Natural law theory in Roman Catholic moral theology: A paradigm to remedy the crisis in the contemporary Lutheran ethic

The dissertation examined natural law theory in Catholic moral theology as a paradigm to address antinomianism in the Lutheran ethic. The natural law is the foundation of Roman Catholic moral theology. The project explored the natural law in Catholic moral theology as developed in and from scripture, Augustine, Thomas, Scholasticism, Neo-Thomism, Bernard Häring, Germain Grisez and Pope John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor. The utilization of the natural law in Humanae vitae, and Häring's and Grisez's reactions, was developed. The natural law in Catholic moral theology is an empirical metaethical absolute—reason can discern from reality the rightness or wrongness of an action. Natural law theory provides the Catholic Church a framework to address the moral questions of the world.; The natural law was a component of the political use of the law in Martin Luther's ethic. While Luther eschewed Aristotle for soteriology, he utilized reason to discern his social ethic. The 19th century Neo-Lutherans developed a natural law theory that separated church and world. National Socialism usurped their theory to justify the tyranny of Hitler. Helmut Thielicke fought Hitler and reacted against Neo-Lutheranism's autonomous natural law theory. He diminished the role of natural law in his ethic and was critical of Catholic natural law theory.; Many leading theologians viewed the 1993 draft social statement The Church and Human Sexuality: A Lutheran Perspective of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as evidence of antinomianism in the contemporary Lutheran ethic. This project argued that the Lutheran ethic could benefit from a reciprocal relationship between scripture and the natural law by providing a meta-ethical backbone. The concept of the “mission ethic” was developed from the noetic natural law by the author to assist the church's evangelization and moral teaching. There are challenges to the utilization of the natural law in the Lutheran ethic that are related to the traditional understanding of justification by faith, reason, law and gospel, sola scriptura and authority. Nevertheless, natural law theory in Catholic moral theology can serve as a paradigm to remedy the crisis in the contemporary Lutheran ethic.