DIMENSIONS OF LAW IN THE CHURCH
Keywords:
Anthropological Dimension, Christological Dimension, The Pneumatological Dimension, The Ecclesiological Dimension, The Sociological Dimension, The Historical Dimension, The Hierarchical DimensionAbstract
The author gave a series of lectures on Theology of Law at the Institute of Oriental Canon Law, Dharmaram Vidyakshetram, Bangalore, in June-July 2011. The present article contains the text of the last lecture in a slightly revised form. The lectures were entitled as follows: 1) Theology of Law: Point of Departure, 2) Law in the Old Testament, 3) The Covenant: Biblical Foundation of Law, 4) Law in the New Testament, 5) Survival of the Old Testament Law in the Church, 6) Ius divinum, 7) Dimensions of Law in the Church. This last lecture is a synthesis of the foregoing ones on a different key. It tries to identify the characteristics of law in the Church as situated at the cross-section of anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, ecclesiology, sociology, and history. Law in the Church must be viewed as set on a value scale. Hence it is proper to speak of the hierarchy of laws in the Church on the model of the hierarchy of truths, to which theologians should be attentive. Similarly canonists must be attentive to the hierarchy of laws or the hierarchical dimension of laws in the Church.
