Over the last month, I have posted on natural law and how its approach to ethics can help us think about costume and body modification.
St. John Paul II made a distinctive contribution to natural law thinking. I argued in Ecstatic Morality and Sexual Politics (2005) that this contribution brilliantly develops aspects of Aquinas’s natural law previously underappreciated.
Thomas Aquinas:
“the Old Law was not only that of the Father, but also that of the Son, because Christ was prefigured in the Old Law; for this reason the Lord says: `If you believed Moses, you would also believe me; for he wrote about me’” (Summa theologica, I-II, q. 106, a. 4, ad 3).
John Paul II:
“these {various aspects of human life] are the goods safeguarded by the commandments, which, according to Saint Thomas, contain the whole natural law” (Veritatis Splendor, para. 79, with reference to Summa theologica, I-II, q. 100, a. 1).
These two quotes generate the following claim:
Natural law is the Ten Commandments and natural law expresses Christ.
First, I want to document the argument of John Paul II (I rely here on his 1993 encyclical letter, Veritatis Splendor).
Second, I want to show how costume relates to the Ten Commandments (this adds to the two-part reflection I just posted on Aquinas and idolatry).
The argument:
What is the problem to be solved?
Today, people in their moral lives flip between:
Naturalism = determinism = instincts = “I cannot help doing it”/”We’re hard-wired.”
OR
Pure spirit = complete freedom = “I bow my head to no one”
Why are both positions wrong?
They rely on a decapitation. In the first, we are bodies without heads, in the second, heads without bodies (VS, para 46).
The body = inclinations/appetites/desires
The head = reason = self-control/personal self-determination/consent
First proposition:
The human is a composite of body and soul; we have a bodily psychology and thus a bodily moral life.
Thus, humans share a set of rational desires.
And, our desire is linked to God through our reason.
Crucial quote:
“It also becomes clear why this law is called the natural law: it receives this name not because it refers to the nature of irrational beings but because the reason which promulgates it is proper to human nature” (VS, para. 42; emphasis added).
This quote revisited: because the reason [God’s reason] which promulgates it [the law] is proper to [analogical/somewhat like] human nature.”
Second proposition:
Our reason is like God’s and because we are creatures of rational desire our desire is like God, too.
Our rational desire is embodied so our bodies are somewhat divine-like, being expressive of the law.
Crucial quote:
“The person, by the light of reason and the support of virtue, discovers in the body the anticipatory signs, the expression and the promise of the gift of self, in conformity with the wise plan of the Creator” (VS, para. 48; emphasis added).
So, the argument is: the Ten Commandments structure our embodied psychology as generous, social, and gracious.
Final crucial quote:
“In order to perfect himself in his specific order, the person must do good and avoid evil, be concerned for the transmission and preservation of life, refine and develop the riches of the material world, cultivate social life, seek truth, practice good and contemplate beauty” (VS, para. 51).
These moral obligations are binding on all (space) always (time): they are unchanging because the law is ultimately Christ “who is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Gaudium et spes, para. 84; cited VS, para. 53).
——
Moving from the argument to the application: Do we find in the body “anticipatory signs” of the Ten Commandments and how does this help us understand costume?
Reminder about the Commandments:
- I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
- Honour your father and your mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.
- You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods.
The anticipatory signs in the body include:
Our upright posture and capacity to bend the knee (1 and 3),
our vulnerability (5),
being creatures of physical action connects with property (7 and 10),
our bodily heritage (4),
sexuality (6 and 9),
hand to heart or other gestures of trust and fidelity (2 and 8).
Mapping onto these embodiments are clothes with specific meanings. In the same order, these are:
Liturgical,
armour and camo (!),
adornments and luxury,
national costume and beloved inherited pieces,
modest and erotic wear,
uniforms of public authority and service or sporting team colours.
More examples could be given but what is clear is the way that broad categories of clothing that we are all familiar with track the obligations of the Ten Commandments.
