[Revised entry by Anthony Celano on November 8, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Medieval theories of moral reasoning have their origins in the moral theology of St. Augustine and the rational ethics of Aristotle. Until the thirteenth century Augustine’s responses to questions concerning free will, predestination, the nature of goodness, and divine freedom dominated moral speculation in the Latin West. For Augustine morality demands the human will’s conformity to the prescriptions of the immutable, necessary and eternal law. Augustine claims that the eternal law allows actions that conform to the command…