Protestants, Natural Law, and Reproductive Ethics

There is little doubt that the life and work of John Paul II has been more intensely watched and appreciated by Protestant thinkers than that of any other Pope since the Reformation. One would hardly have expected this to be the case back in the fall of 1978 when Cardinal Karol Jozef Wojtyla was elevated the chair of Saint Peter. With the influence of the Roman Catholic Church apparently on the wane in the West, none could have anticipated that John Paul II would become not only one of the most important world leaders of the twentieth century, but also one of the leading theological, philosophical, political, and social theorists of our time. His teaching in these areas has deserves sustained and careful reflection by all Christians.

In this essay I would like to offer some distinctively Protestant reflections on the essays by Laura Garcia and Patrick Lee in which they aim to tie together some of the important teaching of John Paul II on the topics of marriage, sexuality, and reproduction. I begin with some general remarks on the stance of Protestants on the natural law tradition that underlies John Paul II’s teaching and, more broadly, Catholic moral theology. I then consider some of the arguments offered by Garcia and Lee that might be less readily received by Protestants.