Description
Book SynopsisFor Thomas Aquinas the ontological and ethical orders are not autonomous but inseparable. This book shows how traditional Natural Law was transformed by thinkers like John Locke and Kant into a doctrine compatible with early modern and modern notions of nature and morality.
Trade Review“A significant contribution to natural law theory, especially to the study of the second scholasticism.”
---—Anthony J. Lisska, Denison UniversityThe Disfigured Face is a welcome contribution to the present discourse on the status and role of natural law in moral theology. * —The Thomist *
A brief but brilliant book on the natural law. * —The Catholic World *
Remarkably balanced, Cortest’s The Disfigured Face is an excellent summary of the historical and theoretical vicissitudes of the natural law tradition. The author recovers not only the ideas but also a number of outstanding forgotten names from Cicero to Maritain, and puts into a new light the links between the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly the influential role of Francisco Suárez.
---—Juan A. Mercado, Pontifical University of the Holy CrossThis brave and brilliant book is a must read. It is at once politically incorrect yet dead on target with its deep concern for an objective moral, legal, and political truth based upon a sound philosophy of being and nature. In historical context, Cortest describes natural law as it was developed by Thomas Aquinas and his 16th century Spanish disciples. He shows how this doctrine fared vis à vis modern secular philosophy and then goes further to show that traditional natural law doctrine has been preserved almost exclusively in papal encyclicals which have challenged modern secular culture.
---—John P. Doyle, St. Louis University
