God's Will as the Foundation of Morality

A Medieval Historical Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID4755957
AuthorsJanine Idziak, Janine Marie Idziak (Loras College, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue5
Pages362
Publication date2021-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12050362
OpenAlexW3165233887
LanguageEN
References cited12

Theological voluntarism places the foundation of morality in the will of God. The formulation of such a thesis warrants further refinement. Different formulations of theological voluntarism were put forward in medieval philosophical theology involving the relation of God's will to the divine intellect (reason) in determining ethical status. The fourteenth century Franciscan Andrew of Neufchateau maintained a purely voluntaristic theory in which it is God's will alone (and not the divine intellect) that determines ethical status. Subsequently Pierre d'Ailly worked with a divine will which is identical with the divine intellect in a strong sense while still maintaining that it is properly assigned to the divine will to be an obligatory law. Later, Jean Gerson, a student of Pierre d'Ailly, spoke explicitly of God's will and reason together as involved in God's activity in the ethical realm. In this paper, we set out these three different formulations of theological voluntarism, tracing the evolution of medieval formulations of theological voluntarism. Although the paper is historical in nature, we conclude with some reflections on how contemporary philosophers and theologians interested in theological voluntarism might profit from study of this historical literature

Epistemology · Intellect · Morality · Theology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Medieval Literature and History · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy

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