Aquinas, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion

This monograph examines Thomas Aquinas's ethical philosophy and its profound interconnection with his philosophy of religion, demonstrating how moral reasoning and theological reflection mutually inform one another in the Thomistic system. Hibbs presents a comprehensive analysis of how Aquinas's virtue ethics emerges from and depends upon his metaphysical and theological commitments, while simultaneously showing how ethical inquiry serves as a pathway to understanding the divine nature.

The work engages primarily with contemporary debates surrounding the moral argument for God's existence, though Hibbs approaches this not through direct argumentation but through careful exposition of Aquinas's integrated worldview. He demonstrates how Aquinas's account of the good life necessarily involves orientation toward God as the supreme good, making ethics inseparable from theology. The analysis reveals how practical reason, in Aquinas's framework, naturally leads to questions about ultimate purpose and divine law, suggesting that moral experience itself points toward transcendent reality.

Hibbs's methodology combines historical scholarship with philosophical analysis, situating Aquinas within his medieval context while drawing out implications for contemporary moral philosophy and philosophy of religion. The work addresses modern critics who attempt to separate Thomistic ethics from its theological foundations, arguing that such separation fundamentally misunderstands the architectonic structure of Aquinas's thought. Particular attention is given to how the cardinal and theological virtues form an integrated whole, with natural virtue finding its completion in grace.

The monograph contributes significantly to understanding how classical theistic ethics differs from secular moral philosophy, not merely in its conclusions but in its fundamental conception of human nature and destiny. Hibbs shows how Aquinas's eudaimonistic framework necessarily culminates in beatific vision, making the question of God central rather than peripheral to ethical life. This analysis proves especially relevant to contemporary debates about whether morality requires religious grounding, though Hibbs maintains a primarily expository rather than polemical stance.

Through careful textual analysis and philosophical reconstruction, the work illuminates how Aquinas's synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology produces a distinctive approach to both ethics and natural theology. This contribution helps contemporary readers understand how pre-modern thinkers conceived the relationship between moral philosophy and religious belief as one of mutual enrichment rather than conflict or independence.