“The Capacious Mind of St. Thomas”

Kevin Flannery, S.J.Pontifical Gregorian University
Co-Sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
The thought of Thomas Aquinas, especially as it bears upon human action, leads one to make difficult choices. Aquinas insists that a lie even to save the life of another is always a sin. He also insists that one ought not ever by means of a direct act to take the life an innocent human being. Understanding Thomas's capacious mind” and the nature of the acts in question held us to understand why we should follow him in these matters.
Kevin Flannery, SJ, is Ordinary Professor of the History of Ancient Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he previously served as Dean of the Philosophy Faculty. Fr. Flannery is the author of many works on ethics and on the history of logic, including Acts Amid Precepts: The Aristotelian Logical Structure of Thomas Aquinas's Moral Theory. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford.