Natural Law, Human Dignity and Catholic Social Teaching

Abstract

In this article I aim to interpret the theme of human dignity as one of the central themes of Catholic social thought. I take it as a concept that has its roots in the Jewish and Christian tradition and is handed down to us as a challenge to realise our understanding of it. By doing so I try to participate in the tradition and the community in which God's legislative activity is being continued along the lines of ‘natural law’ as I interpret that concept in the first section. For natural law obliges us above all to reflect carefully on every aspect of right and wrong. My reading of what the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says about human dignity with the help of Biblical stories, may help to explain why something so fundamental as human dignity can in reality be denied so easily. The reason is that human dignity is not a fact but rather a twofold assignment, and we are dependent on each other in fulfilling it; therefore it is hardly surprising that our dignity, no matter how unassailable it is said to be, is in fact very vulnerable.

Notes

1. I would like to remind those who are surprised that a text about Catholic social thought should refer to Friedrich Nietzsche that the first reference in Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical was also to Nietzsche.

2. To this end I draw mainly on the so-called treatise on the law in Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae (Aquinas, 1885, IaIIae 90–94). I am aware that my interpretation in the following sections is not undisputed, but I must, in this context, refrain from elaborating the discussion with other interpretations.

3. I am grateful to Dr Annemarieke van der Woude for this point.

4. See also section 27: breaking the communion relation with God causes a breach in the human person's internal unity, the social relations between men and women and the harmonious relations between people and other creatures.

5. Compare also various passages in the historical sketch of the development of the Church's social thinking in chapter 2.III. The rest of the Compendium should also be studied to determine to what extent the interpretation of human dignity is interwoven with the text. The index lists a dozen places where aspects of human dignity are discussed. Unfortunately a study of passages that deal with the context is beyond the scope of this article.