Natural Law: Historical, Systematic and Juridical Approaches Edited by Alejandro N. Garcia, Mario Silar and José M. Torralba SI Cambridge Scholars PublishingNatural Law: Historical, Systematic and Juridical Approaches, Edited by Alejandro N. Garcia, Mario Silar and José M. Torralba This book first published 2008 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing : 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ‘A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2008 by Alejandro N. Garcia, Mario Silar and José M. Torralba and contriburors. All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, of transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-84718-643-2, ISBN (13): 9781847186430TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .. Introduction Part I: Historical Approaches Chapter One... Marcus Tullius Cicero and the Role of Nature in the Knowledge of Moral Good Laura B. Corso de Estrada Chapter Two Rom 1:18-2:16 and Natural Law: A Rhetorical Approach Juan-Luis Caballero Chapter Three. Practical Truth and Practical Falsehood in Joaquin Garcla-Huidobro Chapter Four... : The Darkening of Natural Reason and the Force of Law and Custom Maria Elton Chapter Five ... Some Reflections on Ethical Rationality in the Economic Theory of the School! of Salamanca Maria Idoya Zorroza Chapter Si Phillip Melanchthon and the Reception of Aristotelian Natural Law Theory in the European Reformation Manfred Svensson Chapter Seven.. 197 Montaigne and Descartes: A Dialogue on Morals Raquel Lazarovi Table of Contents Chapter Bight Natural law in Hume: Angel Belefia Lopez n Imitation of Divine Voluntarism? Chapter Nine... 7 ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Law in the Early Writings of Leibniz Agustin Echavarria Chapter Ten... Edmund Burke and the Natural Law Ivone Moreira Chapter Eleven ... Kant on the Law of Nature as the Type of Moral Law: On the “Typic of the Faculty of Pure Practical Judgment” and the Good as the Object of Practical Reason José M. Torralba Part 11: Contemporary Reception of Natural Law Chapter Twelve .... Phenomenological Perspectives on Natural Law Encama Llames 2 237 Chapter Thirteen... Guaranteeing the Right i: ‘Have Rights: Hannah Arendt’s Theory of Politics Julia Urabayen Chapter Fourteen Alasdair MacIntyre: On Natural Law Margarita Mauri Chapter Fifteen... The Relation between Natural Law and the Law of Christ in the Context of the Current Debate on the Specificity of Christian Morality Tomés TrigoNatural Law: Historical, Systematic and Juridical Approaches vii Part III: Systematic Approaches Chapter Sixteen .... 1.289 Naturalistic Fallacy and Ethics: Problems of the Normativity of Nature in Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy Héctor Zagal Chapter Seventeen The Practical Value of Natural Law Theory in the Work of St Thomas Aquinas Mario Silar Chapter Eighteen ... Imperium, Instinct and Natural Law Teresa Enriquez Chapter Nineteen.. Natural Law, Essential Law and Personal Law: A Study on the Nature, Hierarchy and Aim of these Human “laws” Juan Fernando Sellés Chapter Twenty... Health as a Norm and Principle of Intelligibility José Ignacio Murillo Part IV: Juridical Approaches Chapter Twenty One. Practical Reason, Morality and Law Angela Aparisi Miralles Chapter Twenty Two... a Philosophical Hermeneutics and Natural Law: ome Critical and Evaluative Considerations Carlos I. Massini-Correas Chapter Twenty Three. Rules of Imputation and Human ationality Pablo Sanchez-Ostizviii Table of Contents Chapter Twenty Four Practical Reason, Justice and Law (the Present Relevance of the Aristotelean-Thomistic Perspective) Diego Poole Chapter Twenty Five... Exigibility in Legal Obligations Caridad Velarde Bibliography List of Contributors .. Subject Index. Name Index...CHAPTER TWO ROM 1:18-2:16 AND NATURAL LAW: A RHETORICAL APPROACH JUAN-LUIS CABALLERO The word “nomos”, law, appears quite frequently in the Letter to the Romans; in this work of St. Paul this word plays a leading role in the history of the salvation of mankind. Nevertheless, throughout the writings of Paul the word law is used with great ambivalence, and its exact meaning is not always clearly pinpointed: it may be the Mosaic Law, the law of Christ, law in a much more generic sense, etc. Specifically, in the first two chapters of the Letter to the Romans, an unwritten law is referred to, engraved on the hearts of men': “So, when gentiles, not having the Law, still through their own innate sense behave as the Law commands, then, even though they have no Law, they are a law for themselves. They can demonstrate the effect of the Law engraved on their hearts, to which their own conscience bears witness; since they are aware of various considerations, some of which accuse them, while others provide them with a defense” (Rom 2:14-15). What is Paul talking about in these verses? Just how useful would this text be in the scope of things that we consider when reflecting on what we call natural law? In this study we will focus on two passages from the Letter to the Romans: Rom 1:18-32 and Rom 2:14-16. The intent of the following considerations is to situate these two sets of verses in the general context of the Letter to the Romans.” To this effect we will approach the texts from a thetorical point of view, in order to best determine their function and ' The translation of the Bible quoted in this study is that of the New Jerusalem Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1985). ? We leave aside other Pauline texts that may be of interest when dealing with natural law and conscience, such as Rom 7:14-25 or 1 Cor 8.24 Chapter Two sense in the Letter as a whole. The recourse to the rhetorical aspect is founded on the chiefly argumentative nature of the document in question. Some initial considerations Due to the absolutely singular nature of the writings of the New Testament, part of which is formed by the individual characteristics of the Pauline letters, a few things must be considered in order to set the scene: a) The Letter to the Romans is not a Letter that can be understood straight away. Leaving aside other aspects that can make its sense dark and distant, this Letter, especially in Chapters 1-8, is of a profoundly argumentative nature. This implies that for its correct understanding, an approach that allows for a personalization of the theses purported by Paul—the propositions—is needed; not to mention the necessity of the classification, according to importance, of the reasons and proofs that he gives to support them. The latter are given in favor of the former, and are not what the Letter directly deals with b) We must take into account its historical context, both cultural and religious, as well as the exact sense that Paul gives each term he uses, which confers a concrete and meaningful orientation to the comparisons, the paradoxes, and the antitheses, all of which he so frequently puts into use. c) It is necessary, and on occasion crucial—in reference to the understanding of the text—, to define who the speaker or speakers are, in the “dialogue” that the Apostle presents: the pious Jew; the Christian of Jewish origin; the Christian of a gentile origin; the gentile, or the non-Jew, i.e., the nations: the setting in which St. Paul finds himself is the Judaism of his time.* d) Even though it may seem a somewhat generic piece of input if not illustrated with examples, it is important to keep in mind that Paul very frequently uses implications in his reasoning that derive from statements in Holy Scripture, and yet do not appear explicitly in the Biblical text. 2 Cf George A. Kennedy, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism, Studies in Religion (Chapel Hill/London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 9. * Cf, Jean-Noél Aletti, Comment Dieu est-il juste? Clefs pour interpréter Iépitre aux Romains (Paris: Seuil, 1991).