Conflation of “Divine Law” and “Natural Law” in Aquinian Philosophy and Its Outcome for Secularization of Politics

There are certain debates on the proportionality of “Divine Law and Natural Law” in the context of rational discussions and revelation in the Christian world dating back to the Middle Ages. Saint Thomas was one of the theologians who took a different stance in late Middle Ages on proportionality of the Divine Law and the Natural Law. Until his time, the intellectual foundation of Aquinas encompassed two major contradicting groups, i.e. the first group prioritized revelation, consequently supporting superiority of Divine Law over reason and the second group favored superiority of reason over revelation and the Natural Law as such. Aquinas adopted a third approach by introducing Aristotelian philosophy, intending to establish a sort of “coordination” between reason and revelation. In terms of practical wisdom, he followed such coordination through conflation of Divine Law and Natural Law. Aquinas’s innovation manifested itself in politics with the centrality of state and law, i.e. secularization of politics. On this basis, we have studied Aquinas’s political philosophy through reviewing text- and thematic-based methodology of Quentin Skinner in its intellectual basis.