Theological Ethics, Hermeneutics of Natural Law and the Contribution of the Natural Sciences

The article deals with the relationship between theological ethics, hermeneutics and natural sciences with respect to the usage of natural law arguments. With this hermeneutical approach, I intend to investigate the making theological moral reflection in terms of natural law, when one takes seriously the contributions of the natural sciences. Thus, we seek the understanding and the language which would increase the dialogue between faith and science. The first part deals with the interaction of the moral reflection and the interpretation of the scientific activity in the historical perspective and the social and cultural struggles around the normative status of nature. The second part shows, through studies of the role of metaphor in the constitution of scientific and moral knowledge, how hermeneutics reveals the relationship between ontology and language, and the implications for the common search of normative meanings of nature. The third part shows how this perspective affects theological ethics, the conception of moral truth and its implications for the moral debate and the regulation of scientific and technological issues.