Lecture Series on “Natural Law”: Law, natural and Christian revelation – The natural law according to Thomas Aquinas
Lecture Series on "Natural Law": Law, natural and Christian revelation - The natural law according to Thomas Aquinas
08
Apr
The Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy will hold a Public Lecture titled “Law, natural and Christian revelation – The natural law according to Thomas Aquinas” on the 8th April 2021.
Covid-19 impacts our life and world dramatically. Scientists claim, that this situation might have been caused – among other factors – by a wrong treatment of nature by humans. Did nature put its brakes on to correct human behavior? Can we humans discover in nature how to act correctly? Does nature help us to get to know what to do? Philosophically speaking, should actions follow our being (agere sequitur esse), and is ethics fundamentally hooked up with reality and ontology? (bonum et verum convertuntur). Does the “ought” follow from the “is”, and should human life and societies comply with how things are?
After overcoming the mechanistic reductionism of the “natural fallacy”, which denies “value judgments” originating from “is” or facts, this Lecture Series attempts to trace back question of “natural goodness” (Philippa Foot), morals and good actions “in accord with reason” (S. Thomas Aquinas, S.Th. I-II.21.1.; ST I-II, 90.1). The philosophical and catholic tradition calls this the morality of the “natural law”. The lectures shed light on development and relevance of Natural Law from different philosophical and theological angles.
About the Talk & Speaker:
This lecture will introduce the natural law theory developed by the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). We will look at the place of the natural law in the theological framework of his masterwork Summa theologiae, explain what is law and why the law is called natural, and finally answer the question whether the natural law is an idea alien to Christian revelation.
Prof. Thomas Cai, PhD in Theology (History of Theology), KU Leuven.
Details:
Date: 8th April 2021
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Don Bosco Auditorium, USJ Ilha Verde Campus
Organised by: Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy, University of Saint Joseph
*This Public Lecture will be conducted in English
