Aquinas on the Object and Evaluation of the Moral Act: Rhonheimer’s Approach and Some Recent Interlocutors

This essay briefly contextualizes Martin Rhonheimer’s work in Thomistic action theory in light of the contemporary renewal of Thomistic ethics, while further noting some of interpreters who influenced the development of his thought. The primary goal, however, is to offer an exposition of his approach to the object and evaluation of human acts, and note how its key aspects draw upon Aquinas’s texts, and how they relate to alternative readings. Among the key emphases of his approach are (i) an explicit denial that the object is simply a “thing” of the physical order, (ii) a corresponding affirmation that the object is a human act ordered to an end, (iii) an insistence on the contribution of practical reason to the formal constitution of the object, (iv) an further insistence that the rule and measure for human action is reason, and (v) an emphasis on the rational structure of the virtues as reflecting this rule and measure. Those familiar with the post conciliar history of moral theology are well aware that, following a decline in the post conciliar years, Aquinas’s ethics is enjoying a renewed prominence among a wide range of moralists, including both theologians and philosophers, and – among the former – both Catholics and Protestants. Followers of developments in Catholic moral theology are also aware of the centrality, during this period, of debates regarding the good and evil of human actions. In recent years we have therefore witnessed a great renewal of interest in the Thomistic theory of the moral act or “action theory,” with an increasing number of scholars offering their contributions. A major stimulus to