[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”1118391160″ locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Tlh5mfWHL._SL110_.jpg” width=”71″]Page 2: Eugene F. Rogers – Aquinas and the Supreme Court
This failure of the natural law, Thomas argues in the Romans commentary, comes because people—in their idolatry—have tied up the natural law, refusing its provisionality and demanding that it be absolute. As a consequence, our sins compound by calling what we see solely by reason “natural”, as if we could understand rightly what we are seeing independent of grace. The natural law, when restored by grace, Rogers argues, becomes a powerful force for Thomas, for in uniting the natural law with the divine law, Christians participate in the union of eternity and time, love and gravity, grace and law.
Rogers describes the payoff to this re-reading of Thomas on the natural law throughout the second half of the book. Bringing this understanding of nature into conversation with Karl Barth, Judith Butler and others, Rogers argues for an understanding of nature—as a restored aspect of the Spirit’s work—which is dynamic, appropriate to time and space, and subject to the life of virtue. The result is a Thomas who stands remarkably close to Barth, and a Thomas whose understanding of “natural” gender is much closer to Judith Butler’s constructivist account of gender than could have been previously imagined. Insofar as the Spirit moves within distinct communities bound together in time by the work of God in Christ, so understanding what life in the world, i.e. what is “natural” to us, changes as the Spirit works out redemption of our bodies, our corporate life together, and our souls toward God.
In this work, issues of the naturalness of gender and sexuality are woven through Rogers’ reflections, complicating both Thomas’ use within the legal system and within Christian arguments about what is natural. Too often, as Rogers points out, Christian reflections upon ‘nature’ repeat the errors of natural lawyers in assuming that 1) nature is self-evident and 2) nature is unchanging. If what is ‘natural’, according to Thomas (following Paul) is a work of the Spirit, then nature is neither one. Rather, our discussions of natural life—while learning from our observations and from reason—cannot be ultimately governed by reason, but led by the Spirit’s revealing and restoring work.
These innovative readings of Thomas aside, the book itself suffers in part from being a compilation of previously published material. Though edited together into a singular argument, the subtitle is a bit misleading, in that apart from the first two chapters, there is no discussion of the implications of Thomas upon juridical discussions. Additionally, there is lack of flow among various chapters within a section, with an extended treatment of the glory of faith and reason placed in between two chapters comparing Thomas with Barth and Butler. These shortcomings aside, Eugene F. Rogers has produced a reading of Thomas which should provoke vigorous discussion both on the nature of what is “natural” and on how to properly read Thomas.
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Myles Werntz is a postdoctoral fellow in theology and ethics at Baylor University. You can find him on Twitter at @TheOneTrueMyles
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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