Reich, Warren T.

English

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 37 | Number 1 Article 7February 1970Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural LawWarren T. ReichFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationReich, Warren T. (1970) "Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural Law," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 37 : No. 1 , Article 7.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol37/iss1/7law foundation for approaching some of the problems of the day. In line with the purpose of this issue, it will attempt to show how the natural law theory is not an outside . watchdog guarding the . ethics of psychiatry, psychology, mental health services and other areas . of medical ·practice · touching on these specialties, but instead that the· natural law grows out of and is based on some concepts quite familiar to these areas of scientific and medical concern. Rev. Retch is an assistant profess,· ·r oj Moral · Theology at the Cat !olu What is ·the natural law and how University of America. He has ?ub . . . ? . lished works on conscience, nc. urd certam lS It· ~ere are a number .of law, sexual ethics and medical eth. -:s i! podpularb ass~~Cpthbon1 .s amonh~ Catholihcs theological journals and books ir thD an a out , _a 0 lC teac mg on t e try d · Germany H ~ 0 natural law among those of other coun an zn · f ·th hi h d · It · presently Secretary of the Cat wlu ru. s. w c nee exposmg. ts Theological Society of America. fsailo?Ie!lffi~s. assu~ed that whhen a~ elhse s m givmg sure answers t ere IS t e natural law to fall back on, because it is unchanging. It is further supposed that the natural law refers to a series Personal Growth: of formulated assertions on what man ought to do in many areas of his life, that these · 'tprecepts of the natural law" are solidly based on the un-changing nature of man as rational animal, and that these precepts are incontestable because they come from God the author of nature. For Up-Dating the Natural Law Warren T. Reich, S.T. In his first editorial, the new editor of the Linacre Quarterly presented a challenge to moral theologians to contribute sound theological opinion to discussions on some pressing con- . temporary problems so as to give . guidance where possible in controver-sial areas within the framework of our tr aditio n al beliefs and concepts (Novemb :~r , 1969, pp. 211-212). Cet:,tainly .. 1 reader of this journal will con fest thl ords of Dr. M ullooly that 16 example, it is presumed that man does not have many moral perplexities in face of the "natural institution" which . is marriage or the natural biological "we are living in a peculiar, revolu t10n processes: these areas of life are ary age where everything that has_ b~el "given,'; and unchanging natural law taken for granted is suddenly De~precepts are "already there." Man is questioned from every conceivablfree either to accept them and live angle ." Man naturally wants t~ remo~acc?rd~g to them, or to reject them. confusion from his life, and 1t ·oulllt Is true that these notions were indisputably be beneficial if one cou!ldissemmated by Catholic theologians resolve the ethical and moral questioaand clergy, but it is also clear from generated by the rapid advance orecent philosophical and theological modern science. This article will notesearch that t~ese presuppositi , ns go very far ih accomplishing thalfmd. a fum b~sis neither in Scriptv e Rather, it will attempt to lay a na:turjllor m traditional Catholic theology. Linacre Quarterfebruary' 1970 It should be stated from the outset that Catholic moral teaching has not ·always relied on natural law teaching, that there have· been many good but differing natural law theories em-ployed by Catholic theology, that the Church's· magisterium has employed some very different approaches to the natural law from time to time and has altered some significant natural law teachings, and that no natural law system has been revealed or confirmed by revelation. (The Bible shows very little interest in essential descriptions of man on which a natural law theory could be developed; rather, it is concerned with human existence and human behavior in light of the call of grace from God.) Due to these variables, and because we are now faced with the need to rely more and more on Scripture and to speak a common voice with our separated Christian 'brethren in ad-dressing ourselves to the moral ·problems of the day, there are some who suggest that the natural law should be scrapped, that it has had its day. However, there are many of us in the field of Catholic moral theology . who believe that, if viewed iri a true Christian fashion and if based on the best available knowledge of the meaning of man, a natural law theory is not only viable but indispensable to Christian morality. Some of the components of a Christian natural law theory as conceived by theologians nowadays, in the light of the teaching of Aquinas and contemporary anthro-pological philosophy and theolo:~-y , can be summarized under ' t\,v,. ') headings . L In the proper sense of the term, the natural law is an , unformulated morl'l law. St. Thomas gives a sirrlple 17 definition: natural law is the rational creature's part icipation in the divine law (.'~ . TheoL , I-11, 91, 2}. The divine . law f. .Jr excellence is the eternal law of God which reigns over the entire universe. It is _ the plan of divine wisdom which is given promulgation in time by creation and revelation. The natural moral law corresponds pri-marily to the · eternal law promulgated in creation. Aqumas adds that all beings are subject to the eternal law (divine providence) and for this reason have an inherent inclination to a cor-respop.ding way of acting. In other words, the eternal law Jthe divine command governing the sum total of reality) is so much at the very heart of things that it is identical with the innermost nature and activity of a being. This natural inclination or natural tendency toward .a goal which runs through the entire order of creation may be called the natural law, but it is not yet a natural moral law. Perhaps a scientific law of nature may be deduced from the operation of nature itself; but the natural moral law, as the specific moral law of man is a law of reason. The merely naturai order of creation constitutes an onto-logical presupposition for what we mean by the natural moral law: it must be penetrated by reason before we know what moral demands it holds in store for us. This means tpat men, in striving for their final goal, are not subjected to a set of ready-made and eternally valid laws which they only need to carry out. Man is not directed in a passive way by the eternal law: he shares in it actively by his own foresight and care. Aquinas taught that man shares in divine providence by being provident fqr hi !:'~If and others (S. Theol. I-11, 91, 2). 1 a true sense, then, we can say· that , . Jst radically, man is a law 18 unto himself - not in some arbitr: .ry fashion (for .that would be opposed to the givenness of the ontological r e-suppositions presented in . creatio :1), but because the "natural inclination to his goal" is a mandate which must be first recognized by his own reason : nd then carried out in free responsibil ty. What we are saying is that :he natural moral law is objective, but · his does not mean ·that it is onh a summary of already-given prec;.·pts which we may immediately find as s tch in the world of nature. Rather, the natural moral law is man himself i his total reality, man as capable md morally obliged to recognize md pursue the basic demands for his . elf-realization. Or, to put it another ay, man as a person has the task not simply of recognizing the realities md facts · found in this world of man md to place himself in the service of ti tese realities: he has to humanize all t ltese given data of his given nature thn ugh his discreet use of reason (illumine, l by faith). goods of his nature infallibly and quasi-intuitively, to pursue and affirm and do the good, and to avoid the evil This is clearly a great responsibilit; and a great risk: to embrace one's own law ~f freedom, not through merely ~penmposed norms nor through · mn~te moral ideas, but through an act1ve r~tional orienta~ion where by man denves the (obliging) moral law of free action from reality. 2. The natural moral law is . also a formulated law, but in a secondary and derived sense. We could not even speak of a natural moral law of man unless we ~cknowledge that it is possi-ble to denve specific obligations and to formulate them as uriiverally valid on ~e ba~is of a rational insight into cei!am ultimate ontological structures valid for all men. Obviously the validi-ty of any such precepts of the natural moral law depends entirely on whether and to what extent general structures of ~uman existence can be known and verified. It is precisely here that we are faced with many perplexing questions This _understanding of the nai ur~ nowadays. What is the meaning of moral law should not be alien tc the man? Can this meaning be defmed world of today, for modern me~ ·1 ~ on~ and for all? Are the mere and becoming more and more aware _. his obvtous animality and rationality of autonomy, of his need for freeJ om man adequate expressions of his from physical, psychological, · sc cia!, meaning? Does not man himself political· and economic slaveries an~ Wldergo significant changes in the of his spiritual powers. But is it ; skini course of history? For that matter too much of man accurately to n cog· does ffial_l no~ ~ndergo some important nize and pursue his true self-realizd ion ~ges m his mdividuallifetime? And in the sight of God and to make thu IS not our knowledge of man itself relevant to the law of his condu ;t ill COnditioned by historical process and every situation? Hardly. Tradit-on~ cultural presuppositions? Do we ever Catholic moral theology has put ~real have a grasp <?n absolute truth, even in emphasis on the notion of syndt res~ :.!:: basic hu~an matters, or is it not (sometimes called ''natural con the ys a question of perspectives of sc i e nce" or "fundame t al _knowledge of truth? These conscience") - the deep and irrever~ :e~bons cannot be . easily brushed ble tendency of man ·to the go d, or • the personal goodness of the entirl A kn man moving him to know the ba~' c owledge of the meat;ling of m~n annot adequately be acquir-·d Linacre Quarterij ~ b e ruary, 1970 through the empirical method, because no matter how carefully empirical data may be gathered, it never gets beyond the realm of pure fact . It does not attain to the knowledge of exsenses. The social scientist or anthropologist may be able to tell us what man has always considered just or unjust, but he can never tell us what must be considered just, based on the nature of man himself. Because we are looking for what must be considered good based on the nature of m~n ~mself, we are looking for an a przorz law governing human nature and man's conduct. For this philosophical reflection is indispens~ able - a deduction on the very meaning of man and the essential cat~gories of his being resulting from a ratiOnal penetration of what is true on the empirical, factual level. According to _st. Thomas, the moral imperatives which are known from the basic struc-tures of human nature are self-evident "first _ principles." It cannot be demonstrated that the good is (naturally) to be done and sought after and the evil is to be avoided. But if .one does not accept this first principle and such other principles which self-evidently embody it (the good of preserving life , of the brotherhood of all men, of man's dependence on God), then one fails to understand ?ne's .. own nature. In fact, man tmphcttly affinns them even . d . m . enymg them, for their very denial mvolves their use. Therefore, when Catholic theoJ,Jgy speaks of those demands of the natv 11. moral law which are always and w . _ versally valid, it is speaking of th~· self-evident laws of one's own created nature. All other more precise · and co1 crete moral dictates"come from the application and interpretation of these 19 basic principles ~ an application and interpretation which is historically cond:' :.ioned and which, in many cases, must be somewhat tentative. This means that our most certain principles are necessarily very general and rather abstract. They are nonetheless obli-gatory, but they can specify concrete moral demands only in a general way and after a thorough scrutiny of con-temporary ways of thinking about the various activities of man. For instance, it is clear that man has a natural inclination to self-preser-vation, but man's God~ndowed provident reason only gives rise to a very . general moral dictate on this score: that there is a moral duty to see to it that life is respected and pre-served. It is a further step, requiring more data and more possibly inade-. quate distinctions, to formu~ate a negative absolute precept such as "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not ·commit suicide" and apply them (by way of interpretation) to all imaginable kinds of free lethal activity. Traditional Catholic moral theology has always made exceptions to these norms, and . we are not completely . satisfied with all these exceptions today (e.g. capital punishment). Another example is to be found in the sexual, procreative life of man. It is more self-evident to deduce that "sexuality demands some form of regulation," but if qne is to deduce "thou shalt not practice birth control," this must result. from an accurate knowledge of not only the biological processes, but the psychol-ogy and sociology of sexual behavior as well. If one is content to deduce the dominant moral obligation only from natural biological processes, and then relies only on thirteenth century biology which did not know, for instance, · :• at woman produces germ celts, one till arrive at a historically 20 Today' s philosophical however, would see man more total unity. The contemporary n of "person" is having a strong e:.. on natural law theory. Personalism are not speaking of some su .., ............... -. sentimental or merely existential tude) sees man not only as a sut>SUilll'! substance,_ as passively experie concrete commands of the moral law must take as their LID!O!-no1·mt, then, not man in the , but m~n in the concrete. The for the moral law of man is not ted, because the meaning of and historical man has not been frozen. New truths become apparent when man is viewe<;l more in a total personal dimesnion. New truths · of the natural law emerge in an in-dustrial period which were not true in an agrarian era. Furthermore, man as evolutionary seems to experience thresholds of dramatic modifications of his situation or disposition, and this calls for a renewed analysis of the "ought" of the human condition, in the light of the universally valid, largely unformulated natural moral law (as illumined by the faith of the . Gospel of love). These observations on the natural law have, by necessity, been brief and limited. There are many other aspects of . the use of a natural law theory which would have to be treated else-where, among them: the relationship of the natural law to the Gospel law of love, and the role of the Church's magisterium in assisting mankind to arrive at an ever more certain self-understanding of its natural moral law. But these introductory comments on a natural law theory, partial as they may be, should hopefully find some acceptance among psychologists, psychiatrists and medical men general-ly, for these specialists also· begin with an lend aid to the concrete man in the here-and-now world, they frequently recognize within individual men the transcendental (universal) dictates of the natural and radical good of man, and they are apt to consider authentic self -realization, or total personal growth (physical, psychological, social, moral and spiritual), as the law of man. In removmg the obstacles to and ~: tively assisting this growth to hun'l·-• n st:f-fulfillment, these specialists a.< e rk -iking man free to participate in the d1'Jjne law by making it possible for him to fulfill the innermost nature of his being - the natural and radical stri·.'ing toward the good, ultimately the . \bsolute JOOd. · 21 

Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural Law

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 37 | Number 1 Article 24February 1970Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural LawWarren T. ReichFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationReich, Warren T. (1970) "Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural Law," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 37 : No. 1 , Article 24.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol37/iss1/24law foundation for approaching some of the problems of the day. In line with the purpose of this issue, it will attempt to show how the natural law theory is not an outside . watchdog guarding the . ethics of psychiatry, psychology, mental health services and other areas . of medical ·practice · touching on these specialties, but instead that the· natural law grows out of and is based on some concepts quite familiar to these areas of scientific and medical concern. Rev. Retch is an assistant profess,· ·r oj Moral · Theology at the Cat !olu What is ·the natural law and how University of America. He has ?ub . . . ? . lished works on conscience, nc. urd certam lS It· ~ere are a number .of law, sexual ethics and medical eth. -:s i! podpularb ass~~Cpthbon1 .s amonh~ Catholihcs theological journals and books ir thD an a out , _a 0 lC teac mg on t e try d · Germany H ~ 0 natural law among those of other coun an zn · f ·th hi h d · It · presently Secretary of the Cat wlu ru. s. w c nee exposmg. ts Theological Society of America. fsailo?Ie!lffi~s. assu~ed that whhen a~ elhse s m givmg sure answers t ere IS t e natural law to fall back on, because it is unchanging. It is further supposed that the natural law refers to a series Personal Growth: of formulated assertions on what man ought to do in many areas of his life, that these · 'tprecepts of the natural law" are solidly based on the un-changing nature of man as rational animal, and that these precepts are incontestable because they come from God the author of nature. For Up-Dating the Natural Law Warren T. Reich, S.T. In his first editorial, the new editor of the Linacre Quarterly presented a challenge to moral theologians to contribute sound theological opinion to discussions on some pressing con- . temporary problems so as to give . guidance where possible in controver-sial areas within the framework of our tr aditio n al beliefs and concepts (Novemb :~r , 1969, pp. 211-212). Cet:,tainly .. 1 reader of this journal will con fest thl ords of Dr. M ullooly that 16 example, it is presumed that man does not have many moral perplexities in face of the "natural institution" which . is marriage or the natural biological "we are living in a peculiar, revolu t10n processes: these areas of life are ary age where everything that has_ b~el "given,'; and unchanging natural law taken for granted is suddenly De~precepts are "already there." Man is questioned from every conceivablfree either to accept them and live angle ." Man naturally wants t~ remo~acc?rd~g to them, or to reject them. confusion from his life, and 1t ·oulllt Is true that these notions were indisputably be beneficial if one cou!ldissemmated by Catholic theologians resolve the ethical and moral questioaand clergy, but it is also clear from generated by the rapid advance orecent philosophical and theological modern science. This article will notesearch that t~ese presuppositi , ns go very far ih accomplishing thalfmd. a fum b~sis neither in Scriptv e Rather, it will attempt to lay a na:turjllor m traditional Catholic theology. Linacre Quarterfebruary' 1970 It should be stated from the outset that Catholic moral teaching has not ·always relied on natural law teaching, that there have· been many good but differing natural law theories em-ployed by Catholic theology, that the Church's· magisterium has employed some very different approaches to the natural law from time to time and has altered some significant natural law teachings, and that no natural law system has been revealed or confirmed by revelation. (The Bible shows very little interest in essential descriptions of man on which a natural law theory could be developed; rather, it is concerned with human existence and human behavior in light of the call of grace from God.) Due to these variables, and because we are now faced with the need to rely more and more on Scripture and to speak a common voice with our separated Christian 'brethren in ad-dressing ourselves to the moral ·problems of the day, there are some who suggest that the natural law should be scrapped, that it has had its day. However, there are many of us in the field of Catholic moral theology . who believe that, if viewed iri a true Christian fashion and if based on the best available knowledge of the meaning of man, a natural law theory is not only viable but indispensable to Christian morality. Some of the components of a Christian natural law theory as conceived by theologians nowadays, in the light of the teaching of Aquinas and contemporary anthro-pological philosophy and theolo:~-y , can be summarized under ' t\,v,. ') headings . L In the proper sense of the term, the natural law is an , unformulated morl'l law. St. Thomas gives a sirrlple 17 definition: natural law is the rational creature's part icipation in the divine law (.'~ . TheoL , I-11, 91, 2}. The divine . law f. .Jr excellence is the eternal law of God which reigns over the entire universe. It is _ the plan of divine wisdom which is given promulgation in time by creation and revelation. The natural moral law corresponds pri-marily to the · eternal law promulgated in creation. Aqumas adds that all beings are subject to the eternal law (divine providence) and for this reason have an inherent inclination to a cor-respop.ding way of acting. In other words, the eternal law Jthe divine command governing the sum total of reality) is so much at the very heart of things that it is identical with the innermost nature and activity of a being. This natural inclination or natural tendency toward .a goal which runs through the entire order of creation may be called the natural law, but it is not yet a natural moral law. Perhaps a scientific law of nature may be deduced from the operation of nature itself; but the natural moral law, as the specific moral law of man is a law of reason. The merely naturai order of creation constitutes an onto-logical presupposition for what we mean by the natural moral law: it must be penetrated by reason before we know what moral demands it holds in store for us. This means tpat men, in striving for their final goal, are not subjected to a set of ready-made and eternally valid laws which they only need to carry out. Man is not directed in a passive way by the eternal law: he shares in it actively by his own foresight and care. Aquinas taught that man shares in divine providence by being provident fqr hi !:'~If and others (S. Theol. I-11, 91, 2). 1 a true sense, then, we can say· that , . Jst radically, man is a law 18 unto himself - not in some arbitr: .ry fashion (for .that would be opposed to the givenness of the ontological r e-suppositions presented in . creatio :1), but because the "natural inclination to his goal" is a mandate which must be first recognized by his own reason : nd then carried out in free responsibil ty. What we are saying is that :he natural moral law is objective, but · his does not mean ·that it is onh a summary of already-given prec;.·pts which we may immediately find as s tch in the world of nature. Rather, the natural moral law is man himself i his total reality, man as capable md morally obliged to recognize md pursue the basic demands for his . elf-realization. Or, to put it another ay, man as a person has the task not simply of recognizing the realities md facts · found in this world of man md to place himself in the service of ti tese realities: he has to humanize all t ltese given data of his given nature thn ugh his discreet use of reason (illumine, l by faith). goods of his nature infallibly and quasi-intuitively, to pursue and affirm and do the good, and to avoid the evil This is clearly a great responsibilit; and a great risk: to embrace one's own law ~f freedom, not through merely ~penmposed norms nor through · mn~te moral ideas, but through an act1ve r~tional orienta~ion where by man denves the (obliging) moral law of free action from reality. 2. The natural moral law is . also a formulated law, but in a secondary and derived sense. We could not even speak of a natural moral law of man unless we ~cknowledge that it is possi-ble to denve specific obligations and to formulate them as uriiverally valid on ~e ba~is of a rational insight into cei!am ultimate ontological structures valid for all men. Obviously the validi-ty of any such precepts of the natural moral law depends entirely on whether and to what extent general structures of ~uman existence can be known and verified. It is precisely here that we are faced with many perplexing questions This _understanding of the nai ur~ nowadays. What is the meaning of moral law should not be alien tc the man? Can this meaning be defmed world of today, for modern me~ ·1 ~ on~ and for all? Are the mere and becoming more and more aware _. his obvtous animality and rationality of autonomy, of his need for freeJ om man adequate expressions of his from physical, psychological, · sc cia!, meaning? Does not man himself political· and economic slaveries an~ Wldergo significant changes in the of his spiritual powers. But is it ; skini course of history? For that matter too much of man accurately to n cog· does ffial_l no~ ~ndergo some important nize and pursue his true self-realizd ion ~ges m his mdividuallifetime? And in the sight of God and to make thu IS not our knowledge of man itself relevant to the law of his condu ;t ill COnditioned by historical process and every situation? Hardly. Tradit-on~ cultural presuppositions? Do we ever Catholic moral theology has put ~real have a grasp <?n absolute truth, even in emphasis on the notion of syndt res~ :.!:: basic hu~an matters, or is it not (sometimes called ''natural con the ys a question of perspectives of sc i e nce" or "fundame t al _knowledge of truth? These conscience") - the deep and irrever~ :e~bons cannot be . easily brushed ble tendency of man ·to the go d, or • the personal goodness of the entirl A kn man moving him to know the ba~' c owledge of the meat;ling of m~n annot adequately be acquir-·d Linacre Quarterij ~ b e ruary, 1970 through the empirical method, because no matter how carefully empirical data may be gathered, it never gets beyond the realm of pure fact . It does not attain to the knowledge of exsenses. The social scientist or anthropologist may be able to tell us what man has always considered just or unjust, but he can never tell us what must be considered just, based on the nature of man himself. Because we are looking for what must be considered good based on the nature of m~n ~mself, we are looking for an a przorz law governing human nature and man's conduct. For this philosophical reflection is indispens~ able - a deduction on the very meaning of man and the essential cat~gories of his being resulting from a ratiOnal penetration of what is true on the empirical, factual level. According to _st. Thomas, the moral imperatives which are known from the basic struc-tures of human nature are self-evident "first _ principles." It cannot be demonstrated that the good is (naturally) to be done and sought after and the evil is to be avoided. But if .one does not accept this first principle and such other principles which self-evidently embody it (the good of preserving life , of the brotherhood of all men, of man's dependence on God), then one fails to understand ?ne's .. own nature. In fact, man tmphcttly affinns them even . d . m . enymg them, for their very denial mvolves their use. Therefore, when Catholic theoJ,Jgy speaks of those demands of the natv 11. moral law which are always and w . _ versally valid, it is speaking of th~· self-evident laws of one's own created nature. All other more precise · and co1 crete moral dictates"come from the application and interpretation of these 19 basic principles ~ an application and interpretation which is historically cond:' :.ioned and which, in many cases, must be somewhat tentative. This means that our most certain principles are necessarily very general and rather abstract. They are nonetheless obli-gatory, but they can specify concrete moral demands only in a general way and after a thorough scrutiny of con-temporary ways of thinking about the various activities of man. For instance, it is clear that man has a natural inclination to self-preser-vation, but man's God~ndowed provident reason only gives rise to a very . general moral dictate on this score: that there is a moral duty to see to it that life is respected and pre-served. It is a further step, requiring more data and more possibly inade-. quate distinctions, to formu~ate a negative absolute precept such as "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not ·commit suicide" and apply them (by way of interpretation) to all imaginable kinds of free lethal activity. Traditional Catholic moral theology has always made exceptions to these norms, and . we are not completely . satisfied with all these exceptions today (e.g. capital punishment). Another example is to be found in the sexual, procreative life of man. It is more self-evident to deduce that "sexuality demands some form of regulation," but if qne is to deduce "thou shalt not practice birth control," this must result. from an accurate knowledge of not only the biological processes, but the psychol-ogy and sociology of sexual behavior as well. If one is content to deduce the dominant moral obligation only from natural biological processes, and then relies only on thirteenth century biology which did not know, for instance, · :• at woman produces germ celts, one till arrive at a historically 20 Today' s philosophical however, would see man more total unity. The contemporary n of "person" is having a strong e:.. on natural law theory. Personalism are not speaking of some su .., ............... -. sentimental or merely existential tude) sees man not only as a sut>SUilll'! substance,_ as passively experie concrete commands of the moral law must take as their LID!O!-no1·mt, then, not man in the , but m~n in the concrete. The for the moral law of man is not ted, because the meaning of and historical man has not been frozen. New truths become apparent when man is viewe<;l more in a total personal dimesnion. New truths · of the natural law emerge in an in-dustrial period which were not true in an agrarian era. Furthermore, man as evolutionary seems to experience thresholds of dramatic modifications of his situation or disposition, and this calls for a renewed analysis of the "ought" of the human condition, in the light of the universally valid, largely unformulated natural moral law (as illumined by the faith of the . Gospel of love). These observations on the natural law have, by necessity, been brief and limited. There are many other aspects of . the use of a natural law theory which would have to be treated else-where, among them: the relationship of the natural law to the Gospel law of love, and the role of the Church's magisterium in assisting mankind to arrive at an ever more certain self-understanding of its natural moral law. But these introductory comments on a natural law theory, partial as they may be, should hopefully find some acceptance among psychologists, psychiatrists and medical men general-ly, for these specialists also· begin with an lend aid to the concrete man in the here-and-now world, they frequently recognize within individual men the transcendental (universal) dictates of the natural and radical good of man, and they are apt to consider authentic self -realization, or total personal growth (physical, psychological, social, moral and spiritual), as the law of man. In removmg the obstacles to and ~: tively assisting this growth to hun'l·-• n st:f-fulfillment, these specialists a.< e rk -iking man free to participate in the d1'Jjne law by making it possible for him to fulfill the innermost nature of his being - the natural and radical stri·.'ing toward the good, ultimately the . \bsolute JOOd. · 21 

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Personal Growth: Up-Dating the Natural Law

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