"Thomas Aquinas Writes About Sex".
HIST121- Western Civilization before the Thirty Years War.
1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican theologian and philosopher who was one of the most influential medieval thinkers and writers concerning Scholasticism. St. Thomas Aquinas had a very unique way of addressing appropriate social behavior towards God. "St. Thomas Aquinas identified three types of laws: natural, positive and eternal. According to his treatise, natural law prompts man to act in accordance with achieving his goals and governs man's sense of right and wrong; positive law is the law of the state, or government, and should always be a manifestation of natural law; and eternal law, in the case of rational beings, depends on reason and is put into action through free will, which also works toward the accomplishment of man's spiritual goals." (St. Thomas Aquinas Biography, 2015) The combination of theology and modern philosophic thought identified St. Thomas Aquinas as the unrivaled philosophical influence of the time, this approach would continue to be the building blocks for contemporary thought by following theologians, philosophers, critics and believers.
In the Summa against the Gentiles written around 1260 St. Thomas Aquinas addressed issues of sex in relation to living a morale life. St. Thomas Aquinas specifically addressed the idea that sex outside of marriage, or fornication, was not a sin. St. Thomas Aquinas identified a total of six points to support this argument. The first three were supporting the argument and the remaining four are rebuttals. The first arguing point is based on consensual sex between man and woman. St. Thomas Aquinas points out that as long as the woman is not married or under control of any man, she is a willing participant who is in full control of her body then the sexual act cannot be considered a sin. This opinion would have been very controversial in medieval times because sex was considered more of a tool for procreation, the idea of unmarried individuals performing sexual acts for pleasure would certainly be look upon as some sort of sin against God.
