Loading...
Is there a biblical warrant for natural-law theories
Johnson, Alan F.
Johnson, Alan F.
Author(s)
Contributor(s)
Collections
Files
Loading...
n25-2-pp185-199_JETS.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.71 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
"With the renewed interest in ethics in the society in general and in evangelical Christian social ethics in particular, it seems appropriate to raise the question of the validity of some sort of a natural moral law (NML) concept as an essential ingredient to a viable evangelical Christian social ethic. Emil Brunner has noted that "the theologian's attitude toward theologia naturales decides the character of his ethics."' Yet the concept has both frustrated and intrigued the Church throughout most of its history. The Christian community has found it hard to live with, as well as without, NML thinking.2 Significantly, several important ethical books published in the late 60s and early 70s have called for the rethinking of NML concepts among Protestant ethicists.' The challenge has come quite recently from leading Protestant ethicist James Gustafson. He has called on Protestant ethicists to reexamine the Biblical warrant for NML in the light of recent Roman Catholic attempts to establish a firm Biblical warrant for NML concepts. Gustafson believes that Protestant ethical thought that opposes NML thinking must now show why the arguments of recent Catholic scholars, such as Joseph Fuchs, who argue that numerous Biblical texts support an NML concept, cannot bear the weight from an exegetical standpoint that these Catholic scholars put on them.4 Finally, Klaus Bockmuehl of Regent College recently asked Christianity Today readers to reexamine the idea of NML, claiming good reasons for the early Church's identification of it with the Biblical creation order ("Current Religious Thought" "
Note(s)
Topic
Type
Article
Date
1982
Identifier
ISBN
DOI
Copyright/License
With permission of the license/copyright holder