Peace Building: The Person, Community, and Authority, a Contemporary Thomistic Approach

This book is a study of Thomistic philosophical principles of peace building in the Summa Theologiae. It is a research meant to contribute to contemporary philosophical peace studies and to Thomistic scholarship, while aware that the causal co-operation between the person, community, and authority in promoting peace is often a neglected area of Thomistic philosophy. Following Aquinas, I believe it is very important to re-affirm today that peace is not a mere absence of war but it requires a fundamental responsibility of every individual to a kind of interior discipline and a life of virtue. Aquinas explains that life of peace begins from within the person, a complete and distinct being who exists in self-intimacy, self-dependency, and meant to be united rather than divided. My aim is also to reiterate that peace is not realized in isolation, but together with the whole human community. War and violence do not form part of the final end of mankind; it is the greatest threat to peace and human happiness and the worst form of disorderliness, which compels mankind to lose orientation towards his proper destiny. This study of Aquinas’ doctrine on peace and war will be of great help in contributing to our search to solve our current and existential problem of war and violence.