Divine Command

1
Divine Command

• Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness, and
  reverence toward God must be inviolate. Great
  words of prideful men are ever punished with
  great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened
  to be wise.
• --Sophocles, Antigone

2
Fallout from Natural Law

• Cicero, St. Thomas, C.S. Lewis the alleged
  consensus on natural law provides proof of the
  existence of God
• Does this consensus exist?
• Does it provide the required evidence, if so, for
  the existence of God?
• If so, is not ethics, after all, founded on
  religion?
• Why not simply teach religious ethics?

3
Richard Mouw Commands for Grownups

• Prejudice against religious basis of ethics
• Assumption that appeals to religion are specious
  and unsophisticated a child-like fear of power
  and punishment (psychologists, philosophers,
  Marx)
• Mouw this outsiders perspective misses the
  point of religious faith
• Inside perspective theonomy (Psalm 1)

4
Practical Problems

• Most of us dont have time to meditate on this
  law
• Particularity of the commandments
• Tension with Universality of claims (St. Paul on
  the Law)
• Socratess dilemma with Euthyphro Is the Law
  righteous (just) because God ordains it, or does
  God ordain it because it is Just?

5
Natural Law and Divine Command

• St. Thomass Hierarchy of Law
• Revealed or Divine Law (eternal law) at the apex
• Natural law cannot in principle conflict, since
  God /Reason is its author
• Need special divine intervention, teaching to
  know the revealed (religious) law

6
The Dilemma of Conflicting Duties

• Story of Antigone
• Story of Abraham (Kierkegaard)
• Story of King David, Uriah the Hittite, Gen.
  Joab, and Nathan the Prophet
• Jim Jones, David Koresh
• Conflicting religions, competing interpretations
  of divine commands

7
The Dilemma of Naval Leadership

• You find yourself both a Navy or Marine Corps
  officer, and a devout believer in one of the
  recognized religious faiths. What happens when
  your devout religious beliefs conflict with
  natural law, with UCMJ, or with lawfully issued
  orders in the chain of command?
• You find yourself a Navy or Marine Corps officer,
  and you have men and women under your command who
  themselves encounter the dilemma above. What
  kind of counsel, leadership, advice, and example
  do you set or give?