Date
25 November 2025 (Tue)
Time
3:00-4:30 pm
Location
OEM 603 (Room 603, Oen Hall Building (Main), HSH Campus, HKBU)
Speaker
Fr. Wojciech Golubiewski OP 葛維杰神父
Language
English
Academic Activities
Aquinas in Conversation with Mozi on War and Peace
Seminar and Colloquium/ Centre for Sino-Christian Studies
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Aquinas in Conversation with Mozi on War and Peace
Date: November 25th, 2025 (Tuesday) | Time: 3:00 - 4:30 PM
Venue: OEM 603 (Room 603, Oen Hall Building (Main), HSH Campus, HKBU)
Speaker: Fr. Wojciech Golubiewski OP 葛維杰神父
Language: English
Abstract
Across cultures and ages, war has recurred as a defining human experience, shaping nations and dividing peoples. It remains with us today, though in new forms, calling for reflection on the moral foundations of peace and on whether war can ever serve as its means. This paper proposes a dialogue between Thomas Aquinas, whose teaching has been central to the Western theory of just war, and Mozi, who offered one of the earliest reflections in history on the just war—two thinkers separated by time and culture yet sharing the conviction that objective standards exist by which the justice or injustice of war can be discerned.
For Aquinas, reflection on war belongs to a broader vision of moral life grounded in the participation of human reason in divine Wisdom. War, though sometimes permitted to restore justice, must always serve peace, the tranquillitas ordinis—which is the work of justice but above all the fruit of charity, the love that rightly orders our affections toward God and toward others.
For Mozi, moral guidance arises from the Will of Heaven (天志) and the principle of impartial care (兼愛). He condemned aggressive war (非攻) as contrary to Heaven’s concern for the good of all under Heaven (天下) and urged everyone—especially rulers—to imitate Heaven’s impartial benevolence. Read in the light of his appeal to Heaven as an exemplary moral agent, Mozi’s teaching may be seen as a form of moral naturalism shaped by transcendent intention.
Their views on war are grounded in parallel visions of moral realism, aligning human action with exemplars and standards that transcend it. This paper explores both their convergences and differences, reflecting on war, peace, and the enduring quest for harmony amid division.
Speaker:
Fr. Wojciech Golubiewski OP 葛維杰神父
Fr. Wojciech Golubiewski OP earned a Master Degree in Law from the University of Gdansk, a Master Degree in Theology from the Catholic University of Lublin, ecclesial degrees of a Licentiate in Theology (STL) summa cum laude from the Pontifical Theological Academy in Kraków, now the Pontifical University of John Paul II, and a Licentiate in Philosophy (PhL) summa cum laude from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He earned his doctoral degrees jointly granted by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PhD in Humanistic Sciences) and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome (PhD in Philosophy) summa cum laude, under the direction of Mikołaj Olszewski and Stephen L. Brock. He has authored Aquinas on Imitation of Nature: Source of Principles of Moral Action, published by the Catholic University of America Press, and scholarly articles on natural law, ethics, and comparative Chinese-Western thought. His research recapitulates themes from Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, natural law, virtue ethics, and comparative Chinese-Western philosophy. In the recent past, he taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and culture at Fu Jen Catholic University. He is currently the director of the Thomas Aquinas Center (多瑪斯‧阿奎那中心) of the Dominican Vice-Province of the Queen of China and a researcher–collaborator of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.