Lawyers, Guns, & Money: Consent, Patriotism, & Money in Medieval Political Thought

Session Submission Type: Virtual Created Panel

Session Description

Three of the most salient political issues confronted by medieval thinkers pertained to 1) whether and on what grounds the power of rulers ought to be restrained 2) how Christians can be rightly ordered in their love for God relative to their love of country and 3) what role specie could and should play in social life. The present panel explores some attempted resolutions to these dilemmas as found in a widely employed legal maxim, St. Thomas Aquinas’ natural law theory, and Islamic and Christian attitudes toward a monetarized economy.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Politica

Individual Presentations

• Quod Omnes Tangit: Constitutional Principle or Malleable Authority? - Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M University

• A Natural Law Account of Patriotism: Aquinas on the Fourth Commandment - Andrew Kyle Bobo, University of Dallas

• The Invention of Currency in Medieval Islamic Political Thought - Vasileios Syros, University of Chicago

Chair

• Catherine R. Power Glendon College, York University

Discussant

• Mary Elizabeth Sullivan University of Central Arkansas