Natural Law & the Secular Mythos: What Has Been Left Unsaid in Current Debates in Natural Law

This book argues that natural law - when construed as an epistemological and trans-cultural lingua franca, adjudged capable of legitimating the rational intelligibility and universal applicability of specific Christian moral principles within contemporary ＂secular＂ discourse - has failed.

Through a detailed analysis of the contributions of three prominent natural law theorists who are located within a shared philosophical-theological tradition, namely, John Finnis, Jean Porter, and John Milbank, the text illuminates the extent to which this failure is as much intramural as it is extramural.

Morgan explores how new horizons open up for natural law if the theological ＂unsaid(s)＂ are allowed to surface and the disremembering power of the secular mythos is overcome. The final chapter(s) of the book addresses one such horizon- that the theoretical fulcrum of the natural law lies not in its perceptual self-evidence or in its immanent secularity; but rather in its subtle provision of an immanent eschatology.

Gregory Morgan is Parish Priest of St Catherine Laboure Catholic Church, Australia. He is also Adjunct Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Australia, and at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, Australia.