Just weeks after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Fr. Anthony Giambrone, O.P. published an article in America Magazine warning that Catholics inclined to celebrate the life and service of the late Supreme Court justice should not be so inclined to celebrate his judicial philosophy. Fr. . . . . Continue Reading »
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes gave voice to the “modern” project in law: It would be a gain, he said, “if every word of moral significance could be banished from the law altogether, and other words adopted which should convey legal ideas uncolored by anything outside the law.” The law would . . . . Continue Reading »
We grasp the order of “nature” only through the gospel. Continue Reading »
Natural law isn't about the substance of morality, but about the form of practical reason. Continue Reading »
I learned in these pages not long ago that it is perilous to express doubts regarding the persuasive power of most natural-law theory in today’s world. Not that I would dream of rehearsing the controversy again; but I will note that, at the time, I took my general point to be not that . . . . Continue Reading »
Although I am grateful to Peter Leithart for his interest in my work and his efforts to understand my views about basic human goods, his critique of my thought on the subject seems to me to have gone (to use his term) awry. Continue Reading »
Is a claim drawn from revelation “sectarian”? Continue Reading »
Protestants often charge that natural law theory minimizes sin, ignores grace, avoids history, displaces the gospel. Can these objections be met? Continue Reading »
Faced with sharp differences over scriptural interpretation, many early moderns thought nature might provide a basis for consensus. They were wrong. Continue Reading »
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