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Front Page Titles (by Subject) QUESTION CXXV.: OF FEAR. - Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2)
QUESTION CXXV.: OF FEAR. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2) [1274]Edition used:Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas. A Translation of the Principal Portions of the Second part of the Summa Theologica, with Notes by Joseph Rickaby, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, 1892).
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QUESTION CXXV.
OF FEAR.
Article I.—Is fear a sin?
R. A thing is said to be sinful in human acts on account of its inordinateness: for the goodness of a human act consists in a certain order. Now the due order is for appetite to be subject to the guidance of reason. Reason dictates that some things are to be shunned, and some things sought; and of things to be shunned, that some are more to be shunned than others; and of things again to be sought, that some are more to be sought than others; and that the more any good is to be sought, the more the opposite evil is to be shunned. Hence reason dictates that sundry good things are to be more sought than sundry other evil things are to be shunned. When then appetite shuns that which reason declares ought to be met and encountered, lest by shunning it other things more to be sought after have to be relinquished, such fear is inordinate and sinful.
Article IV.—Does fear excuse from sin?
R. If any one for fear, in view of shunning evils that are less to be shunned, were to rush upon evils that are more to be shunned, he could not be totally excused from sin, because such fear would be inordinate. Now evils of the soul are more to be feared than evils of the body, and evils of the body more than evils in exterior things. And therefore if any one rushes upon evils of the soul, that is to say, sins, by way of shunning evils of the body, as stripes or death, or evils in exterior things, as the loss of money; or even if he endures evils of the body to avoid loss of money, —he is not totally excused from sin. Nevertheless his sin is in some respect diminished, because what is done for fear is less voluntary.
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