Religion and Public Reasons Works of John Finnis Available from Oxford University Press
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Religion and Public Reasons Works of John Finnis available from Oxford University Press Reason in Action Collected Essays: Volume I Intention and Identity Collected Essays: Volume II Human Rights and Common Good Collected Essays: Volume III Philosophy of Law Collected Essays: Volume IV Religion and Public Reasons Collected Essays: Volume V Natural Law and Natural Rights Second Edition Aquinas Moral, Political, and Legal Theory Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism with Joseph Boyle and Germain Grisez RELIGION AND PUBLIC REASONS Collected Essays: Volume V John Finnis 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © J. M. Finnis, 2011 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Crown Copyright material reproduced with the permission of the Controller, HMSO (under the terms of the Click Use licence) Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by CPI Antony Rowe ISBN 978–0–19–958009–5 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 PREFACE The earliest of the essays collected in these fi ve volumes dates from 1967, the latest from 2010. The chronological Bibliography of my publications, near the end of each volume, shows how the collected essays are distributed across the volumes. But each volume also contains some essays previously unpublished. Many of the essays appear with new titles. When the change is substantial, the original published title is noted at the beginning of the essay; the original can of course always also be found in the Bibliography. Rev ision of prev iously published work has been restricted to cla rifi cation. Where there seems need for substantive qualifi cation or retractation, I have said so in an endnote to the essay or, occasionally, in a bracketed footnote. Unless the context otherwise indicates, square brackets signify an insertion made for this Collection. Endnotes to particular essays have also been used for some updating, especially of relevant law. In general, each essay speaks from the time of its writing, though the dates given in the Table of Contents are dates of publication (where applicable) not composition—which sometimes was one or two years earlier. I have tried to group the selected essays by theme, both across and within the volumes. But there is a good deal of overlapping, and something of each volume’s theme will be found in each of the other volumes. The Index, which like the Bibliography (but not the ‘Other Works Cited’) is common to all volumes, gives some further indication of this, though it aspires to completeness only as to names of persons. Each volume’s own Introduction serves to amplify and explain that volume’s title, and the bearing of its essays on that theme. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS List of Abbreviations ix The Cover Picture xi Introduction 1 Part One Religion in Public Reason and Law 15 1. Darwin, Dewey, Religion, and the Public Domain (2009) 17 2. Religion and Public Life in Pluralist Society (2004) 42 3. Secularism’s Practical Meaning (1998) 56 4. Religion and State (2006) 80 5. Political Neutrality and Religious Arguments (1993) 103 6. Catholic Positions in Liberal Debates (1999) 113 Part Two Bases for Accepting Revelation 127 7. The Signifi cance of Questioning (1973) 129 8. Ethics and Revelation: A Fragment (2008) 135 9. Historical Consciousness and Theological Foundations (1992) 139 10. Faith, Morals, and Thomas More (2003) 163 11. On Creation and Ethics (1989) 179 12. St Cuthbert’s Faith and the Bishop of Durham’s Unbelief (1987) 189 13. Philosophy and God’s Nature: Second Thoughts (2008) 193 14. This World and the Next (1980) 199 15. Three and One (1988) 203 Part Three Conscience and Faith 207 16. Conscience in the Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1990) 209 17. Grace and Humility (1992) 225 viii CONTENTS Part Four Controversies 233 18. Christianity and World Order (1979) 235 19. Morality and the Second Vatican Council (1980) 251 20. Nuclear Deterrence and the End of Christendom (1988) 275 21. The ‘Consistent Ethic of Life’ (1988) 291 22. Secularism and ‘The Culture of Death’ (2002) 328 23. On Retranslating Humanae Vitae (2008) 344 24. Hell and Hope (1998) 368 Bibliography of the Works of John Finnis 381 Other Works Cited 393 Acknowledgements 401 Index 403 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAS Acta Apostolicae Sedis AG Vatican II, Ad Gentes (Decree on Missionary Activity, 1965) AJJ American Journal of Jurisprudence Aquinas 1998d: John Finnis, Aquinas: Moral, Political and Legal Theory (OUP) CAP E.R. Norman, ‘Christianity in Politics’, in Maurice Cowling (ed.). Conservative Essays (London: Cassell) CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church ([1997], London: Geoff rey Chapman, 1999) CDF Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith CL H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law (OUP, 1961) CMP Germain Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus vol. 1 Christian Moral Principles (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983) CSE E.R. Norman, Church and Society in England 1770–1970 (OUP, 1976) CTS Catholic Truth Society CUP Cambridge: Cambridge University Press CWO E.R. Norman, Christianity and the World Order (OUP, 1978) DH Vatican II, Dignitatis Humanae (Declaration on Religious Liberty, 1965) DMQ Germain Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus vol. 3 Diffi cult Moral Questions (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1997) D-S Henricus Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum Defi nitionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum (ed. Adolfus Schönmetzer) (34th edn, Barcelona and New York: Herder, 1967) DV Vatican II, Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) (1965) FHG Mary Geach and Luke Gormally (eds), Faith in a Hard Ground: Essays on Religion, Philosophy and Ethics by G.E.M. Anscombe (Exeter, UK, and Charlottesville, VA: Imprint Academic, 2008) x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FoE 1983a: John Finnis, Fundamentals of Ethics (OUP; Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press) GS Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) (1965) Hermeneias Aquinas, Commentarium in libros Perihermeneias expositio [Commentary on Aristotle’s De Interpretatione (1269–72)] HUP Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press In Anima Aquinas, In libros De Anima Expositio [Commentary on Aristotle, De Anima] (c. 1268) LCL Germain Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus vol. 2 Living a Christian Life (Quincy: Franciscan Press, 1993) LE Ronald Dworkin, Law’s Empire (HUP; London: Fontana, 1986) LQR Law Quarterly Review NE Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics NLNR 1980a: John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (2nd edn, OUP, 2011) NDMR 1987g: John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and Germain Grisez, Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism (OUP, 1987) OUP Oxford: Oxford University Press (including Clarendon Press) Sent. Aquinas, Scriptum super Libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardiensis [Commentary on the Sentences [Opinions or Positions of the Church Fathers] of Peter Lombard] (c. 1255) ScG Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles [A Summary against the Pagans] (c. 1259–65?) ST Aquinas, Summa Theologiae [A Summary of Theology] (c. 1265–73) THE COVER PICTURE View of Lake Torrens, 22 August by S.T. Gill (Adelaide, 1846). This water colour depicts John Horrocks with, on his right, the artist, gazing out over the dry salt-bed of vast Lake Torrens from its southern shore, on a late-winter morning. Horrocks stands six foot two inches tall, a man of initiative, action, and vision. Educated in England and France; he emigrated in 1839 to South Australia from Vienna, where his restless English family had lately settled. He established a farm, a township, an Anglican church, and a vineyard in the Clare Valley, eighty miles north of Adelaide. Now, in August 1846, he is leading a six-man expedition 125 miles further north, in search of new agricultural lands. The two men have set off in early dawn from the expedition’s new base camp, established under the western slopes of the Flinders Ranges the previous day. After riding about twelve miles west-north-west, they are not far from the mouth where water fl ows from the immense lake in those very rare years when it fi lls. Gill is sketching; looking ahead, he sees the scene from behind them. When he did the painting itself later in the same year, he knew the aftermath. At the end of August, Horrocks, Gill, and another had mounted another small foray, further west across even more inhospitable country to a smaller lake-bed which Horrocks named Lake Gill (now Lake Dutton).