Lying and Christian Ethics.By Christopher O. Tollefsen.

Abstract

C hristopher T ollefsen ’s book on the ethics of lying weaves together both theological (revelation-based) and philosophical (reason-based) arguments for the traditional Roman Catholic teaching that lying is always and everywhere wrong, regardless of the consequences. It is, however, the philosophical case against lying on which Tollefsen focuses most centrally—not surprisingly, since he is a philosopher. Like Germain Grisez, Joseph Boyle, and John Finnis, Tollefsen is a proponent of the ‘New Natural Law’ school of moral philosophy, a school that is rooted in a certain way of interpreting and developing the natural law thinking of Saint Thomas Aquinas, arguably the single most respected thinker in the Roman Catholic tradition. According to this school, our most basic moral duty is to respect and promote the goods that fulfil human persons, including life, health, truth, friendship, beauty, personal integrity, marriage, and religion. We recognize these things as self-evidently good for their own sakes and do not infer their goodness from mere descriptions of human nature or other facts about the world. While our own circumstances in life will rightly lead us to focus on some goods more than others, we must respect and remain open to all of the goods in every choice we make, and this means we must never act directly or intentionally against any instance of a basic human good. That is, the object of an action must never include damage to a basic human good. Some acts are thus by their very nature intrinsically immoral and sinful and never to be done, no matter what the ulterior goal or circumstances might be—a position articulated by Pope John Paul II in his 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor .