{"id":5412,"date":"2010-02-01T05:48:03","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T05:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/law-at-the-jesus-creed-david-o-6.html"},"modified":"2010-02-01T05:48:03","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T05:48:03","slug":"law-at-the-jesus-creed-david-o-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/law-at-the-jesus-creed-david-o-6.html","title":{"rendered":"Law at the Jesus Creed: David Opderbeck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lawbook.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>David Opderbeck, a professor of law, weighs in on a crucial theological topic that affects our understanding of law. Are you Roman Catholic or Reformed — or where are you on this issue?<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n


<\/i> <\/p>\n

Law:  <\/span>Can We Be Good?<\/b><\/p>\n

Law is an effort to respond to one of the most basic human questions:  <\/span>“what does it mean for people to be ‘just’ and ‘good'”?  <\/span>Any understanding of “law” therefore will presuppose an anthropology (a theory of what it means to be human) as well as an ethical framework constructed around that anthropology.<\/p>\n

All Christian theories of law share at least two basic anthropological assumptions:   <\/span>(1) human beings are created in God’s image, and therefore are created “good”; but (2) human beings are fallen.  <\/span>Within the Christian tradition, however, there is significant disagreement about the implications of the claim that human beings are “fallen.” <\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think the doctrine of the fall implies about human nature?  <\/span>How do these implications relate to theories of law?  <\/span>Can we consider acts of civil society that seem to be “good” – for example, efforts by non-Christians and Christians alike to care for victims of the Haitian earthquake – to be genuinely “good?”<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n

There is a subtle but substantial divide between Catholic and
\nReformed anthropology that can significantly impact theories of law.  <\/span>According to the great Medieval
\nCatholic theologian Thomas Aquinas, the fall marred the “likeness” of God in
\nhumanity but did not obliterate the “image” of God.  <\/span>Aquinas based this conclusion on a (probably incorrect)
\nexegesis of Gen.  <\/span>1:26, which uses
\ndifferent terms translated “image” and “likeness” (“Then God said, let us make
\nman in our image [tselem], according to our likeness [demut]. . . .”). <\/span><\/p>\n

For Aquinas, this meant that human reason<\/i> survived the fall more or less intact.  <\/span>Human beings, therefore, remain capable
\nof understanding what is right and good according to “natural reason” even
\nafter the fall.  <\/span>All human beings,
\naccording to Aquinas, “possess a natural aptitude for understanding and loving
\nGod; and this aptitude consists in the very nature of the mind, which is common
\nto all men”  <\/span>(Summa Theologica, I.93.4<\/a>.).  <\/span>The “likeness” of God, however, is a
\nresemblance to God’s glory, which can only be recovered by those who are
\nregenerated by God.  <\/span>(Ibid.) 
\n<\/span><\/i>A person can only “habitually” know and love God through grace.  <\/span>(Ibid.)  <\/span><\/i>People therefore are capable of
\nknowing and doing good, but can only habitually do good through divine grace,
\nand can only become perfect and thereby have the “likeness” of God restored
\nthrough ultimate divine salvation.<\/p>\n

Aquinas’ view that all people possess the spark of reason
\nunderwrites the possibility of “natural law” reasoning.  <\/span>Christians might know God’s law more fully
\nthan non-Christians, but Christians and non-Christians can find common ground
\nin the shared “image” of God through the exercise of reason.  <\/span>This facilitates a system of civil law
\nand governance that is not necessarily drawn directly from special divine
\nrevelation.<\/p>\n

The Reformers understood the fall’s effects more
\nextensively.  <\/span>The Heidelberg
\nCatechism<\/a> states the orthodox Reformed view with dour Puritanical
\nsimplicity:<\/p>\n

Question 8.<\/span><\/strong>  <\/span>Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing
\nany good, and inclined to all wickedness?<\/span><\/p>\n

Answer:<\/span><\/strong> 
\n<\/span>Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. <\/span><\/p>\n

This view of the fall’s effects leaves no space for any
\nconcept of “natural reason” or “natural law.” In fact, it leaves no room for
\nthe notion that a non-Christian who cares for Haitian earthquake victims is
\ndoing something genuinely “good.” 
\n<\/span>At best, the unregenerate person can accomplish “civic good” – things
\nthat are generally good for society – but these are never truly “good” works
\nbecause the unregenerate will remains bent only towards the self and away from
\nGod.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Reformers and their theological heirs
\nwrestled extensively with the problem of “apparent good” being done by
\nnon-Christians.  <\/span>As described in a
\ndelightful book by Stephen Grabill (Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>), a number of early Reformed jurisprudes
\ndeveloped natural law theories based on the notion that God graciously allows
\neven unregenerate people to discern something of what is necessary to maintain
\nsocial order.  <\/span>These ideas
\neventually fed into a detailed theology of “common grace,” most notably in the
\nDutch Reformed tradition exemplified by Abraham Kuyper and Hermann Dooyeweerd,
\nand echoed today by writers such as Charles Colson and Richard Mouw.<\/p>\n

The “common grace” tradition seems to exist in severe
\ntension with the Heidelberg Catechism’s absolutism about human ability to do
\ngood.  <\/span>Indeed, many branches of the
\nReformed tradition today – both in its conservative-fundamentalist forms and in
\nits more “mainline” Barthian varieties – reject the notion of “common grace” as
\nessentially heretical.   <\/span>Under
\nthese approaches to the Reformed tradition, “law” generally can be grounded
\nonly in revealed divine commands. 
\n<\/span>More “conservative” versions of divine command theory tend to result in
\nreconstructionist and\/or separationist views of positive law; more “mainline”
\nversions tend to give up on the idea of meaningful engagement with secular
\npositive law.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I have always liked the idea of “common grace.”  <\/span>Nevertheless, I have to confess that it
\nseems exceedingly hard to justify by scripture or by the Magesterial \/
\nconfessional Reformed tradition.  <\/span>I
\nalso quite like the Catholic Social Teaching tradition’s appealing to the
\nintegrity and beauty of reason. 
\n<\/span>Nevertheless, I have to confess that it at some point it offends my
\nReformed-ish sensibilities, as well as my “postmodern” skepticism of “neutral”
\naccounts of “reason.” I’m also very hesitant about Aquinas’ anthropology, which
\nseems to be based in a key exegetical mistake in distinguishing the divine
\n“image” and “likeness.”<\/p>\n

What’s a Christian to
\ndo when it comes to thinking about anthropology, law, and the “good?”  <\/span>How should we characterize acts by
\nnon-Christians, such as helping earthquake victims, that seem to be “good?”  <\/span>Is “natural law” theory a viable
\nChristian option?<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Opderbeck, a professor of law, weighs in on a crucial theological topic that affects our understanding of law. Are you Roman Catholic or Reformed — or where are you on this issue? Law:  Can We Be Good? 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