Lex Christianorum

(To see related posts, click on the title and scroll to the end of this post) Pietro Vermigli by Hans Asper (1560) THE REFORMER PETER MARTY...

John Calvin THERE IS SOME INCONSISTENCY in John Calvin's theological anthropology of "total depravity" and his express accepta...

THERE ARE INDISPUTABLE PLATONIC precursors to St. Thomas Aquinas's definition of law. As previously related in this blog, St. Thomas de...

THE WORD NEFARIOUS is common enough. The etymology of nefarious is itself interesting, and reveals a gap in our language. The word nefarious...

IN HIS POEM "PIS ALLER,"* the poet Matthew Arnold writes about the practical need we have for the natural law to be revealed in th...

Chapter II: The Perception of Moral Values 36. The examination of the great moral wisdom traditions carried out in the first chapter shows t...

1.5. Further evolution 28. The modern story of the idea of natural law presents itself in certain aspects like a legitimate development of t...

1.4. The development of Christian tradition 26. For the Fathers of the Church the sequi naturam [follow nature] and the sequela Christi [fol...

THE DEPICTION of St. Thomas Aquinas below is from Boardman Robinson's murals in the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., ...

THE LAST REQUISITE for there to be a law--in addition to it being a rule of reason, issued by proper authority, and for the common good of a...

THE COMMON GOOD is the "first and foremost" ( primo et principaliter ) ordering which underlies law. We explored this in yesterday...

ST. THOMAS ADDRESSES the definition of law in Question 90 of his so-called “Treatise on Law” (which is actually part of his Summa Theologica...

IN AN OFT-QUOTED DEFINITION, St. Thomas Aquinas defines law as "nothing other than a certain dictate of reason ( rationis ordinatio ) f...

The relationship between the Eternal Law and creation, on the one hand, and God, on the other, is addressed by St. Thomas in Article 4 of Qu...