The Ethics of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Two Courses

273 Pages·1997·16.29 MB·English

by  Ignatius Theodore Eschmann

Ignatius Theodore Eschmann, O.P.
THE ETHICS OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
Two COURSES
Edited by Edward A. Synan
Ignatius Eschmann, O.P. (1898-1968) was a most distinguished interpreter
of Saint Thomas Aquinas, if we take "interpreter" in the double sense of
one who knows what Thomas meant and who brings to that interpreta-
tion what our century has made available.
During the First World War Eschmann served in the German Army;
later he spent a year in a Nazi prison as a result of having explained Mit
brennender sorge in German churches. He had received his post-secondary
education at the "Angelicum," the Dominican University in Rome, and on
receiving his degree was transferred to its teaching staff. It is a curiosity
that although his official training was in theology, he always taught phi-
losophy. But as L.K Shook, C.S.B. pointed out in his funeral homily, the
troublesome philosophy-theology conundrum may be solved better on the
personal plane, as Eschmann had done, rather than by abstract definition
and legislation.
English-speaking readers will be glad to find that Eschmann could
cite T.S. Eliot to make a point, that he knew there is more in the OED than
linguistic lore, and that he could adduce Bertrand Russell within two lines
of citing Walter Winchell. Eschmann was a linguist of formidable exper-
tise; he was the opposite of the party-line "manual" Thomist The ethics
he found in Saint Thomas is an ethics for adults, an ethics of Christian
liberty, an ethics of splendour, but an ethics ruled by the virtue of pru-
dence. Lest we misjudge all this as ethical laxity, let us remember that
Eschmann obeyed his Superiors without question when he was assigned
to Germany in 1936.
All those who studied under him will hear Eschmann's voice and re-
member his presence in reading these transcriptions of two courses he
gave on the ethical teaching of Aquinas. What they cannot be expected to
have known is that he had written out verbatim every course he gave,
although his rhetorical expertise gave an impression of the ex tempore. For
those to whom Eschmann has been no more than a legendary name, these
pages will be the next best thing to having heard him for, in substance,
every word is his.
Two sides of Eschmann are clear: he was a controversialist who, after
his prison year, was hesitant to publish; he was also a constructive think-
er, unwilling to substitute commentators, no matter how classical, for the
Master. Both sides are patent in this book. Saint Thomas redivivus would
surely recognize in these lectures the seeds he had sown seven centuries
earlier.
I.Th. Eschmarm, O.P. (1898-1968)
ETIENNE GILSON SERIES 20
STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL MORAL TEACHING 1
The Ethics of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Two Courses
by
Ignatius Theodore Eschmann, O.P.
edited by
Edward A. Synan
PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES
Preparation and publication of this volume was made possible
by a grant from the Medieval Moral Teaching Fund in the
Mediaeval Studies Foundation
CANADIAN CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Eschmann, I. Th. (Ignatius Theodore), 1898-1968
The ethics of Saint Thomas Aquinas : two courses
(The Etienne Gilson series ; 20)
(Studies in medieval moral teaching ; 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88844-720-5
1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. Summa theologia.
I. Synan, Edward A., 1918-1997. II. Pontifical Institute
of Mediaeval Studies. III. Title. IV. Series.
V. Series: Studies in medieval moral teaching ; 1.
B765.T54E771997 230.2 C97-931838-6
© 1997 by
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
59 Queen's Park Crescent East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C4
Printed in United States of America
Table of Contents
Introduction vii
A. The Project vii • B. History and Myth ix • C. Rome x
• D. Germany xiii • E. Eschmann in Canada xv • F. Aca-
demic Views xx • G. Eschmann and Thomism xxiii • H.
Professor Jordan's Contribution xxv • I. Additional Editorial
Principles xxvii
PART ONE. ESCHMANNUS BELLATOR
Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., the Summary of Theology I-II:
Prologue and Question 1, Articles 1-8 3
A. Preliminaries 3 • B. Reflections on the Proposed Project
6 • C. The Prologue 8 • D. The School as Context 10 •
E. Difficulty of Definition 21 • F. The Summa theologiae in the
History of Theology 24 » G. Thirteenth-Century Develop-
ments 30 • H. Remarks on the Structure of the First Five
Questions of Summa theologiae I-II, and Especially of the First
Question 36 • I. The Structure of the First Question: On the
ultimate end of the human being, divided into eight Articles
37 • J. The Sources of the First Question 43 • K. Dubium
46 • L. The Exposition of Article 1 47 • M. The Exposition
of Article 2 74 • N. The Exposition of Article 3 85 • O. The
Exposition of Article 4 98 • P. The Exposition of Article 5
112 • Q. The Exposition of Article 6 127 • R. The Expo-
sition of Article 7 141 • S. The Exposition of Article 8 148 •
T. Conclusion 152
VI . TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART Two. ESCHMANNUS AEDIFICATOR
Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., the Summary of Theology I-II:
The Ethics of the Image of God 159
A. Prudential Ethics 159 • B. The Philosophy of Prudence
174 • C. The Moral and Intellectual Context of Prudence 178
• D. The Driver's-Seat Virtue: Prudence and Truth 197 • E.
Law and the Liberty of the Christian 211
Bibliography 233
A. Saint Thomas Aquinas 233 • B. Other Sources 234
Index 237
A. Index of Names 237 • B. Index of Subjects 239
Introduction
A. THE PROJECT
Authorities at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies have invited me
to edit these university lecture-course materials, left unpublished by their
author, Ignatius Theodore Eschmann O.P. Now long dead, for he died in
1968, Eschmann taught for twenty-two years as a Senior Fellow of the In-
stitute and as a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Univer-
sity of Toronto.
This invitation to edit a small selection of his lectures was prompted
by two considerations. First, this accomplished scholar published relatively
little of his very valuable work; hence an effort to make available a signifi-
cant part of his writing is appropriate. Second, that the invitation to un-
dertake this project has been extended to me stems from the fact that
Eschmann was my professor in a number of lecture courses and seminars
he offered to "License in Mediaeval Studies" candidates in Toronto. This
second consideration is reinforced by the circumstance that during the last
years of Eschmann's life we were colleagues on the teaching staff of the
Institute and the University. Under both formalities, the student-teacher
relationship and later as academic colleagues, we were friends. This pro-
ject, therefore, has been a work of "piety" in the strict sense of pietas; as
a kind of "family obligation" the work has been a privilege rather than a
burden.
Beyond his academic affiliations, Eschmann was a priest in the Ro-
man Catholic Order of Preachers, generally called "Dominicans," a name
derived from that Order's thirteenth century founder, Saint Dominic Guz-
man. It is far from irrelevant to note that the thirteenth century theolo-
gian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose ethical foundations these two courses
examine, was a member of the same Order; the thought of Aquinas was
the focus of Eschmann's work in general as well as of the materials edited
here. This edition presents an instance of moral doctrine, proposed by
Saint Thomas in the thirteenth century, that can be read with penetration
and profit as the twentieth century gives way to the twenty-first
On the non-academic plane, Eschmann resembled physically the tra-
ditional description of Saint Thomas himself: tall and heavily built,
crowned with sparse hair, Eschmann was precise and deliberate in speech
viii INTRODUCTION
and gesture. Of infinitely more importance than his corporeal presence
were our colleague's impressive cultural accomplishments and these were
by no means restricted to academic areas. Not only was Eschmann a scho-
lar of international reputation, he was also an organist, a connoisseur of
music and of literature, a gourmet yet no glutton. Courtly and friendly in
manner, he was a cultivated European gentleman as well as an edifying
Dominican friar.
Eschmann's admirers, above all his students, have long deplored the
fact that his publications were so limited. That paucity of published mater-
ials is at odds with the fact that he had produced an enormous mass of
course materials of the highest quality, either typed or carefully written in
his exceptionally legible hand. Incredible though it may seem, he wrote
out in full each class lecture. These course notes are now to be found in
the Archives of the Pontifical Institute where most of Eschmann's long
teaching career occurred. In their boxes, they have been described by an
expert archivist as occupying approximately "twenty linear feet" of shelv-
ing.
A first conclusion to be drawn from contact with that material and
with his personnel file in the Institute Archives, those documents juxta-
posed with reliable anecdotal memories, my own and those of others, is
that Eschmann was a figure of the sort that inevitably generates myths.
Often enough such myths are harmless elaborations of facts that are strik-
ing enough in themselves. Here the pleasures of fiction—Aristotle has re-
minded us that we embellish the stories we tell in the conviction that thus
"we do our hearers a pleasure" (Poetics 24; 1460a 16-18)—are renounced for
the reliability of either eye-witness reports or of documented fact On
some details, my own witness will be the ground; on many the witness of
friends and colleagues who remember Eschmann well; on still others doc-
uments adduced are, some primary, some secondary.
Into the class of "secondary" documents fall, for example, the Mediae-
val Studies1 notice, provided by the late Laurence K Shook C.S.B. in ac-
cord with our custom of dedicating the issue of that periodical following
the death of a Senior Fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies to the memory of that Fellow. The funeral homily too, preached
by that same distinguished scholar in his role as President of the Pontifical
Institute at the time of Eschmann's death, counts as a secondary source.
Shock's respect for the truth of history is guaranteed by, to take a single
1 L.K. Shook, "Ignatius Eschmann, O.P. 1898-1968," Mediaeval Studies 30 (1968):
V-1X; as is usual a photograph accompanies this notice of a deceased Senior Fellow.
INTRODUCTION IX
instance, his outstanding biography of Etienne Gilson;2 thus these two
records of Shook's words are generally reliable, if not primary, documents.
B. HISTORY AND MYTH
This erudite religious, baptized as an infant under the names "Karl Theo-
dore," was born in Düsseldorf on 13 November 1898, son of a Railroad
District Supervisor named Karl Eschmann and of his wife, Anna Busch-
mann. Karl Theodore's single sibling was a brother named Hans who be-
came a Doctor of Music and a professional organist Our Karl Theodore's
classical secondary school education was provided by the Royal Prussian
Hohenzollern-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf.
A first insight into the mentality of this archetypal German Professor
is provided by an unexpected circumstance: both his birth certificate and
a transcript of his Gymnasium grades (not all of the latter sehr gut, as
Shook mentioned at Eschmann's funeral) are in his file at the Pontifical
Institute. These are primary documents which only Eschmann could have
provided and which only one of his temperament would have preserved
and filed as an adult On graduation from the Gymnasium at the age of
eighteen, Eschmann was taken into the German Army. His Army Pay-
Book, if memory serves, was available to Shook, thanks to that same file,
when the Institute President composed the funeral homily and the Mediae-
val Studies notice of Eschmann's passing. No other staff member would
have thought to include documents of that sort in a personnel dossier, we
must be grateful that Eschmann was meticulous enough to have done so.
The Army Pay-Book, no longer in the file, was almost certainly forwarded
to Eschmann's brother on the death of our colleague. This document gave
witness that Eschmann had received an honorable discharge from the
Army in November 1918. On his military service Eschmann described him-
self as "a faithful, but unenthusiastic, soldier." His single mention to me
of his war-time experience concerned the near impossibility of entrenching
in the water-logged soil of Flanders where he had served with, if my me-
mory can be trusted, the field artillery, not implausibly as a machine gun-
ner (the assignment Shook reported) charged with defending the crew of
an artillery battery against infantry attack.
Much more worthy of notice is the fact that Eschmann's service in
those damp and shallow trenches was the ambience for his careful reading
2 L.K. Shook, Etienne Gilson, The Etienne Gilson Series 6 (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984).