Biblical Natural law: A Theocentric and Teleological Approach PDF
Preview Biblical Natural law: A Theocentric and Teleological Approach
BIBLICAL NATURAL LAW This page intentionally left blank Biblical Natural Law A Theocentric and Teleological Approach MATTHEW LEVERING 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford26 OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ©MatthewLevering2008 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2008 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Levering,Matthew,1971- Biblicalnaturallaw:atheocentricandteleologicalapproach/MatthewLevering. p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN978–0–19–953529–3(alk.paper) 1. Naturallaw–Biblicalteaching. 2. Law(Theology)–Biblicalteaching. 3. Christianityandlaw. 4. Naturallaw. I. Title. BS680.L33L48 2008 241(cid:1).2–dc22 2007043999 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–953529–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Acknowledgements This book began under the tutelage of my colleagues Marc Guerra and Steven Long in the summer of 2005. Marc met with me on a weekly basis to discuss key books and articles in the field of natural law doctrine, and Steve patiently answered my questions at a theol- ogy faculty retreat. Much of what is good in this book is owed to them. Joseph Good, a librarian at Ave Maria University, and Andrew Mullally helped me to obtain important secondary literature on the topicofnaturallaw;manythankstothem.Otherfriendsgenerously assistedthedevelopmentofthemanuscript.JörgenVijgen,towhom Iamonceagainindebted,readandcritiquedanearlydraft.Andrew Hofer,OP,andGuyMansini,OSB,offeredhighlyvaluablecriticisms on later drafts. Graham McAleer helped me with the chapter that engageshiswork,andCyrilO’RegankindlyreadthesectiononHegel. Steve Long greatly improved the Introduction and the final chap- ter. Romanus Cessario, OP, generously read the penultimate draft. ThanksalsofortheexcellentsuggestionsmadebyChristopherKaczor andananonymousreviewerforOxfordUniversityPress. I completed the book under the auspices of the Myser Fellow- ship at the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. For encouraging me to pursue the Fellowship, I am grateful to my dean, Michael Dauphinais, and my department chair, Father MatthewLamb.David SolomongavemetheFellowshipathisCen- ter, and his larger-than-life personality, intelligence, and wit are a joy to behold. I have also had the privilege of getting to know his collaborators, among them Dan McInerny, Ralph McInerny, Alas- dairMacIntyre,JohnO’Callaghan,andElizabethKirk,aswellasthe Center’s Senior Fellow for 2006–2007, Kevin Flannery, SJ. Special thanksareowedtoThomasHibbs,MichaelSherwin,OP,andRussell Hittinger for recommending me for the Fellowship. Thanks also to Joseph Torchia, OP, and Gregory LaNave for publishing an earlier version of Chapter 3 in The Thomist. Tom Perridge skilfully guided vi Acknowledgements themanuscriptthroughOxfordUniversityPress,andLouiseMitchell graciouslypreparedthebibliography. Iwishtothankalltheotherfriendswhocontinuetodosomuchto encouragemeinthetheologicalvocation,aswellasmyparents,in- laws, and brother for their love. My children David, Andrew, Irene, John, and Daniel are a delight: may God bless them! This book is dedicated to my greatest friend, my wife Joy: I ‘give thanks to God alwaysforyou’(2Thess.1:3). Contents Introduction 1 1. TheBibleandNaturalLaw 22 2. AnthropocentricNaturalLaw 69 3. NaturalLawandNaturalInclinations 140 4. NaturalLawandtheOrderofCharity 189 Conclusion 224 WorksCited 235 Index 255 This page intentionally left blank Introduction This study proposes that the full scope of natural law doctrine is learnedbestbymeansofadialoguebetweenbiblicalexegesis,theol- ogy,andphilosophy,whereeachenrichestheother.WhereasEnlight- enmentthinkersgenerallyassumedthatthe‘bookofScripture’would only mystify and distort the reading of the ‘book of nature’, more recently both ‘books’, separated from each other, have been deemed unreliable. On this view, the appeal in ethics either to natural law or to Scripture is no longer viable. As the biblical scholar John J. Collins, a Catholic, approvingly remarks, ‘The Bible can no more provide us with objective, transcendent moral certainties than can naturallaw’.1 Pacethisview,thisstudyseekstouncoveronceagainthefruitful- ness for moral theology of reuniting the two ‘books’. Most biblical scholars today who treat the topic of ethics in the Bible, especially as regards the New Testament, do so without reference to ‘natural law’.Naturallawseemsforsuchscholarstobeaforeignphilosophical concept that can be ignored in ethics rooted in the Bible, and that indeed may pose a threat to such ethics, since ‘natural law’ often has been used in Protestant and Catholic liberalism to advance a public ethics grounded solely in the exercise of reason apart from any relation to God. Chapter 1 therefore explores contemporary ethics and exegesis, specifically through the work of the Protestant 1 JohnJ.Collins,‘TheBiblicalVisionoftheCommonGood’,inhisEncounterswith BiblicalTheology(Minneapolis,MN:FortressPress,2005),78.Onthisviewneither the‘bookofnature’northe‘bookofScripture’isintelligibleinaunifiedfashion. CollinsaffirmsnonethelessthattheBibleremainsrelevanttocontemporaryethics, bothbecauseofitsinfluenceuponWesternculture,andbecauseitisthe‘foundational document’oftheChristiantradition.
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