NATURAL LAW TODAY

Outline:

1. Documents of the II Vatican Council which make definitive statements

regarding natural law:
Dignitatis Humanae (DH) #3
Gaudium et Spes (GS) #16
2. Based on these statements, there is what is called “common morality of
humankind.” Such morality is the basis of addressing the social encyclicals
to “all people of goodwill.”
3. As the natural law is defined as the participation of rational creature in the
eternal law of God… by means of his reason he discovers moral truths that
will guide his choices and actions. These moral truths are rooted in the
being of the human person and the constitutive elements of human nature.
DH #14
GS #51
“What is demanded by natural law is imprinted in human nature.” It
answers the question what is the source of moral truths.
4. The controversy: “What is human nature?” the principles and norms of
morality are derived from the natural inclinations, physical operations and
biological processes as nature has endowed the human person. (position
taken by the magisterium) This is what is called physicalism or biologism.
(revisionist position)
- the origin of moral absolutes and intrinsically evil acts (Moral
absolutes are norms which prohibit certain kinds of actions because
they are intrinsically evil, e.i., they go against nature)
- the controversy is centered on sexual ethics and bioethcs
- two schools of thought:
- one representing the natural law tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas
with its leading moral theologians in the person of Grisez, Finnis,
Boyle and May and the other called the Revisionists represented by
Richard McCormick, Josef fuchs, Louis Janssens.
5. In response to the controversy: Veritatis Splendor

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Content:

1. There are two statements from the documents of the II Vatican Council
which have obvious reference to natural law, namely:: a) Dignitatis
Humanae (Declaration on Religious Liberty) b) Gaudium Et Spes
(Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

DH #3;: “…the highest norm of human life is the divine law itself – eternal.
objective, universal, by which God orders, directs, and governs the whole
world and the ways of the human community according to a plan conceived
in his wisdom and love. God has enabled man to participate in this law of
his so that, under the gentle disposition of divine providence, many will be
able to arrive at a deeper and deeper knowledge of unchangeable truth.”

GS #16: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law he has not laid
upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice ever calling him to love and
to do what is good and avoid what is evil, tells him inwardly at the right
moment: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by
God.”

2. In a very positive sense, the implications of these statements constitute the

foundation of what is called “common morality of humankind.” Gaudium
Et Spes clearly affirms that such a morality can be established: “Through
loyalty to conscience Christians are joined to other men in the search for
truth and for the right solutions to so many moral problems which arise
both in the life of individuals and from social relationships.” (GS 16)

By appealing to natural law the Church can come forward with moral
teaching which is acceptable not only to Catholic faithful, specifically, or to
other non-Catholic Christians, in general, but even to non-Christians. Such
is the case of the landmark social encyclical “Pacem in Terris” which was
the first encyclical to be addressed to “all people of goodwill.” The doctrine
on natural law is solidly grounded on the recognition of the ability of every
human person to discover through the reflection of reason the demands of
the moral order. This is the basis of the solidarity of humankind in the
promotion and defense of universal values such as peace, justice, human
dignity and rights and others.

Thus the magisterium has used natural law arguments in many of its
teaching on moral matters so that such teachings may have a universal
acceptance not only within the Church but outside of it. This is the case on
the teaching of the Church regarding social issues and the social order. An
example of this are the social encyclicals. However such is not the case

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 regarding teaching in sexual ethics and conjugal ethics (and even perhaps
with bioethics). (no universal acceptance) Many of the disputes and
controversies between the teaching authority of the church and moral
theologians revolve around these areas. An example of this is the encyclical
Humanae Vitae which provoked dissension to the teaching authority of the
Church.

The question is WHY? Why is it that there are question is in the field of
sexual ethics and conjugal or bioethics?

3. To answer the question let us again return to the definition of natural law of
St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologiae, defined
natural law “as the participation of the rational creature in the eternal law
of God.” This means that by means of his reason, the person discovers
moral truths that will guide his choices and actions. These moral truths are
rooted in the being of the person and the constitutive elements of human
nature. In other words, moral truths are imprinted in human nature
and the person discovers this through the reflection of reason on
human nature. What is demanded by natural law is in human nature. The
documents of the II Vatican Council I cited, Dignitatis Humanae and
Gaudium et Spes clearly indicate this:

DH # 14: “…to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the
moral order which spring from human nature itself.

GS # 51: “…the objective criteria must be used, criteria drawn from the
nature of the human person and human action…”

So the critical point of discussion which has divided moral theologians is

the understanding of what human nature is as the source of moral
norms. This problem of understanding is very complex which I dare not
touch in this presentation. But let me put it simply that those who follow St.
Thomas Aquinas will accept that human nature refers to those natural
inclinations, including the physical operations and biological processes,
endowed by God to the person that protect and promote his good. These
inclinations as apprehended by reason are directed toward particular goods
and based on these goods we draw moral norms.

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 Ex: man has a natural tendency to preserve and promote life
- this natural inclination point to a particular good, the good of life.
From this good we draw a moral principle “life must be respected.”
Then from this principle we enunciate a moral norm “do not kill.”
Thus a norm becomes an expression of a particular good of the
human person rooted in his natural inclinations.

Thus anyone who frustrates the natural course of the operations of what
God has designed for nature so that a particular human good is attained or
whoever uses a natural faculty outside what is designed for by nature, acts
against nature itself thus commits something immoral. Ultimately, he
violates the order established by God, the author of nature.

This particular understanding of what human nature runs through

magisterial pronouncements regarding sexual ethics and conjugal ethics. To
cite an example taken from Persona Humana, the Declaration on Certain
Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, it has this to say :

“The main reason that masturbation is an intrinsically and seriously

disordered act is that, whatever the motive for acting in this way, the
deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside normal conjugal relations
essentially contradicts the finality of the faculty.”

` Since human nature has been designed to attain its proper ends, any action
that hinders or deviates towards the attainment of these ends are considered
intrinsically evil acts and therefore their prohibition is absolute. Thus this
understanding of natural law as imprinted in human nature also gave rise to
the interrelated concepts of intrinsically evil acts and moral absolutes.

In reaction, however, this understanding has been criticized as reducing natural

law to physicalism or biologism. Physicalism refers to the tendency in moral
analysis to emphasize or even to absolutize, the physical and biological aspects of
the human person and human actions independent of reason and freedom. A group
of theologians known as “Revisionists” have come up with their own
interpretation of natural law by saying that it is not human nature which becomes
the source of moral norms but it is reason itself reflecting on human experience.
So today there are two strains of natural law interpretation. One is the
interpretation of natural law which takes human nature as the source of moral
norms and the other is the interpretation that designates reason not human nature
as the source of moral norms. (Richard Gula p.238ff.) (The former is about the
natural inclinations, physical operations and biological process, while the latter is
the freedom of human reason to reflect on human experience.)

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From the Revisionist point of view, “Natural law is reason reflecting on human
experience discovering moral value.” (Gulla 241) This framework emphasizes
the freedom of the individual expressed in the capacity of reason to reflect on the
moral truths of human experience to determine the meaning of his behavior. It
assumes that morality is based on reality and that we come to know morality
through human experience. It is worth noting that that revisitionist considers the
following as the key features of natural law: real, experiential, consequential,
historical, proportional and personal. (Gulla 241-246)

Following the criticism of Veritatis Splenodour against the revisionist

In their view, man, as a rational being, not only can but actually must freely
determine the meaning of his behaviour. This process of "determining the
meaning" would obviously have to take into account the many limitations of
the human being, as existing in a body and in history. Furthermore, it would
have to take into consideration the behavioural models and the meanings
which the latter acquire in any given culture. Above all, it would have to
respect the fundamental commandment of love of God and neighbour. Still,
they continue, God made man as a rationally free being; he left him "in the
power of his own counsel" and he expects him to shape his life in a personal
and rational way. (VS 47)

Conclusion:

From what has been said, natural law today is not a settled theological question
but a subject of controversy among moral theologians and between the
magisterium and those dissenting to its authority.

However to set forth authoritatively what is the official teaching of the church
regarding moral matters, John Paul II came out with the encyclical Veritatis
Splendor which addressed wide ranging disputes in catholic moral theology.

John Paul II categorically asserts that “this moral theory does not correspond to
the truth about man and his freedom.” (VS 48) In regard to the objection of the
revisionist regarding the interpretation of natural law as physicalism or biologism,
John Paul II stated that the human person is a unity of body and soul which means
to say the as a bodily being the natural inclinations, bodily faculties and
operations, and biological processes are not merely indicative of something that is
purely physical but also of the nature of the human person in his totality, and not
merely as a bodily being. His bodily characteristics become a medium of what it
means to be fully human. VS 47, 48, 49 and 53, william may, 276-279

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