Social Justice
Aquinas defines distributive justice as follows:
...in distributive justice something is given to a private individual, in so far as what belongs to the whole is due to the part, and in a quantity that is proportionate to the importance of the position of that part in respect of the whole. Consequently in distributive justice a person receives all the more of the common goods, according as he holds a more prominent position in the community. This prominence in an aristocratic community is gauged according to virtue, in an oligarchy according to wealth, in a democracy according to liberty, and in various ways according to various forms of community. Hence in distributive justice the mean is observed, not according to equality between thing and thing, but according to proportion between things and persons: in such a way that even as one person surpasses another, so that which is given to one person surpasses that which is allotted to another..
Aquinas asserts that Christians have a duty to distribute with provision to the poorest of society. (See: Gilson, Etienne, "The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas", University of Notre Dame Press, 1994)
Read more about this topic: Thought Of Thomas Aquinas
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