NEITHER ENEMY NOR FRIEND - NATURE AS CREATION IN THE THEOLOGY OF SAINT AQUINAS,THOMAS

This paper traces three paradigmatic responses to the presence of evil in nature. Thomas Henry Huxley depicts nature as the enemy of humanit y that morality combats ''at every step.'' Henry Drummond views nature as benevolent, a friend of humanity, and the ultimate basis for moral ity. The paper argues that a third view, that of Thomas Aquinas, regar ds nature as creation, capable of being neither enemy nor friend of hu manity but rather the context within which relations of enmity or frie ndship develop between human beings and God.