In the 1960s, proportionalism was a consequentialist attempt to develop natural law, a principally Roman Catholic teleological theory most strongly associated with the 13th-century scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinas, but also found in Church Fathers such as Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus, as well as early pagan schools of philosophy such as Stoicism.
Proportionalism emerged as a consequentialist approach during the 1960s to formulate natural law, which is primarily a Roman Catholic teleological theory associated with the 13th-century scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinas. This concept also appears in Church Fathers like Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus, alongside early pagan philosophical schools such as Stoicism.