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Professor John Hill talked about his latest work, After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Modern and Moral Political Values, during a Faculty Book Talk at IU McKinney on November 10.

Professor Hill’s discussion was titled, “What We Are Losing: The Moral, Legal and Political Consequences of a Consistent Secular Philosophy.”

Early in his career as a law professor, Professor Hill said he spent a lot of time writing about things like freedom, human rights, human dignity. “Then one day it dawned on me that none of these ideals really make sense if God doesn’t exist,” he said.

Our legal system, along with our deepest moral and political principles, are grounded on a conception of the world that is now quickly vanishing, Professor Hill says. The assumptions of the past -- that there is a God, a human soul and an objective moral order -- have been under assault by philosophers for two or three centuries. But only in the last century have these attacks found their way into the domain of American law, politics and culture, he asserts. The result is that people continue to use the vocabulary of the older worldview -- using terms like "free will and responsibility," "the self," "human dignity," and "liberty of conscience" -- while redefining these terms in ways that are more consistent with the secular-materialism of our age.

Professor Hill holds a J.D. and a doctorate in philosophy, both of which he received from Georgetown University. In addition to being a professor of law at IU McKinney, where he teaches constitutional law, civil procedure, torts, jurisprudence and ethical and legal issues at the end of life, he also is a Grimes Fellow, and an adjunct professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at IUPUI.

In the photo, Professor John Hill displays a copy of his book.