How is "reality" known by the study of law? What is the relationship between
law and knowledge? After reviewing the basic concepts of gnoseology and the foundations
of canon law, G. proposes the only three ways in which reality is known, and discusses
each in turn: science, philosophy and theology. The author concludes that canon law,
as it has been taught, does not know reality in any of these three ways. In recent
years, what has been presented as the "theology of law" in reality is not
a reflection on the dogmatic foundations of ec c lesi al instituti ons ( which, in
any case , i s the le gitimate competenc e of ecclesiology), but has only been a
"simple" dogmatic-deductive procedure to justify apologetically the "embarrassing
juridicism" of the ecclesial body, grounding it aprioristically on the improbable
"law of the Gospel", presented as positive and proper juridic norms issued
voluntaristically by the Divine Legislator.
in: CANON LAW ABSTRACTS, (2004), N. 91, p. 13.