ABSTRACT:
The present paper deals with two of the main 20th Century hermeneutic models that explain the political thought of Thomas Aquinas. One, well represented by the work of I. Th. Eschmann, regards the relation between Aquinas and his predecessors. The other, well represented by W. Ullmann, looks at the relation between Aquinas and modern thought. In demarcating the virtues as well the limitations of these two hermeneutic models, it is possible to understand the potentialities present in them and to discover new ways for overcoming, on the one hand, the imagined strain between the power of ecclesiastical and the civil authorities, and, on the other hand, fears regarding the concept of nation. This last concept, although embryonic in Aquinas' works, is essential to not misunderstanding his Aristotelian republicanism.
KEYWORDS:
Thomas Aquinas; medieval political thought; church; state; nation