The resurgence of the Thomist concept of property as the basis of the Catholic response to the social question

Abstract

This article aims to expose and comment on the importance of the concept of property, as developed by Thomas Aquinas, for the development of the response given by the Catholic Church to the so-called social question. This medieval philosopher defended, in his Summa Theologica, that private property is in conformity with natural law, as long as it remains subject to the social function. Thus, from the methodological perspective suggested by Hans Robert Jauss (2002), we seek to reassemble the process of production of the concept and, later, the moments of appropriation, in order to demonstrate that the Catholic Social Doctrine, initially formulated by Leo XIII, in the century, was based on the Thomist perspective of property.