Some time ago I asked myself: What is Catholic Philosophy? My answer was:

Catholic philosophy, then, is use of philosophical methods to understand a mystery of Catholicism with the intent of at least getting partial truth about it. In Catholic philosophy scripture may be cited; but only as a motivation for dealing with the topic. It is unlikely that a non-Catholic would engage in Catholic philosophy. A non-Catholic might read through Aquinas’ arguments about the existence of angels merely to appreciate how Aquinas reasoned. You cannot read the philosophy of a Catholic philosopher without thinking philosophcally. But the philosophical thinking required to read Catholic philosophy is not by itself Catholic philosophy A Catholic philosopher is a faithful Catholic who engages in Catholic philosophy.

In several posts, I have been trying to articulate a rationale for retributive punishment. See, for instance, Retributive Punishment is Consistent with the Logic of Moral Thinking. Roughly, the notion of retributive punishment is that harm ought to be brought about simply because a moral law was broken. Trying to show that accepting retributive punishment is consistent with our current moral thinking is simply a philosophic task: not a Cathlic philosophic task. Similarly, arguing that the notion of retributive punishment is justifiable or not justifiable is philosophy: not Catholic philosophy.

I am trying to show that retributive punishment is consistent with moral thinking and that it is justifiable to retain it. So far, I am working as a philosopher. However, my motivation transforms my philosophy into Catholic philosophy. I hope to gain a better partial understanding of the Catholic doctrine that God became man so that He could suffer and die to save humanity from death. I studied the famous Cur Deus Homo? of St. Anselm. I could never be persuaded by his line of thought. Finally, I realized that to appreciate Anselm, I had to accept the intelligibility and even morality of retributive punishment. So, now I switched to Catholic philosophizing about retributive punishment. But I could have done the same kind of thinking about retribution without any Catholic motivation. Once I rationalized retributive punishment, other questions about retribution and Catholic belief arose. For instance, Is retribution required by God? and, if so, would not we have to think of God as somehow being satisfied by human suffering? These are troubling religious questions for they certainly suggest God might be some type of tyrant. So, I try to show that morality itself, in so far as it is a human construction, requires the suffering of retribution. It is we ourselves, as a moral community, who receive satisfaction from the suffering of retributive punishment. Now, even these questions about who receives satisfaction from the suffering of retributive punishment could be undertaken without a religious motivation