The Fate of Natural Law at the Turning of the Ages

With an eye to the present resurgence of interest in natural law within Protestant theology and ethics, the author explores the transformation of the concept of the “natural” within Paul's telling of the gospel of God as presented in the work of J. Louis Martyn and others in the so-called Union School. What does a quest for moral order via natural law have to do with the ethical question as Paul puts it: “Who is Lord?” or “Who owns the earth?” The apocalyptic gospel renders that the apocalyptic gospel renders untenable claims that a rationally accessible moral order of creation simply abides undisturbed by the outworking of the drama of salvation. Attention to the cosmic dimensions of Paul's witness raises a sharp challenge to the viability of natural law ethics within any Christian theology that hopes to keep faith with the twice-born apostle, even as other ways of achieving the aims pursued by appeal to natural law are opened up thereby. The concept of the natural must be recovered on the basis of the gospel itself

Apostle · Appeal · Art · Christian ethics · Comparative law · Drama · Faith · Gospel · Literature · Natural (archaeology · Natural law · Natural order · Order (exchange · Philosophy of law · Political science · Protestantism · Theology · Witness · History · Law · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Theology and Philosophy of Evil