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Fiat Lux/Fiat Lex: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Reason and Law.
- Source :
- Law & Literature; Nov2023, Vol. 35 Issue 3, p491-513, 23p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Walter M. Miller Jr's A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) is an enigmatic text. It is a depressing tale of the evitability of technoscientific civilization ending in apocalypse, a comedic story of ignorant monks producing gold-embellished illuminated copies of electronic circuit blueprints and an ambiguous examination of the tensions between faith and science. This paper reads A Canticle for Leibowitz as an examination of legality. Drawing inspiration from Carl Schmitt's observation that Catholicism has a "juridical logic," this paper identifies that A Canticle for Leibowitz brings to life, and questions, the Thomist worldview of reason, reasonability and layered orders. It is a novel that brings to life, but also interrogates, Catholic intellectualism. It is tempting to conclude that Miller argues for a Thomist ethic of responsibility to temper technoscientific self-destruction. However, that is not where the novel ends. Its endings are hopeful, notwithstanding the nuclear holocaust in the final pages. There are suggestions of new nomoi: In the diasporic human extra-terrestrial colonies, ministered to by a nomadic Church, and a radiated Eden inherited by humanity's prelapsarian successors anticipated in the coming to life of Rachel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1535685X
- Volume :
- 35
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Law & Literature
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 172840781
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2022.2046900