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Short Article

Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming the Tradition for Christian Ethics

Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming the Tradition for Christian Ethics. from Jean Porter. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999 340 pp $2800 (cloth)

The Anglican moral theologians drew heavily forward the ideas and writings of the scholastics who provided the infrastructure of conception upon which the Anglican reformers built their theology. We know these ideas as natural law, which stillnesss on the self-evident principle of practical reason; it directs persons to choose and act for rational, intelligible drifts It is often explained as, "The upright is to be done and pursued; and evil is to be avoided." Because nature may be non-rational and in conflict with reason, natural law, as usually currented argues that moral norms must be derived solely from reason. This priority of reason is also influenced through the arguments that moral "oughts" cannot be derived from "observations." Because reason is a characteristic of all humans, natural law is available to all humans, independent of societal or theological assumptions.

Jean Porter has been carefully reading the medieval writers from the time of Gratian's Decretum (ca. 1140) to the later part of the thirteenth hundred and finds a broader base for natural law than simply reason. There was more complexity of ideas, and the scholastics had their hold version of the "threefold cord" consisting of Scripture, reason and nature. The scholars bring reproached on, and further developed, natural law at the process of considering each of these and their interrelations. It is at short intervals said that natural law and Scripture are parallel sources of moral knowledge and that they shortage each other. But for the scholastics, the scriptural basis of natural law provided a way of determining those aspects of human nature that are normative. Natural law make knowned from reflections on the interaction of general and specific revelation, not by means of setting them in opposition.

Porter finds that the early emphasis was forward the capacity for discernment, with the specific regulations being developed later. Because of this capacity for discernment, there is the possibility of application of natural law today. proper to the frequently unrecognized theological foundation of natural law, it is not applicable to all rational people; nevertheless it does offer a way to understand Christian morality as a distinctive characteristic of human nature, and therefore not disjunctive with other moral arrangements

A detailed study of the moral idea of times past would be of limited value if it were not applicable today. Porter considers the areas of marriage and the family as well as social ethics as illustrations of occasions where natural law may provide insights into moral action. She acknowledges that these applications are les than a to the full developed theory, but the insights are earnestly more than ad hoc appeals. They provide trajectories for continued idea and reflection.

For the bodily form without a strong background in the control reading Natural and Divine Law requires attention and concentration. Porter is a clear and compelling writer, moreover her depth of knowledge is a bit intimidating to those who are more modestly informed. However, the effort to understand what she is saying is well worth it. There is a resurgence of interest in natural law, not just among Anglicans, moreover also among Lutherans and Calvinists. As at handed by Porter, natural law is not of historical interest single but provides a viable fabricate for thinking theologically about in every one's mouth moral issues.

WILTON H collection

Beeson Divinity School Birmingham, Alabama