Natural Law: Reflections on Theory & Practice

You'll go into a Barnes and Noble and see on a desk a sign raised which reads "thought-provoking." More often than not the desk inhabits atheist agenda and nonsense, which the casual reader is always tempted to wonder about, though the trained reader always deplores. This is a book - this is an author - that deserves the title "thought-provoking." Maritain is as interesting, is as lucid, is as creative as he is brilliant.

Maritain has a goldmine of information in this little book for those interested in the tradtional view of Natural Law. I have read several books on the Natural Law, some very good ones, but they all left me with a feeling of incompleteness. Maritain does not do this, he fills the gap here and covers an immense amount of ground in such a short space. Worthy of special mention is the relationship of human rights to the Natural Law and how rights must be founded on it - for without Natural Law there is no true obligation. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the moral and political applications of Natural Law.