What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to examine Hugo Grotius' application of natural law to family and marriage within the context of Early Modern Europe.

May 18, 2026Open Access

Hugo Grotius and the Natural Law of Marriage: A Case Study of Harmonizing Confessional Differences in Early Modern Europe

Key Points

The aim is to examine Hugo Grotius' application of natural law to family and marriage within the context of Early Modern Europe.
Evaluates Grotius' natural law theories on family and marriage
Analyzes the interplay between Catholic and Protestant teachings
Examines historical context and theological underpinnings of Grotius' arguments
Grotius established a rational natural law basis for traditional marital and family teachings.
He affirmed the consistency of prohibitions against adultery, incest, and prostitution within natural law frameworks.
He posited that biblical principles were vital for justifying prohibitions on polygamy and divorce.

Abstract

Seventeenth-century Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius, worked out a detailed natural law of the family, which undergirded the competing Catholic and Protestant family and broader theological teachings of his day. Grotius showed how traditional teachings about the private and public goods of sexual pair-bonding, marriage, and parentage and traditional prohibitions against adultery, incest, prostitution, and fornication were consistent with rational natural law theory. But it took the Bible and Christian theology, he believed, to justify traditional prohibitions against polygamy, concubinage, divorce, and remarriage. This chapter evaluates Grotius' contributions to natural law theory and family law history, lifting up themes and methods that have been central to the work of leading American legal historian, R.H. Helmholz, to whom the chapter is dedicated.

KI fragen

Bookmark

View Full Paper