Paul Cornish - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

I am an associate professor of Political Science at Grand Valley State University. My research interests are in the history of political thought with a focus on the Catholic natural law tradition and the concept of human rights.

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Papers by Paul Cornish

The present argument focuses on part of Augustine's defense of Christianity in The City of Go... more The present argument focuses on part of Augustine's defense of Christianity in The City of God. There Augustine argues that the Christian religion did not cause the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 ce. Augustine revised the definitions of a 'people' and 'republic' found in Cicero's De Republica in light of the impossibility of true justice in a world corrupted by sin. If one returns these definitions t o their original context, and accounts for Cicero's own political teachings, one finds that Augustine follows Cicero's republicanism on several key points. First, civil rule differs from mastery over slaves. Second, political life is indeterminate, so a republic could be any regime suitable for governing free human beings. Third, the prudent man may not abstain from public service. For Augustine the duty to public service is connected to his tragic portrayal of life and suffering in society after 'the fall'. Augustine's contribution to the r...

Public Administration Review, 2016

The Review of Politics, 1998

Recent scholarship has demonstrated that the language of subjective natural rights can be found i... more Recent scholarship has demonstrated that the language of subjective natural rights can be found in a wide variety of medieval juristic and scholastic texts. This is part of a general trend in the study of political ideas that stresses the continuity between medieval and modern political values. However, many leading scholars of medieval political ideas maintain that no language of subjective natural rights can be found in Aquinas's political writings, based as they are on a famous objective definition of right (jus) as the object of justice (justitia). Other scholars argue that Aquinas's notion of subjective rights is peripheral to his political philosophy. The essay argues that Aquinas, while commenting on canon law texts, explicitly posits a subjective natural right to marry, based on the natural equality and natural liberty of all human beings. This can be seen by his claim that a slave may contract marriage, even without the consent of the master. This is one example of ...

History of European Ideas, 1994

European Journal of Political Theory, 2010

The present argument focuses on part of Augustine’s defense of Christianity in The City of God. T... more The present argument focuses on part of Augustine’s defense of Christianity in The City of God. There Augustine argues that the Christian religion did not cause the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 CE. Augustine revised the definitions of a ‘people’ and ‘republic’ found in Cicero’s De Republica in light of the impossibility of true justice in a world corrupted by sin. If one returns these definitions to their original context, and accounts for Cicero’s own political teachings, one finds that Augustine follows Cicero’s republicanism on several key points. First, civil rule differs from mastery over slaves. Second, political life is indeterminate, so a republic could be any regime suitable for governing free human beings. Third, the prudent man may not abstain from public service. For Augustine the duty to public service is connected to his tragic portrayal of life and suffering in society after ‘the fall’. Augustine’s contribution to the republican tradition is not to be found in the...