ABSTRACT
As Germain Grisez has recently argued, in his philosophical theology of politics: even though a political society cannot flourish without virtuous citizens, it plainly cannot be government's proper end directly to promote virtue in general, since not all justice and neighborliness are included in political society's common good. Grisez's powerful treatment of patriotism, politics, and citizenship distinguishes nation from state or political society/community, state from government, and government from regime. Thomas Aquinas's treatise on law is the context for his most important treatment of political matters. It is shaped by a methodological decision and a theoretical thesis. The De Regno, an openly theological little treatise written in a style unlike Aquinas's academic works in philosophy and theology, but very probably authentic, includes some main elements of Aristotle's position that states are appropriately organized, and legally regulated, with a view to making their citizens truly good.
