Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Orthodox Protestant Case FOR The Natural Law:

Jordan J. Ballor of the Acton Institute points us to some valuable sources that make this case. He parenthetically mentions one of my posts describing the Protestant case against the natural law. I hope he didn't get the message that I took a position that the natural law is incompatible with orthodox Protestantism. (Though I have my suspicions on whether it is.)

Note, because I'm not a believer I don't take an official prescriptive position on whether natural law is compatible with orthodox Christianity, Protestant, Catholic or otherwise; I just want to describe what's out there. The Roman Catholic Church because it is a top down organization, has officially embraced the natural law since Aquinas incorporated Aristotle's teachings into Christendom. Because Protestantism is by its nature decentralized, the sects (obviously) differ. I was simply noting Francis Schaeffer's rejection of the natural law and how some orthodox Protestants today likewise reject it.

There is a case to be made, I understand, that many of the great orthodox Protestant thinkers of the past embraced the natural law more so than most folks realize. And I'm all ears (or eyes) when it comes to learning more about it.

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