Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 71(3) August 2021
Book Review
The Light That Binds.
A Study in Thomas
Aquinas's Metaphysics of Natural Law
by Stephen L. Brock 101532647301
Reviewed by Dr Pravin Thevathasan
In this splendid work, the author examines Aquinas's teaching of the
relationship between natural law and God's eternal law. The author clearly
demonstrates that the natural law is indeed a law. From this is developed
a series of reflections including the binding force of natural law and its
relationship with God and to our own natural inclinations. These
reflections are very relevant to our daily work and lives. The author is
thus a follower of the traditional approach to natural law theory, a
theory solidly grounded in metaphysics.
Other positions in natural law
are discussed. For John Finnis, natural law can be called "law" only
because of a certain resemblance to human positive law. Another position
asserts that natural law is natural only in a qualified sense: no one is
subject to a law until he knows it is a law. Yet another school of thought
argues that natural law can be understood without reference to the eternal
law.
I was pleased to see the great modern philosopher Peter Geach
mentioned. Geach asks the question: are the things that God commands
morally obligatory because God commands them or does God command them
because they are morally obligatory? Geach argues for the former: God's
commands generate moral obligations.
The author also looks at a famous
article that Elizabeth Anscombe wrote on moral philosophy. In it, she
argues that the term "ought" is simply meaningless outside of the
perspective of an ethics based on divine law. Those who reject an ethics
based on divine law ought to reject terms such as "illicit, prohibited and
morally wrong." Anscombe is therefore in agreement with Geach that divine
law generates moral obligations.
I found this to be a work of great
scholarship, difficult in parts for the interested non-specialist but
rewarding.