The Thomistic Perception of the Person and Human Rights

The idea of human rights is connected to the modern perception of law founded on subjectivity, in the context of which rights are authorizations of individual action versus a higher authority, resulting in a subjectivity of law. The huge importance of the thomistic perception of the person is connected with the issue of relations between the individual and society, as well as relations between law and state, since Thomas Aquinas foresaw what we call ‘rights of man’. Thus, the person, in a metaphysical context, is associated with natural order, since natural sociability forms the basis of a person’s supernatural fulfillment. Because of his social nature, the person is also a carrier of social relations and a product of his own encounter with other persons. In this way, Thomas Aquinas makes a synthesis of man per se, as part of mankind, and man as a person vis-à-vis others in the sphere of justice, consisting ‘in rendering to each one his right’. Ius is a relation of justice concerning what is right (iustum) from the point of view of the other, “to whom something is due.” Aquinas can be considered a forerunner of human rights of the modern era, as demonstrated by the issue of natural equity, the issue of unjust law and obedience and the issue of political legitimization. In this framework, “human” or “natural” rights are considered moral rights. However, in the sphere of law they are perceived only within the community and common good, by no means constituting exclusive and absolute rights but only rights corresponding with duties and obligations. The Thomistic approach expresses both the free side of man vis-à-vis the state and its structures (in the spiritual level) and the egalitarian demand of law within social relations. Furthermore, it places the sphere of law on the background of common good and common interest. The Thomistic approach of the human person is a response to the modern perception of legal subjectivity and the priority of individuals, associated with the ideology of rights and leading to a confrontation of individual and society and a division of man to natural man and citizen, a product of the antithesis between society and state

The Concept of Relation in the Thomistic Perception of a Person

The article aims to show that the connection of the metaphysics of being with Aristotle’s philosophy of nature allows for the composition of anthropology per se which involves the concept of a person as it emerges from the two fundamental issues: the metaphysical approach to a person ontologically connected with nature, and the concept of a person as relation. The article concludes with the claim that, in Thomistic anthropology, the supernatural world of persons coexists with the natural world of persons who are subject to cosmic order and legal relations. Thus, a person’s inclusion in the framework of legal relations and its ontological liberation in the supernatural field open up the way for the social acknowledgement of the human person

Person and the Tradition of Common Good in Theory of Justice of Thomas Aquinas

The theological elaboration of the notion of a person in the thought of Thomas Aquinas is combined with the acknowledgement of the “nature” of things and the ontological revaluation of the material world, resulting in the perception of the metaphysical (philosophical) notion of a person, which has undoubtedly a worldwide significance for modern thought. Man, as a natural person, is subjected to “relations of justice” concerning, above all, social life in whose context a person is an outcome of natural legitimacy and defined by his relations. Thus, the supernatural destination of a person as human being is complemented by the practical, social character of a person, as expressed in the field of legal relations and law. Consequently, the notion of a person in its spiritual and social-legal context becomes a precursor of the modern era and a forerunner of human rights; however, it remains part of the tradition of common good as expressed in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

L’architecture chrétienne dans la région d’Amathonte à l’époque byzantine (IVe-XIIe siècles). Recherches archéologiques 1991-2012

The ancient city of Amathous, the so-called “ Palaia Lemesos” was the seat of the second most important district of the island in Roman times, after Nea Paphos. The Troodos Mountain mines, the major factor of its prosperity, were included within its boundaries to the north, as well as the Kourion kingdom area to the west, including the Akrotiri peninsula, the Kouris valley, and probably even that of Evdhimou, and to the east the Vassilikos and Pentaschoinos valleys. Within this area, two major bishoprics are known, those of Kourion and Amathous, both very closely related with a third one, that of Neapolis, the autonomy of which is under question. The province remained important even after the removal of the capital city to Constantia in the 4th century, and at the end of the 6th century appears to have been the seat of the Archon Epiphanios, a man who must have played an important role in the restructuring of the defensive system of the island, whereas his son, St John the Almoner, left behind monumental structures reflecting his care for the Christians of his birthplace, Amathous, as well as for the Church as a whole. Great figures, namely saintly bishops, developed important activity, reflected in the ecclesiastical architecture of the area. The monuments uncovered in the last 20 years by the Department of Antiquities, dating from the beginning of the 4th century until 1222, enriched our knowledge regarding that activity and add important information that helps put together a picture of that period This article is the first step.Procopiou Eleni, Xydas Pandèlis. L’architecture chrétienne dans la région d’Amathonte à l’époque byzantine (IVe-XIIe siècles). Recherches archéologiques 1991-2012. In: Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes. Volume 43, 2013. pp. 253-274