Posts tagged "Natural Law"

"[H]aving forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men..."

“Politics is the realm of reason – not of a merely technological, calculating reason, but of moral reason, since the goal of the state, and hence the ultimate goal of all politics, has a moral nature, namely, peace and justice.”

"Rights are often confused with exaggerated manifestations of the autonomy of the individual, who becomes self-referential, no longer open to encounter with God and with others, and absorbed only in seeking to satisfy his or her own needs."

"The controversy as to the relations between Pope and Emperor, stripped of its non-essentials, was a controversy as to the end and purpose of life on earth." - J.W. Allen

"A kind of cultural relativism exists today, evident in the conceptualization and defence of an ethical pluralism, which sanctions the decadence and disintegration of reason and the principles of the natural moral law." - CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger

Listers, for a student of Catholic political thought, a collection of politically orientated essays by the ironclad mind of Cardinal Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – is a Godsend. Values in a Time of Upheaval is a compilation of essays and speeches given by the illustrious Cardinal over the span of several decades. It...

The soul is “the first principle of life in those things which live: for we call living things animate, and those things which have no life, inanimate.”

Listers, the science of politics is the “noble science,” because it is the highest practical science. Theology- more specifically the Sacred Doctrine of the Catholic Church – is the “Queen of the Sciences.” Understanding her queenly role alongside politics has been the endeavor of many great minds. In the West, political thought can be sketched...

In the development of political philosophy, few works have played “such an important role in the social and political life of the Christian West” as Aristotle’sPolitics.

"Regime means simultaneously the form of the life of a society , its style of life, its moral taste, form of society, form of state, form of government, spirit of laws."

The following works have been selected because they share the common theme of addressing Catholic political thought within the longstanding tradition of the Catholic Church. The works address what Spinoza entitled the theologico-political problem.

"The main reason for this appreciation is not only explained by the content of his teaching but also by the method he used, especially his new synthesis and distinction between philosophy and theology."

"True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement, or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good."