Circularity between Natural Divine Right and Positive Divine Right

Abstract

The article aims first of all to justify the fact that natural law belongs to canon law because it is based on the person rather than on the norm. From this point, natural divine law is shown as being originally open to positive divine law. Secondly, the relations between natural divine law and positive divine law are presented in terms of the principle of circularity. This perspective allows the question of the methodological status to be adequately posed, to correct positions with a normativist tendency that are alien to the juridical dimension of the created and redeemed person, and to cooperate in a better knowledge and understanding of canon law.