The first grace
Subtitle: rediscovering the natural law in a post-Christian world
By: Russell Hittinger.
Publisher: ISI Books
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Wilmington, Del
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
Subjects: Catholic Church -- Doctrines.; Religion and law.; Natural law.; Natural theology.; Natural law -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church.
Description: "In the book's first section, Hittinger defines the natural law, considers its proper relationship to moral theology and the positive law, and explains how and when judges should be guided by natural law considerations. Then, in the book's second section, he contends with a number of controversial legal and cultural issues from a natural law perspective.

Among other things, he shows how the modern propensity to make all sorts of "rights claims" undermines the idea of limited government; how the liberal legal culture's idea of privacy elevates the individual to the status of a sovereign; and how the Supreme Court has come to cast religion as a dangerous phenomenon from which children must be protected.".

"Whether discussing the nature of liberalism, the constitutional and moral problems posed by judicial usurpation, or the dangers of technology, Hittinger convincingly demonstrates that in our post-Christian world it is more crucial than ever that we recover older, wiser notions of the concepts of freedom and law - since to oppose them is to misunderstand both profoundly."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-324) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Sec. One. Rediscovering the natural law. Natural law and Catholic moral theology ; Natural law as "Law" ; Natural law in the positive laws ; Authority to render judgment; title: Sec. Two. Natural law and the post-Christian world. Natural rights, under-specified rights, and Bills of Rights ; Private uses of lethal force: the case of assisted suicide ; The Supreme Court v. religion ; A crisis of legitimacy (including a response to critics) ; Dignitatis humanae, religious liberty, and ecclesiastical self-government ; Technology and the demise of liberalism ; Reasons for civil society.