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The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction
The suicidal proclivity of our time, writes the acclaimed philosopher J. Budziszewski, is to deny the obvious. Our hearts are riddled with desires that oppose their deepest longings, because we demand to have happiness on terms that make happiness impossible. Why? And what can we do about it?
Budziszewski addresses these vital questions in his brilliantly persuasive new book, The Line Through the Heart. The answers can be discovered in an exploration of natural law—a venture that, with Budziszewski as our expert guide, takes us through politics, religion, ethics, law, philosophy, and more.
Natural law, the author states plainly but provocatively, is a fact about human beings; as surely as we have hands and feet, we have the foundational principles of good and evil woven into the fabric of our minds. From this elemental fact emerges a natural law theory that unfolds as part of a careful study of the human person. Thus, Budziszewski shows, natural law forms a common ground for humanity.
But this common ground is slippery. While natural law is truly an observable part of human nature, human beings are hell-bent—quite literally—on ignoring it. The mere mention of the obligations imposed on man by his nature will send him into a rage. In this sense, The Line Through the Heart explores natural law as not simply a fact and a theory but also a sign of contradiction.
While investigating the natural law and its implications, Budziszewski boldly confronts—and offers a newly integrated view of—a wide range of contemporary issues, including abortion, evolution, euthanasia, capital punishment, the courts, and the ersatz state religion being built in the name of religious toleration.
Written in Budziszewski’s usual crystalline style, The Line Through the Heart makes clear that natural law is a matter of concern not merely to scholars; it touches how each of us lives, and how all of us live together. His profoundly important examination of this subject helps us make sense of why habits that run against our nature have become second nature, and why our world seems to be going mad.
Budziszewski addresses these vital questions in his brilliantly persuasive new book, The Line Through the Heart. The answers can be discovered in an exploration of natural law—a venture that, with Budziszewski as our expert guide, takes us through politics, religion, ethics, law, philosophy, and more.
Natural law, the author states plainly but provocatively, is a fact about human beings; as surely as we have hands and feet, we have the foundational principles of good and evil woven into the fabric of our minds. From this elemental fact emerges a natural law theory that unfolds as part of a careful study of the human person. Thus, Budziszewski shows, natural law forms a common ground for humanity.
But this common ground is slippery. While natural law is truly an observable part of human nature, human beings are hell-bent—quite literally—on ignoring it. The mere mention of the obligations imposed on man by his nature will send him into a rage. In this sense, The Line Through the Heart explores natural law as not simply a fact and a theory but also a sign of contradiction.
While investigating the natural law and its implications, Budziszewski boldly confronts—and offers a newly integrated view of—a wide range of contemporary issues, including abortion, evolution, euthanasia, capital punishment, the courts, and the ersatz state religion being built in the name of religious toleration.
Written in Budziszewski’s usual crystalline style, The Line Through the Heart makes clear that natural law is a matter of concern not merely to scholars; it touches how each of us lives, and how all of us live together. His profoundly important examination of this subject helps us make sense of why habits that run against our nature have become second nature, and why our world seems to be going mad.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2009
26 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
J. Budziszewski
30 books66 followersJ. Budziszewski (born 1952) is professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, where he has taught since 1981. He specializes in ethics, political philosophy and the interaction of these two fields with religion and theology.
Budziszewski has written widely, in both scholarly and popular venues, about a variety of moral and political issues including abortion, marriage, sexuality, capital punishment, and the role of judges in a constitutional republic. His principal area of publication is the theory of natural law.
Apart from his scholarly philosophical work, Budziszewski is known for articles and books of Christian apologetics, addressed to a broad audience including young people and college students.
Ph.D., Political Science, Yale University, 1981.
M.A., Political Science, University of Florida, 1977.
B.A., Political Science, University of South Florida, 1975.
2002-present: Professor, Departments of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.
1995-2002: Associate Professor, Departments of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.
1988-1995: Associate Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
1981-1988: Assistant Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
1980-1981: Acting Instructor, Departments of Political Science, Yale University.
Budziszewski has written widely, in both scholarly and popular venues, about a variety of moral and political issues including abortion, marriage, sexuality, capital punishment, and the role of judges in a constitutional republic. His principal area of publication is the theory of natural law.
Apart from his scholarly philosophical work, Budziszewski is known for articles and books of Christian apologetics, addressed to a broad audience including young people and college students.
Ph.D., Political Science, Yale University, 1981.
M.A., Political Science, University of Florida, 1977.
B.A., Political Science, University of South Florida, 1975.
2002-present: Professor, Departments of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.
1995-2002: Associate Professor, Departments of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.
1988-1995: Associate Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
1981-1988: Assistant Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
1980-1981: Acting Instructor, Departments of Political Science, Yale University.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 23, 2021
I just pulled this off the shelf - didn't know we had it: a book on natural law. It's a series of loosely linked essays, and as it happened, it complimented the Fr. Murray book nicely. The author ranges through natural law vs. naturalism, the Constitution, whether societal neutrality on morality is a coherent idea, and so forth. He writes with a calm rationality that is soothing to read, though the material is challenging. I was particularly struck by the discussion about how faith can point to certain truths and say, "See, there it is!", and then reason can derive a whole bunch more. The equality of all men is like this - it is hard (or impossible) to see without knowing about imago Dei, but once you see it, a bunch of important legal and societal consequences arise. I think Budziszewski would say that recovering the American consensus requires recovering natural law, and ways of talking about it with each other. A tall order, alas, but nothing is hopeless.
March 19, 2020
Wow! That's the first and most accurate reaction that I can give to this book. Just . . . Wow!
The Line Through the Heart is one of the best argued books of philosophy I have ever read. Although at times it does get slightly bogged down (only slightly), this is an important piece of philosophical writing that I can honestly say everyone--everyone!--should read.
I'm also required to write an academic review of the book for the class that assigned it as required reading. Perhaps I will post it publicly somewhere at some point.
This book struck a personal cord. In the midst of writing my capstone research for my master's degree in Christian apologetics, I decided to rescind my application to study religion at the PhD level and applied, instead, to study for a doctorate in public policy. Budziszewski's argument in The Line Through the Heart confirmed, for me, the rightness of that decision. At a time when plain common sense, never mind a grounding in Natural Law, has all but disappeared from our public discourse, the author writes a compelling argument for why we should reconnect with our Natural Law roots and why Christians are particularly equipped to make that restoration actual.
The Line Through the Heart is one of the best argued books of philosophy I have ever read. Although at times it does get slightly bogged down (only slightly), this is an important piece of philosophical writing that I can honestly say everyone--everyone!--should read.
I'm also required to write an academic review of the book for the class that assigned it as required reading. Perhaps I will post it publicly somewhere at some point.
This book struck a personal cord. In the midst of writing my capstone research for my master's degree in Christian apologetics, I decided to rescind my application to study religion at the PhD level and applied, instead, to study for a doctorate in public policy. Budziszewski's argument in The Line Through the Heart confirmed, for me, the rightness of that decision. At a time when plain common sense, never mind a grounding in Natural Law, has all but disappeared from our public discourse, the author writes a compelling argument for why we should reconnect with our Natural Law roots and why Christians are particularly equipped to make that restoration actual.
March 23, 2020
As a traditionalist, there is much here that I have long understood. Yet, Budziszewski takes the matter of natural law a little further than I have ever considered or read elsewhere. He takes the reader down an engaging line of logic toward an end as natural as Natural Law itself. For those of us who believe that Natural Law is real, it will be easy to follow his logic and come to the same conclusions. For those bent on denying the truth of Natural Law, there will not be enough to take that leap of logic. Only admitting to our own internal truth can take us there. Budziszewski understands this dilemma. He also understands the denier's agenda, the rebellious core at the center of their resistance. You cannot expect a rebel to follow logic, they are only interested in fighting against the uncomfortable truth.
March 1, 2017
A disjointed collection of meandering essays.
September 24, 2021
In his appendix the author explains simply what natural law is about:
"Natural law theories share a conviction that the most basic truths of right and wrong--I don't say all the details--are not only right for everyone, but at some level known to everyone by the ordinary exercise of reason. They are an heirloom of the family of man." (Kindle Location 3816)
So natural law approaches ethics apart from Scripture. It does so, presumably, to seek ways of persuading those in the public square who do not affirm the authority of Scripture. As such, natural lawyers are always taking the long way around (however commendable their motives). If one wants to travel from Seattle to Beijing, the biblical ethicist hops on a red eye flight and is there in the morning. Meanwhile, the natural law ethicist packs up his hiking gear and begins the long slog north through Canada and Alaska; west to the Bering Straits; navigates the ice flow to Kamchatka, and eventually arrives--six months later--in Beijing.
This book reads like that. It is full of good conclusions, but they are arrived at in a tedious fashion, so that I found my foot tapping in impatience for the author to finally...please... get to the point.
Budziszewski has moments of real power. He builds his cases by turning an enormous rhetorical flywheel. It starts so very, very slowly, so that in the middle one wonders where in heaven is the point. But the wheel builds speed, and towards the end of the essay, it is zipping along. In my view, the build is just too long and tedious.
He's a great ally. But I think he's hindered by the boundaries of natural law.
"Natural law theories share a conviction that the most basic truths of right and wrong--I don't say all the details--are not only right for everyone, but at some level known to everyone by the ordinary exercise of reason. They are an heirloom of the family of man." (Kindle Location 3816)
So natural law approaches ethics apart from Scripture. It does so, presumably, to seek ways of persuading those in the public square who do not affirm the authority of Scripture. As such, natural lawyers are always taking the long way around (however commendable their motives). If one wants to travel from Seattle to Beijing, the biblical ethicist hops on a red eye flight and is there in the morning. Meanwhile, the natural law ethicist packs up his hiking gear and begins the long slog north through Canada and Alaska; west to the Bering Straits; navigates the ice flow to Kamchatka, and eventually arrives--six months later--in Beijing.
This book reads like that. It is full of good conclusions, but they are arrived at in a tedious fashion, so that I found my foot tapping in impatience for the author to finally...please... get to the point.
Budziszewski has moments of real power. He builds his cases by turning an enormous rhetorical flywheel. It starts so very, very slowly, so that in the middle one wonders where in heaven is the point. But the wheel builds speed, and towards the end of the essay, it is zipping along. In my view, the build is just too long and tedious.
He's a great ally. But I think he's hindered by the boundaries of natural law.
March 16, 2023
Very good. His central claim is that nature was given to mankind in order to anticipate and lead us to grace. These natural laws, or inbuilt, fixed realities in creation and within every person exist as an escalator that, in the architecture of the human heart, are to lift us up to an awareness of the divine. This book will give you a great introduction to Catholic natural law thinking without having to read Summa. Budziszewski really wants to see the natural law regain it's long lost place at the table in American philosophical and political dialogue and he makes a convincing argument.
November 4, 2022
There are fundamental errors of academia and history in this book. If one accepts religion as infallible evidence then this book is fine but if instead you want something resembling academic evidence in political theory then you will find this book severely lacking.
May 22, 2023
Dense. This was a required reading for an intro class in my doctoral program in public policy. I'm not a philosophy expert, nor do I enjoy it. However, I think this book was valuable in analyzing natural law.
Did I like reading it?
Well, no.
Did I like reading it?
Well, no.
February 21, 2012
Homo Homini Lupus
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/
This Book Is Not a Romance
The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction spans the philosophical and theological underpinnings that hold together every individual's worldview. It is in a word (or two) a work concerning Natural Law. It is not an introduction to Natural Law or a full and complete apology for it.
The first half of the book covers Natural Law proper as it relates to morality. These first pages read as an expose and apology as Budziszewski sets up the inseparability of the moral aspect and the theological aspect of natural law as outlined in the Decalogue. He turns first to the nature of man. He looks both at what we can't help but know about ourselves and at the implication of nature on revelation and vice versa. Next Budziszewski focuses on the idea of second nature, connaturality, or more simply he considers not the nature of Man but focuses on the what of any given individual in a situation. He shows just how unnatural man can make himself when he seeks to build his edifice from his own image. From here he delves into nature herself looking at different metaphysical presumptions of materialistic and evolutionary theories and what implications can be derived from them. His focus remains intently on morality which leaves contending theories wanting to such a degree that the reader may be left to wonder how he had missed it all before. In the closing chapter of the first half the author deftly tackles what might be called psuedo-natural law; these are the imitation laws like utilitarianism.
The second half of the book takes everything that has come before it and applies it to political law. First he examines the changing definition of a person and the implications; next he consider capitol punishment, but this chapter almost reads as an apology of justice guised under the hot bed of capitol punishment. Next he covers the constitutional government; first in looking at the difference between constitutions and constitutionalism, and second examining the metaphysical beliefs which lay under our understanding of the constitution proper. Finally he closes the political portion with a discussion and criticism of modern liberalism, political correctness, and toleration.
The Good
Line Through the Heart continues a long standing belief in Natural Law which the author defines and defends with an astute pen. Budziszewski is able to take a subject that can be technical and overwrought with difficulties and makes the reading an enjoyment. Such is the enjoyment that he convinces the reader along the way that he knew already what he is preparing to read.
I have long been a proponent of Natural Law since first reading Lysander Spooner's treatise on the subject some eleven years ago yet I have not found a work on the subject that covers so much ground and with such ease and concision. There is not a chapter within this work that could not be further expounded into its own tome. However, the work is so polished that one would be remiss to expect its improvement by expansion. As with sculpture quality does not increase with size, so with Line Through the Heart.
The Caveat
As enthused as I am for Line Through the Heart I could not recommend this without warning to the reader. Without bringing some understanding of what Natural Law is there is a chance that one would be found lost before ever setting out. This work is not introductory and presumes some level of understanding to be brought to the table. This does not mean that Budziszewski fails to explain those things which he discusses but that from the start he does not hold the hand of the reader and gently guide him along the way. Budziszewsi's approach is more akin to a rappel down a building, with a little foreknowledge he will get you to the very bottom of the issue with speed, ease and grace. Without it one might find himself face-down on the street.
The Final Word
All things considered this book is truly for all readers. Those who lack the foreknowledge require for the trek would do well to read some of the man's other works to gain an understanding of the issue at hand before coming back to this one. Those who have a handle on the subject will find nothing but pleasures.
5/5
Propter Sanguinem Agni,
RS
This book was provided to me free of charge by the publisher. They asked only for my honest opinion. Nothing weird or anything like that. I am only disclosing this information because it is illegal if I don't. I'm pretty sure that I would go to prison, probably for life, seeing how reviewing a product you are given for free under the guise of having purchased it yourself is similar to murder. O laws, like whitewashed tombs!
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/2...
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/
This Book Is Not a Romance
The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction spans the philosophical and theological underpinnings that hold together every individual's worldview. It is in a word (or two) a work concerning Natural Law. It is not an introduction to Natural Law or a full and complete apology for it.
The first half of the book covers Natural Law proper as it relates to morality. These first pages read as an expose and apology as Budziszewski sets up the inseparability of the moral aspect and the theological aspect of natural law as outlined in the Decalogue. He turns first to the nature of man. He looks both at what we can't help but know about ourselves and at the implication of nature on revelation and vice versa. Next Budziszewski focuses on the idea of second nature, connaturality, or more simply he considers not the nature of Man but focuses on the what of any given individual in a situation. He shows just how unnatural man can make himself when he seeks to build his edifice from his own image. From here he delves into nature herself looking at different metaphysical presumptions of materialistic and evolutionary theories and what implications can be derived from them. His focus remains intently on morality which leaves contending theories wanting to such a degree that the reader may be left to wonder how he had missed it all before. In the closing chapter of the first half the author deftly tackles what might be called psuedo-natural law; these are the imitation laws like utilitarianism.
The second half of the book takes everything that has come before it and applies it to political law. First he examines the changing definition of a person and the implications; next he consider capitol punishment, but this chapter almost reads as an apology of justice guised under the hot bed of capitol punishment. Next he covers the constitutional government; first in looking at the difference between constitutions and constitutionalism, and second examining the metaphysical beliefs which lay under our understanding of the constitution proper. Finally he closes the political portion with a discussion and criticism of modern liberalism, political correctness, and toleration.
The Good
Line Through the Heart continues a long standing belief in Natural Law which the author defines and defends with an astute pen. Budziszewski is able to take a subject that can be technical and overwrought with difficulties and makes the reading an enjoyment. Such is the enjoyment that he convinces the reader along the way that he knew already what he is preparing to read.
I have long been a proponent of Natural Law since first reading Lysander Spooner's treatise on the subject some eleven years ago yet I have not found a work on the subject that covers so much ground and with such ease and concision. There is not a chapter within this work that could not be further expounded into its own tome. However, the work is so polished that one would be remiss to expect its improvement by expansion. As with sculpture quality does not increase with size, so with Line Through the Heart.
The Caveat
As enthused as I am for Line Through the Heart I could not recommend this without warning to the reader. Without bringing some understanding of what Natural Law is there is a chance that one would be found lost before ever setting out. This work is not introductory and presumes some level of understanding to be brought to the table. This does not mean that Budziszewski fails to explain those things which he discusses but that from the start he does not hold the hand of the reader and gently guide him along the way. Budziszewsi's approach is more akin to a rappel down a building, with a little foreknowledge he will get you to the very bottom of the issue with speed, ease and grace. Without it one might find himself face-down on the street.
The Final Word
All things considered this book is truly for all readers. Those who lack the foreknowledge require for the trek would do well to read some of the man's other works to gain an understanding of the issue at hand before coming back to this one. Those who have a handle on the subject will find nothing but pleasures.
5/5
Propter Sanguinem Agni,
RS
This book was provided to me free of charge by the publisher. They asked only for my honest opinion. Nothing weird or anything like that. I am only disclosing this information because it is illegal if I don't. I'm pretty sure that I would go to prison, probably for life, seeing how reviewing a product you are given for free under the guise of having purchased it yourself is similar to murder. O laws, like whitewashed tombs!
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/2...
January 24, 2016
Great insight from natural law
The beauty here is the way Budziszewski ties natural law to a variety of areas, from marriage to abortion to capital punishment and more. One begins to see the thread of natural law running through all our institutions, and that it must necessarily be so. There is also plentiful evidence on what happens when we attempt to operate our lives, individually and corporately, against the natural law. This is a book that rewards careful reading. It sharpens one's ability to see the connectedness of our decisions in all areas of life, and the unity of what it must mean to live a good one.
The beauty here is the way Budziszewski ties natural law to a variety of areas, from marriage to abortion to capital punishment and more. One begins to see the thread of natural law running through all our institutions, and that it must necessarily be so. There is also plentiful evidence on what happens when we attempt to operate our lives, individually and corporately, against the natural law. This is a book that rewards careful reading. It sharpens one's ability to see the connectedness of our decisions in all areas of life, and the unity of what it must mean to live a good one.
January 5, 2013
Classic Budziszewski. Clear thinking. The book doesn't have an overall theme, just a set of chapters centered around natural law theory. The chapter on the Constitution should be interesting reading for Americans.
February 10, 2013
Although the flow felt a bit disjointed (it reads more like a collection of essays), this is a remarkable book containing an exposition of classical NLT and application to politics.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews