rights that they will allow anybody to hold them to. They are, in fact, lawless.
Being lawful may be seen as conventional and boring, but it was productive. Thomas and John would disagree on how the law came into being (well John spend much of the institute disagreeing with the scholastics, as they had been teaching Thomas’ theology for about three hundred years before the institutes was written), but both saw the law as needed to teach us and guide us correctly, and Jesus managed to balance this with mercy. In the end, they ended up at the same place. The cross.
