Title: Patriarchal religion, sexuality, and gender
First published: 2008
Description: "This book is an evaluation and critique of 'new natural law', a school of thought first advanced by Germain Grisez and ostensibly based on the work of Thomas Aquinas. Members of this school, in particular John Finnis and Robert George, have prominently defended conservative moral views about sexuality (in particular, about lesbian and gay and 'non-marital' heterosexual sexual activity) and gender (in particular, about contraception and abortion), and have presented their arguments as being of a secular rather than doctrinal character." "Bamforth and Richards argue that the new natural lawyers' views - which were advanced before the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence vs. Texas (concerning decriminalization of gay sex) - are neither of a secular character nor properly consistent with the philosophical aims of historical Thomism. Instead, their positions concerning lesbian and gay sexuality, contraception and abortion serve as a defense of the conservative doctrinal stance of the Papacy - a stance now properly rejected by many thoughtful Catholics. The book suggests that the new natural lawyers' arguments are rooted in an embattled defense of the highly patriarchal structure of Catholic religious authority, and as such are unappealing in a modern constitutional democracy. Alternative interpretations of Christianity, not flawed in the way that new natural law is, are both possible and more constitutionally acceptable."--BOOK JACKET.

Fundamentalist forms of religion today claim authority everywhere, including the debates over the politics and constitutional law of liberal democracies. This book examines this general question through its critical evaluation of a recent school of thought: that of the new natural lawyers. The new natural lawyers are the lawyers of the current Vatical hierarchy, polemically concerned to defend its retrograde views on matters of sexuality and gender in terms of arguments that, in fact, notably lack the philosophical rigor of the historical Thomism they claim to honor. The book critiques forms of fundamentalism and offers an original argument both for how they arose and why they are unreasonable in contemporary circumstances.
Subjects: Catholic Church, Natural law, Religious aspects, Religious aspects of Natural law, Sex and law
LC classification: K460 .B36 2008