Natural Law

Natural Law

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Sometimes good, honest, and faithful Christians are surprised to hear that we Catholics believe that certain things about God can be known independently of the Bible. The teaching to which they are referring, of course, is the celebrated Catholic doctrine of natural law. To many, saying that some things about God can be known without the Bible is contrary to the most fundamental Christian teaching, namely, that the Bible alone should be our authority.

Well, never mind the fact that the idea of “the Bible alone” is nowhere found in the Bible. What’s more is that the Bible also explicitly teaches that certain fundamental truths about God can be known simply by reflecting on God’s creation: As St. Paul says in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans: “Even since the creation of the world, [God’s] invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.”

As St. Paul goes on to explain, it is not only truths about God that can be known simply by reflecting upon nature, but also moral truths, since those who have not been given divine revelation and yet still sin are “without excuse.” The celebrated doctrine of natural law, therefore, is not something Catholics have added to the Bible. It’s something that the Bible itself teaches.