Abstract

Thomistic political philosophers regularly attach a great deal of importance to ‘the problem of the origin of political authority’ and commonly cite one or the other of two traditional theories the translation theory or the designation theory as the answer to this problem. In this paper, we intend to take a fresh look at ‘the problem of the origin of political authority’ and at the translation and the designation theories. Specifically, we have five aims. These are: to demonstrate that ‘the problem of the origin of political authority’ is not merely one problem but rather comprises a number of problems; to state these different problems; to suggest answers for them; to determine to what extent the translation theory and the designation theory provide answers for these problems, and, finally to explain in precisely what sense God is the origin of political authority.