Both within and without the Church, contemporary political discourse is haunted by the question of ethnicity and identity. Many thinkers further have sounded the death knell of the liberal world order, which promised the eventual abolition of ethnic ties and the coalescence of the brotherhood of humanity. At the same time, there is a rising tide of ‘ethnonationalism’, which (over-) emphasizes the importance of ethnic identity at the expense of recognition of a shared common humanity among all people. Happily, St. Thomas Aquinas presents a remedy in his work, noting the importance of ethnic identity and kinship, which the Angelic doctor places within a wider framework of charity.
