The First Grace: Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World

380 Pages·2007·0.967 MB·English

by  Russell Hittinger

The First Grace

The First Grace
Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World
Russell Hittinger
ISI B
OOKS
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Copyright © 2003 ISI Books, the imprint of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Paperback edition, December 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any
information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote
brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine,
newspaper, or broadcast.
Hittinger, Russell, 1947–
The first grace : rediscovering the natural law in a post-Christian
world / Russell Hittinger. — Wilmington, Del. : ISI Books, 2007.
p. ; cm.
Originally published in 2003.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-933859-46-0 (alk. paper)
1. Religion and law. 2. Natural law. 3. Natural theology. 4. Catholic
Church—Doctrines. 5. Natural law—Religious aspects—Catholic Church.
BL65.L33 H58 2007 2007930264
171/.2—dc22 0711
ISI Books
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Post Office Box 4431
Wilmington, DE 19807-0431
Cover design by Sam Torode
Interior book design by Brooke D. Haas
Manufactured in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to MZH
and to FRH on the year of his graduation.

Contents
Acknowledgments / ix
Introduction / xi
SECTION ONE:
REDISCOVERING THE NATURAL LAW
Natural Law and Catholic Moral Theology / 3
One
Natural Law as “Law” / 39
Two
Natural Law in the Positive Laws / 63
Three
Authority to Render Judgment / 93
Four
SECTION TWO:
NATURAL LAW AND THE POST-CHRISTIAN WORLD
Natural Rights, Under-Specified Rights,
Five
and Bills of Rights / 115
Private Uses of Lethal Force:
Six
The Case of Assisted Suicide / 135
The Supreme Court v. Religion / 163
Seven
A Crisis of Legitimacy (including a Response to Critics) / 183
Eight
Dignitatis Humanae, Religious Liberty,
Nine
and Ecclesiastical Self-Government / 215
Technology and the Demise of Liberalism / 243
Ten
Reasons for Civil Society / 265
Eleven
Notes / 285
Index / 325
Acknowledgments
T
hanks are due to my editor at ISI Books, Jeremy Beer, who
discovered “the first grace” buried in the obscurity of a
footnote and had the good sense to see that it is just the right title for the
entire volume. I thank my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy
and Religion at the University of Tulsa. It has been a privilege to hold a
chair of Catholic Studies at a Presbyterian university teaching, for the
most part, Baptist students. On another ecumenical note, I thank Richard
John Neuhaus and the Institute for Religion and Public Life, which is the
epitome of ecumenical and intra-religious dialogue in the United States.
In the different colloquia and symposia sponsored by the institute, I
learned how other faiths and denominations make sense of natural law. I
am grateful to the Earhart Foundation and the William K. Warren
Foundation, both of whom provided material and moral support over the
several years that I labored on these essays.
Some of the chapters in this book have previously appeared, in revised
form, in the American Journal of Jurisprudence, Review of Politics, Revue Générale
de Droit, Loyola Law Review, Crisis, First Things, and the George Washington
University Law Review. I thank these journals, as well as the American Maritain
Association, the Wethersfield Institute, William B. Eerdmans Publishing
x THE FIRST GRACE
Company, Ignatius Press, and the Catholic University of America Press
for granting me permission to reprint some of the material that ap-
pears here. The reader is directed to the Notes for full publication de-
tails.