Foundation of Catholic Social Doctrines: By Adrian Calderone
Posted on December 22, 2007 by james mary evans
Catholic social doctrines are catholic in a double sense. First, they are taught by the Catholic Church. Second, they are catholic, or universal, in scope. They apply to everyone regardless of religion. Catholic social precepts are universal because their foundation is derived from what is common to all human beings. This foundation comprises principles of natural law, human dignity and fellowship.
1. Natural Law
Natural law is the law of nature.1 We can define natural law as the prescriptions for human conduct derived from reason as applied to the nature of things. By “prescriptions for human conduct” I mean what we ought to do or not to do. Reason, of course, is a fundamental basis for any law. There’s the old saying that where reason ends, so ends the law. And by the nature of things we mean reality, the way things act by their nature, and that includes human nature. This definition also presupposes some purpose. The Ten Commandments are a concise statement of natural law principles.
I found this because the author is a Jasper Chemical Engineer!
Jaspers come out of Manhattan College with more than just a piece of paper in their tech discipline. Everyone gets “eddycated”. Even the “injineering barbarians”.
Interesting that this identifies the basis of all human rights.
Well done, and worth a read.
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