Bruce Rights in the Law

The Importance of God's Free Choices in the Thought of Francis Turretin
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-647-55059-6
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band Band 024, 172 Seiten

Reihe: Reformed Historical Theology

James E. Bruce explores the relationship between morality and God's free choices in the thought of Francis Turretin (1623-1687). The first book-length treatment of Turretin's natural law theory, Rights in the Law provides an important theological backdrop to Early Modern moral and political philosophy. Turretin affirms Thomas Aquinas's approach to the natural law, calling it the common opinion of the Reformed orthodox, but he develops it, too, by introducing a threefold scheme of right (ius)-divine, natural, and positive-to explain how change within the law is possible. For example, God can change the specific day for Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday-from positive right-without changing the natural law precept that finite creatures ought to rest. Yet even with respect to the natural law God is still free. God can make a world in which there is no such thing as murder: he can choose not to make a world that contains such a thing as man. What God cannot do is make a murderable man. So God's free choices determine the natural law insofar as the natural law is constituted by the nature of the things that God has chosen to create.

James E. Bruce, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, USA.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruce, James E.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Fundamentaltheologie, Dogmatik, Christologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Geschichte der Theologie, Einzelne Theologen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Cover
;1
2;Title Page
;4
3;Copyright
;5
4;Table of Contents
;8
5;Body
;11
6;Acknowledgments;10
7;1. Introduction;11
7.1;From the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period;15
7.2;Turretin’s Approach to the Relationship between Divine Choice and the Natural Law;18
7.3;Turretin’s Reformed Natural Law;22
7.4;An Outline of this Work;23
7.5;An Explanation of the Sources Used and the Method of Citation . .;25
8;2. The Law;27
8.1;The Technical Vocabulary;27
8.2;Using the Distinctions to Frame the Question;29
8.3;Medieval Answers to the Question;31
8.4;Turretin’s Relationship to Aquinas;34
8.5;The Modern Challenge: Human Establishment of Justice and Virtue;37
8.6;Turretin’s Thomistic Solution: A Creative Use of Right (Ius), Authority, and Dominion (Dominium);38
9;3. Creation, Choice, and Law;42
9.1;The Relationship between God’s Right and His Will;42
9.2;The Breadth of God’s Choices in His Choosing;50
9.3;Divine Choice and Divine Freedom;57
9.4;Divine Choice and Natural Law;62
9.5;Necessity and Divine Choice;64
10;4. Partly the Nature of God and Partly His Will;70
10.1;TheOne andTriuneGod;70
10.2;God’s Justice andHisWill;71
10.3;God’s Justice forGod and forUs;72
10.4;Natural and Positive Right;73
10.5;Turretin’s Epistemology of Goodness;74
10.6;God’s Holiness Constrains His Will;75
10.7;Turretin’s Defense of His Position;77
10.8;Response to Possible Objections to Natural Right;81
10.9;Divine Freedom and Obligation;82
10.10;Divine Freedom and Vindictive Justice;83
10.11;Divine Freedom and Natural Justice;85
10.12;The Consolation of Necessary Justice ;88
11;5. God’s Power and His Law;89
11.1;ThePowerofGod;89
11.2;The Possible and the Impossible;89
11.3;Supernatural and Divine Possibility and Impossibility;90
11.4;Natural Possibility and Impossibility;90
11.5;Moral Possibility and Impossibility;91
11.6;God’s Holiness and His Virtue;92
11.7;What God Can and Cannot Do;92
11.8;An Analysis of Contradictory Predicates;93
11.9;God’s Power and the Impossible;93
11.10;Divine Freedom Reconsidered with Reference to Contrary and Contradictory Things;95
11.11;The Relationship of a Thing’s Limits to God’s;97
11.12;ThePowerofGod andtheWill ofGod;99
12;6. TheLawofGod;101
12.1;Simple and Mixed Precepts;101
12.2;God’s Dominion, God’s Government;102
12.3;Natural and Positive Rights;103
12.4;The Sabbath as an Example;105
12.5;Distinguishing between Natural Right and Positive Right;105
12.6;Kinds of Natural Right: Divine Natural Right and Natural Natural Right;107
12.7;Distinguishing between Divine Right and Natural Right;107
12.8;Natural Right and Divine Command;109
12.9;Abraham and Isaac;111
12.10;Plundering the Egyptians;113
12.11;Natural Law and Divine Choice;116
12.12;Immutability and Indispensability;117
13;7. The Case for Natural Law;119
13.1;Five Appeals for Natural Law;119
13.2;The Challenge of Human Sinfulness;130
13.3;The Challenge of New World Discoveries;131
14;8. Towards a More Rigorous Methodology;138
14.1;Interpretive Framework for Natural Law;138
15;9. A Summary of the Argument;150
16;Sources Consulted;153
17;Index ;163
18;Back Cover
;174

Über Autor(innen)

Bruce, James E.
James E. Bruce, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, USA.