IS THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF NATURAL LAW
INDISPENSABLE TO A COHERENT MORAL THEORY OF THE STATE?
1
Introduction
Responding to the question Is the Christian conception of Natural Law indispensable to
a coherent moral theory of the State is not an easy task. It presupposes a clear understanding of
natural law, Christian perspective of natural law, and understanding of State’s aims, purposes,
and structure against some established moral standards of government, statesmanship, and
politics.
This paper is organized in three sections—Christian concept of natural law, analysis of
moral theory of State, and a conclusion whether to agree or disagree to the proposition Is the
Christian conception of Natural Law indispensable to a coherent moral theory of the State.
a) Christian concept of natural law
The term Christian is used broadly to include religions that believe in God and Christ's
deity regardless of denominations and their differences of views on natural law. The Christian
faith will be taken as a unit of analysis irrespective of theological differences among Christian
denominations about natural law; representation is out of the question.
This section aims to discuss the Christian concepts of natural law that supports the central
thesis rather than a general review of various philosophical thoughts about natural law. Reference
will be placed heavily on the works of the Catholic Church which has the most extensive
material on natural law in the Christian tradition. The works of non-Catholic philosophers and
scholars such as John Locke, John Calvin, and Martin Luther will be utilized.
b) Analysis: moral theory of State
A state institution will be analyzed using Christian perspectives of natural law. The
hypothetical state of nature of Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke will be
used against the dominant theories of Christian kingship, statesmanship, covenant, justice and
2
democracy, and the interaction between secular and religious institutions, laws and policies.
Hill’s model concept of the core political ideals of freedom, freewill and liberty, and
responsibility in western societies will be used to question the theories of government listed
above. Other concepts from other authors will be used to support the discussion.
c) Conclusion
Having gone through extensive discussion, the paper will conclude whether the Christian
conception of Natural Law is indispensable to a coherent moral theory of the State.
What Christians Believe about Natural Law
The Christian conception of natural law believes in God's deity, the doctrine of teleology
and God’s purpose of creation (Genesis 1/ KJV) and order (Genesis 2/KJV), the fundamental and
inalienable rights, and the role of family in child’s holistic development. The belief system
inspires ecumenism.
Natural law in the Christian tradition reflects over 2,000 years of enduring belief in God,
belief in God’s sovereignty and purpose in creating humanity and the universe (Genesis 1/KJV,
Isaiah 44:24). A belief of purpose and God endowed every human being their fundamental rights
to life, liberty, and possession and the faculties to know right from wrong—a deep-seated mind
of the “first cause” called synderesis. According to John Locke, fundamental rights are
immutable. They can neither be exchanged nor given away.
Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and his subsequent writings such as Disputed
Questions of Truth, Thomas Aquinas attempted to interpret the Natural Law in the light of the
Holy scriptures and put forward a strong Christian belief that God ordered the universe and
placed in every human being the “dispositional capacity to know the good and the bad and the
inclination towards the Good (synderesis).”
3
Synderesis is a faculty for understanding God and the freedom He already bestowed to
human beings to choose from between good and evil (Genesis 2:9; 16-17, NIV). It is a deep-
seated conscience God placed in every man's heart which triggers the desire to seek after Him
(Deuteronomy 4:29, NIV, Jeremiah 29:13, NIV), which can be the Biblical expression of the
intelligent design.
Aquinas’s letter to the king of Cyprus illustrates a comprehensive Christian kingship idea
by outlining to the king his roles and his subjects' social characteristics. Here, Aquinas
emphasizes the divine code imprinted into animals' natural abilities, which allow for their
survival and functioning, and the use of "reason" for humans. According to Aquinas, through
reason, the king understands his subjects' real needs regardless of affiliation or belief they might
have and govern to the highest moral standards. Aquinas further indicates the purpose-driven
nature of the kingdom reflected in the theory of teleology and causality integral to natural law
theory.
Nothing can be clearer than Aquinas’s idea of kingship. The emphases on freedom,
justice, peace, and virtues are fully established in the natural law. The universal character of the
natural law is well established as one accepted by Christians and non-Christians. The system of
authority as Aquinas proposes subjects the king to the authority of the church (Rome), and
church (Rome) to represent the king to Christ (God), designating the king in the earthly domain
and the church to Christ (God).
The Christian Bible uses the term logos the Word, to refer to Christ, God who became
flesh (John 1:1, ESV) and live among men (John 1:14, ESV).1 God equipped man the capacity to
know right from wrong—The Stoics used the term logos, to mean “reason” an instrument to seek
1 The Bible, John 1:1 (English Standard Version), 1:14 (New American Standard Bible).
4
truth and enlightenment and advocated for equality of rights, opportunities, respect, and dignity.
Although Plato neither held any concept of God, he propounded a metaphysical, spiritual view of
transcendental reality over the material. Plato believes in the immortal soul and the achievement
of the greatest good, which are the antithesis of utilitarianism.
Philosophers and law scholars in the 12 A.D. were confronted with a challenge of finding
the connection between natural law and the Divine Law. Not until Gratian, regarded as the father
of canon law, rose to the challenge, and successfully addressed the problem. The result of
Gratian’s unprecedented efforts has led to a recognition that natural law as the revealed law of
God that reflects both the Old Testament and New Testament.
To firmly establish the connaturality of natural law with Divine Law, Gratian inscribed
“the Law of Nature is nothing else than the golden rule, comprised in the Law and the Gospel,
supreme over all kinds of law by antiquity and dignity; it is immutable; it prevails over custom
and express ordinance." Aquinas (1225 A.D.) is well regarded as the forerunner of natural law
for his unrivaled contribution to interpreting the natural law to its modern-day moral, ethical, law
and jurisprudential applications and reconciling the dilemma between faith and reason by
acknowledging the role of "grace" which makes it possible for other Christian religions to
participate in natural law through the ecumenical movement.
Analysis: Moral theory of state
As Europe and the West ascend to the industrial revolution in the 18th century, nations are
much-anticipating progress and quality of life. Jean Jacques Rousseau theorizes how
communities looked like before they plunge into the 18th-century industrial revolution. In his pre-
social state of nature, Rosseau characterized a simple way of life where the society was peaceful
5
and orderly and citizens took care of each other and their families, respected nature, and lived
morally.
Children were raised in their families and taught how to be good citizens and to shun
corruption when they grow up. Communities were not rich but full of spirituality. There was so
much understanding among the citizens that it is characterized by rigid equality as it is almost
impossible to see differences in talents and abilities.
Reflecting on the North American Indians' plight in the 16th century following the
Europeans conquest, Rousseau turns to the state of nature where people have become absorbed
on themselves, full of self-love (amour proper), pride, competition, jealousy, and vanity. The
state of nature is plagued with vice and sin. There is chaos, prostitution and drugs, and no rule of
law.
Based on Rousseau’s description, modern civilization has advanced from pre-state of
nature to a full-fledge state of nature with all the hallmarks of a society that has fallen from
God’s “grace”. People have lost their self-worth and purpose to materialism, relativism, and
determinism. They have little-to-no regard to their fundamental rights, and children lost their
childhood affective nurturance to parents absorbed in the city of man. According to Hill,
“Christianity provides a powerful corrective to these defects” to bring back “freedom,
responsibility, and human dignity”.
Rousseau’s pre-state of nature is a perfect egalitarian setting. The Stoics advocated for it
but having almost perfect equality renders distributive justice inoperable. Justice is related to
freedom, and freedom means differently to different people, times, and situations. Plato’s the
Republic uses the allegory of the cave to illustrate how it is and what it means to be free and
6
liberated from the shadow of ignorance when limited human experience is enlightened by reason
and reflective understanding of the real world.
The allegory also represents that human perception alone is inadequate to provide true
knowledge; instead, true knowledge comes with reasoning. Hill examines the causes and effects
of the decline of freedom, responsibility, and human dignity—three core moral and political
ideals of the western civilization:
a) Loss of purpose and objectivity in understanding morals and the propagation of
determinism
Christians align to Locke’s political philosophy of natural rights, i.e., the right to life,
liberty, and possession that are immutable, and independent from state laws. But ethical
questions arise that if man is under the Sovereign power, it can be concluded that he is waiting
on God to act for his benefit. As a result, man can forgo productivity and lean towards a welfare
state. Costigane argues for Aquinas: "man created by God" implies man has the power to act
according to his free will, not waiting on God to direct his life.
Costigane, used the analogy of a growing child needing the support of his family to
become independent and responsible.2 This concept fits perfectly with Aristotle’s telos
(purpose)3, 4 but natural law requires children raised in normal homes and be taught to be good
citizens when they grow up. Rousseau’s family and child-centered theory used in reclaiming the
grandeur of the lost pre-state of nature has gained acceptance in Europe beginning the 17th
century.
2 Helen Costigane, Natural Law in the Roman Catholic Tradition. In Doe, Norman, ed. Law and
Christianity. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 18.
3 Alexander Mosely and Richard Bailey, Aristotle, (London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2010), 3.
4 Porter, Jean. The Natural Law. In Aquinas's Summa Theologiae: A Critical Guide, Jeffrey Hause, ed.,
Cambridge Critical Guides, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 171.
7
However, his theories on children’s development became the foundation for child-
centered education at odds with Plato’s concept of raising children in the commune. The
environment for raising children the natural way, according to Rousseau, is critical to producing
future responsible citizens.
b) Misunderstanding of freedom: individual freedom versus collective normative
freedom
According to Aristotle, every citizen can live life to its fullest to the extent the state
promotes such life, and the role of the state is to protect the realization of such freedom by
creating laws that remove institutional roadblocks, promote moral and intellectual education, and
provide material resources. Augustine synthesizes Plato and Aristotle’s’ ideas of political justice
and elucidated these ideas from a Christian worldview. Being devout Christian exposed to the
Christian tradition and the teachings and leadership of the Church, Augustine had all the
information he needed to make an intelligible reasoning about natural law and Christianity.
Christian natural law brings a normative outlook of distributive justice and limited
government, as supported by Hill, and Porter’s review of the scholastic about nature. Hill yields
to an understanding of individuals, between individual to groups and groups to community as
interrelationships evolves from cooperation to collaboration. The chain of interrelationships
between individuals to communities reflects nature's law that requires understanding their
teleology towards their moral goodness.
Hill attributes the breakdown of collective morality and the triumph of individual
morality during mid-20th century to the rise of liberalism and secularism as a reflection of
Locke’s individual rights reserved against the state and Hobbes’s morality created secular state.
The consequences are an overall degeneracy of morality as evidenced by legalization of
8
pornography, the right to euthanasia, access to dangerous drugs, birth-abortion, and hiring
prostitutes, etc.
To address the problem, Hill demonstrates that proponents of secular liberalism John
Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham have invoked the “greatest amount of good to the greatest
number” principle. But the problem arise that the “greatest-happiness” is almost axiomatically
the anti-thesis of fundamental freedom, as illustrated by Hill.
Meanwhile, since government exists with the people’s consent, man’s natural rights are
higher than state laws, a political philosophy advanced by Locke that justifies people's right to
resist against their government to protect their God-given rights. But a question should be raised
that government laws also come with the people's consent, reason often quoted to justify
coercion and human rights violation.
According to Locke, laws embody certain rights are transferred to the government to
implement those rights on behalf of the individual, and not the individual rights themselves.
Porter argues for using normative analysis approach to understand nature at all levels and
execute normative judgment. Porter's concept of normative judgment is operative in a sense to
provide comprehensive moral good, at individual or community; goods that are distinct to
individuals and groups considering their social character and needs. Porter's normative concept
of understanding solving societal problems aligns with Hill.
c) Government, statism, and covenantal relationships in the state of nature
Constituting a government in the state of nature believers and non-believers is a complex
subject but such agreement traces its heritage in the covenant God established in the Garden. The
subsequent covenants between God and leaders of the Old Testament such as Noah, Moses, and
David provide lessons of the enduring covenantal experience in Biblical terms.
9
While there is no clear-cut formula of covenant-building, Jeremiah 29 (NIV) illustrates
how the common agreement plays in God’s grand plan through the Israelite’s exile in Babylon.
While in captivity (Jeremiah 29:1, NIV) God saw it better for the Israelites to carry on with their
lives as He ordered, to share resources with the earthly city and to make no complaints about the
injustices they faced in Babylon.
The Israelites obeyed local laws and paid taxes except no to worship idols as ordered by
God. While this kept the peace between the Israelites and the Babylonians and made it possible
for the Israelites to meet their human physical needs, own property, and reproduce, this
agreement was temporary. In Jeremiah 29:7 (NIV), the Lord God said to the Israelites, “Also,
seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” This has set the bar
for the covenant between the earthly city and the City of God, which allowed freedom for God’s
people to exercise their fundamental rights in a place of sin and unbelief. The agreement was
temporary, and the people of God ought to set sights on the eternal city (1 John 2:15-17, NIV).
Aristotle’s The Politics discusses the various situations a constitution can be adapted to
achieve the best state for the best life of its citizens in the areas of government, family, and
citizenship. Augustine has a similar theory but tried not to force in the idea of the perfect state.
Augustine’s concept of freedom is a liberation of the soul from the bondage of sin and a return to
God’s providence through repentance. He brings a sharp contrast of the metaphor of the two
worlds of opposite ends but commingling with each other: the earthly city and the City of God.
The earthly city is characterized by man’s ignorance and wickedness, which Augustine
illustrated by criticizing the cruelty and barbarism of the Roman empire, and appeal to the return
to the City of God where perfect freedom and peace are found.
10
According to Augustine, to achieve freedom is to move from the earthly city to the City
of God, which means a radical transformation of the soul. Plato refers to such a journey as the
“awakening” using the allegory of the cave, and Aristotle’s role of education and the flourishing
of the human spirit.
Although there is limited experience on government and statism attributable to
Christianity, it is argued that the framework of Biblical covenant and a republic government that
embodies the will of the people is to be established. A government is created to protect the
people's rights and ensure citizens are free to exercise their fundamental rights to life, liberty, and
property.
To reclaim and restore the Rosseau’s state of nature, a social contract between the
government and the people is established. The term "social contract" has been used widely to
refer to an agreement, a compact between a sovereign power government and its subjects.
Rosseau breaks down Aristotle's concept of the formation of "polis" in two social contract levels.
The first level is when individual members of a community form an association or civil society
to defend and protect the community, and when the group enters into a contract with sovereign
authority and surrendering part of his freedom. In Rousseau’s state of nature, both types are
needed to empower the citizens (first level) prior to any engagement with govenrment (second
level).
Rosseau views social compact as an adaptive tool needed when individual action
becomes ineffective. A collective effort is an ultimate recourse, and joining the social contract
involves surrendering one's individual rights.5 Here, is a potential source of tension between
Rousseau and Locke. Although Rousseau did not specify the kind or number of rights
5 Ibid., Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Disclosures, p 50.
11
“surrendered” to the government, a qualification must be made to reconcile Rousseau and Locke
theories. According to Locke, when men enters into a contract with the government, he merely
transfers his right to implement that part of his right to the govenrment, not his right per se. The
rights holder (citizen) remains in possession of all his rights.6
Hobbes further explains the social contract process. It begins with "Pactum Unionis"- an
agreement to form a civil society, and "Pactum Subjectionis"- an agreement between sovereign
people and government. Hobbes's "sovereignty" refers to the absolute supreme power in the
state, which is the ultimate one, not an agent or subordinate to higher power.7 Hobbes’s secularist
approach is at odds with Christian perspective that acknowledges God as the Sovereign authority
(not a despotic human king), knowing through revelation and synderesis that there is no other
gods than the God of the Bible (Exodus 20:2, KJV), that He is the One to be obeyed
(Deuteronomy 30:10, KJV), worshipped (Luke 4:8, KJV), and served (Deuteronomy 6:13,
KJV).8
While understanding that man is born equal with the ability and freedom to pursue
opportunities as he pleases, Hobbes's describes the competitive dynamics of human beings in the
state of nature, aggravated by limited resources and increased human population. The restless
state of nature makes everyone competes everybody to meet his needs resulting in a total chaos
of "war of man against every man.”9
6 John Locke, The Two Treatises of Civil Government, (Hollis ed., Chapter II). 199.
7 Ideal Empires and Republics. Rousseau’s Social Contract, More’s Utopia, Bacon’s New Atlantis,
Campanella’s City of the Sun, with an Introduction by Charles M. Andrews (Washington: M. Walter Dunne, 1901).
8 The Bible (King James Version). Exodus 20:2, KJV, Deuteronomy 30:10, KJV, Luke 4:8, KJV,
Deuteronomy 6:13, KJV.
9 Ibid.
12
Therefore, Hobbes invoked the government's role in preventing war and restore justice, a
proposal that deviates from the classical and Christian tradition of government and religion by
referring to the use of absolute supreme power as the only solution to bring the war to peace.10
Such proposal to use a sovereign power is for a limited period in response to man's nature in the
state of nature, described a "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short" to reclaim justice and
peace."11
Hobbes is depicting a total chaos and anarchy in the state of nature where there is no
objective right, therefore, substitute sovereign with absolute power is necessary.12 Anthony de
Jasay is in line with Hobbes's social contracting with a duration of revocability. According to
Jasay, the social contract defines the freedom of the individual. When the contract is revocable,
the individual keeps his rights to identity and autonomy before the contract for a definite period
than when a contract is irrevocable.13
Contrary to Hobbes's, Locke sees that state of nature in more a positive light, that
although chaotic there is still "mutual love amongst men, on which they build duties they owe
one another". According to Locke, the presence of government with an absolute power to control
the citizens and allow the exercise individual and collective rights is necessary.14 In Locke’s
context, government's presence is necessary to maintain unity and peace, and the absolute
powers are only needed to secure order.
10.
11 p 104, 105.
12 Ibid., p12.
13 p75
14 p 199.
13
Locke brilliantly argues that individual rights—rights bestowed upon every human being
are pre-social and pre-political that existed in the state of nature. The right to life, liberty, and
property are inalienable and non-transferrable. According to Locke, when a human being enters a
social contract, he surrenders his right to enforce those natural rights to secure freedom but the
fundamental rights remain with the individual.15 This transfer of rights from the citizen to the
government often becomes an opportunity for the latter to coerce and commit abuse.
Christian leaders and policy makers reflect on Hobbes’s application of absolute power to
reclaim the state of nature and Locke’s relative transfer of rights to Hobbes’s absolute
govenrment based on 16th A.D. France war between the Catholic and Protestants (Huguenots).
Due to the bloody war between the Catholic and Huguenots (Protestants), King Henry IV
issued the Edict of Nantes, a pioneering law that aimed to grant religious liberty to the
Protestants in France and bring the violent war between Catholics and Protestants to an end.16
The Edict of Nantes granted the Protestants full civil rights, except they were prohibited
from worshiping in Paris and making new converts. Despite the Edict, the Catholics which were
the dominant party in the war, also an ally of the French government still considered the
Protestants a danger to the state and unilaterally canceled the political and military provisions
(sections) of the Edict. Years later, France King Louis XIV revoked the edict. The result of the
cancelation was a much broader and harsher persecution of the protestants. Over 400,000
protestants immigrated to different parts of the world to escape persecution.
The case above is real but least mentioned in the study of social contracts. In fact, most
literatures on social contract appear to not use real cases.17 There are valuable lessons and
15 Ibid., p 199.
16 December 3, 2020.
17 3, 2020.
14
insights that can be drawn and applied to Rousseau’s state of nature. Resorting to an absolute
power can be good or bad. Bad—in the case of the Huguenots. Some villages with a majority of
Protestants experienced less persecution but made significant compromises in order survive,
including compromising their Protestant faith to be able to access basic social services and get to
register births and death of a family, a good story of resilience and staying on faith in the face of
adversity and death. Other Protestants have to leave France or face death. Those that remained
worshipped in undisclosed locations to not be exposed to further persecution or death.
Locke’s concept of the transfer of rights to the sovereign was ineffective in the French
Catholic-Protestant war, neither a revolt against a tyrannical government he (Locke) authored in
the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which could increase collateral damage. The
edict's implementation appears to have eased out the war despite subtle persecution faced by the
Protestants. The edict's cancellation resulted in increased persecution and death, causing the
Protestants to seek refuge to other countries. This indicates the need for more robust theories of
social contract that is adapted to Rousseau’s state of nature, using the lessons from the French
Catholic-Protestant war of the 16th century as an example.
d) Constitution and laws in the state of nature
Rousseau’s state of nature invariable requires a constitution that guarantees freedom to its
citizens to exercise their God-given rights.
Firstly, the Supreme Court is neither supporting laws identified with the religious sector
nor secular laws motivated by religious purposes; precedence of rejection of the Church
participation in the was set by the late Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Oliver
Wendell Holmes. Hill argues that Christina natural law provides a normative basis for defining
individual rights because the notion that one can do whatever he wants as long it does not
15
interfere with other’s rights results in a collective violation of everyone’s rights turning the state
into Hobbes’s “war against everyone else” state of nature.
The perspective of Biblical Christianity is emphasized to not trump on the hard-regained
state of nature. People re-group to discuss the kind of government and constitution for their state
of nature with a covenantal perspective. According to Aristotle, freedom is key to framing the
kind of constitution and laws to govern the state—one that ensures that every citizen can live
freely and meaningfully, enjoy their fundamental rights, and allows for the creation of laws that
promotes moral and intellectual education, and provide material resources to its citizens.18 But it
means to be free invokes Aristotle’s theory of teleology and the exercise of man’s inalienable
rights. Teleology as adopted into the Christian tradition is a Divine purpose that is supreme and
above over every law, doctrine, or creed.
Aristotle sets a high expectation in the exercise of democratic rules for truly
representative sovereign governments to achieve liberty and equality for all its citizens. Implicit
in Aristotle's treatise is an extensive community outreach to all communities regardless of
demographic origin and economic status and to make the elected official accountable to their
electorates.19
While the approach to dealing with subjects may be different in other forms of
government, Aristotle recognizes the fundamental rights to the consent of the governed, which is
in line with natural law's concept of the highest good that comes through "freedom from
ignorance," that cause the man to flourish.20 Aquinas scholastic work holds the natural law to a
18 Ibid.,
19 p 1318 a, b.
20.
16
high standard by defining the virtues of a king and community, and the limits of political,
governmental authority.21
Rawls makes a case in Rousseau’s construction of moral theory in the state of nature.
Rawls theory of justice places priority on the most disadvantaged. But to Kant what is most
acceptable to all members of the society is the right decision imperative of the society. Here,
there is tension between Rawls and Kant. Rawls priority to the poorest or Kant’s middle class
where most members of the population belong. There is no simple solution.
In Rawls context, responding to individual needs must be carefully evaluated, while
merit-based system is to be rejected since it excludes certain individuals from the public good
beyond those of unqualified individual whose disqualification fall beyond their control.22
The key to resolving Kant and Rawls is knowing objectively all competing interests and
establish mutual concessions with all appealing parties, otherwise, Rousseau’s reconstruction of
the state of nature should be rejected. As Rawls says, “a social order is to be accepted as just if
and only if it could be the object of a fair agreement—an agreement that takes equal account of
the interests of all individuals who are to live under this social order”.23
Conclusion
As demonstrated, there is a strong case to put forward that natural law's Christian concept
is indispensable to engender a state to exist in the highest standard morality. The Christian
perspective brings God into the state of nature and, from there the freedom to exercise
fundamental rights. It provides a moral check to leaders and to a society turning to vice and sin.
21 22/11/2020.
22 64.
2365-66.
17
Without such perspective the state of nature lives a secular and utilitarian philosophy as
the governing paradigm where children are raised apart from their parents, individual human
rights claim such as both-abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia trample collective rights, and
everyone to its own, thus giving license to repressive regimes (as can be seen in despotic
governments of Iran, North Korea, Russia, China) to exercise utilitarianism and despotism. The
Christian concept of natural law is neither perfect nor complete, but it can be adapted and shaped
to any state of nature to be useful in its context.
18
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20
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