Premium
Natural Law and Perfect Community: Contributions of Christian Platonism to Political Theory
Author(s) -
O'Donovan Joan Lockwood
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0025.00055
Subject(s) - natural law , natural order , natural (archaeology) , platonism , politics , foundation (evidence) , philosophy , law , order (exchange) , sociology , epistemology , political philosophy , environmental ethics , political science , comparative law , philosophy of law , history , economics , archaeology , finance
This paper undertakes two tasks. Firstly, it argues that the concept of subjective rights has no place in a Christian ethic of community, even in a “natural‐law” ethic, because it is wedded, both historically and necessarily, to a theologically doubtful foundation of individual and collective proprietorship of human and non‐human nature. Secondly, it elaborates and alternative communal ethic of love, law and natural order from within the Augustinian Platonist tradition of individual and collective non‐proprietorship, concentrating on the theological contributions made by the medieval Franciscans (especially St. Bonaventure) and later by John Wyclif.