The Seventh Good

My topic in this essay will be the seventh and final basic good enumerated by John Finnis in Natural Law and Natural Rights. The seventh good, the good of “religion,” receives a twofold analysis: first in the discussion of all the basic goods, where it is equated with a stirring of the soul by which the human being as a human being is lifted out of the prosaic everyday world and wonders about their place in the universe, and second where it is unfolded as an “outrider” in the harmony one has or seeks with the Creator of all that is. Finnis—or anyone—pays a price for raising such issues, in that potential readers may lose interest or patience in the book, and put it down without reading what it has to say about other subjects. We may call this “the price of entry” to the book’s other doctrines. By postponing religious or theological subjects to his book’s final chapter, Finnis hoped to avoid this high price, but in doing so he faces other trade-offs.