Natural Law in the Teaching of the Reformers

McNeill, John T.

doi:10.1086/483478

Cited by 83 publications

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“…Following Calvin, Humfrey therefore suggested that the individual was continually dependent upon the divine will in political, religious, and moral matters. 150 This reinterpretation of natural law justified Humfrey's distinction between subjection and obedience and allowed him to present an alternative system for the workings of conscience. If the only morally obligatory laws derived directly from the declared will of God, then it followed that laws without, or contrary to, the sanction of God's authority did not impose moral obligations upon their subjects.…”

Section: John Humfreymentioning

confidence: 97%

Between Hobbes and Locke

Chatterjee

2019

LockeStud

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This article presents a new understanding of how the context of Restoration debates around toleration, magisterial authority and political obligation impinged upon Locke’s mature thought. It proposes that prominent Anglican clergymen, by utilising Hobbist ideas in their arguments for religious conformity, transformed the debate around toleration. In particular, Samuel Parker’s Discourse of Ecclesiastical Politie’s potent mix of Hobbism, theological moralism and Scholastic natural law led to important nonconformists, such as Owen and Ferguson, reshaping their arguments in response. They were forced to make an argument upon first principles as to precisely why Parker’s naturalistic account of ecclesiastical authority was inadequate to justify their own particular view of religious institutions. Crucially, the specific features of Parker’s argument, led to John Humfrey, a largely overlooked figure, developing a set of ideas that preconfigured Locke’s later thought. This article then highlights Locke’s creative engagement with the ideas of his time, by charting the changes to Locke’s ecclesiology and view of natural law from 1667-1674, alongside the similar conceptual shifts made by Humfrey.

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Section: John Humfreymentioning

confidence: 97%

Between Hobbes and Locke

Chatterjee

2019

LockeStud

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“…Much twentieth-century theological scholarship attempted to sever the ties between Reformed thought and the natural law tradition despite several now classic essays indicating quite the opposite (McNeill 1946;Eusden 1960;Gibbs 1971). Recent scholarship has not only demonstrated that this minority report among the older scholarship was on the right track, it has shown the direct relationship between Reformed thought on natural law and the older natural law tradition and the importance of the Reformed contribution to natural law theory in the early modern era (Grabill 2006;Witte 2007Witte , 2009Burton 2014) and it has demonstrated the confessional location and theological connection of jurists in Reformed circles (Goudriaan 2011), and demonstrating common ground with Lutheran jurisprudence and significant differences with Roman Catholic (Strohm 2008).…”

Section: Interactions With Philosophy and The Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directions in the Study of Early Modern Reformed Thought

Muller

2016

Perichoresis

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ABSTRACT. Given both the advances in understanding of early modern Reformed theology made in the last thirty years, the massive multiplication of available sources, the significant literature that has appeared in collateral fields, there is a series of highly promising directions for further study. These include archival research into the life, work, and interrelationships of various thinkers, contextual examination of larger numbers of thinkers, study of academic faculties, the interrelationships between theology, philosophy, science, and law, and the interactions positive as well as negative between different confessionalities.KEY WORDS: Reformed orthodoxy, post-Reformation Reformed thought, early modernity, exegesis, philosophy Recent Advances in ResearchThe study of early modern Reformed thought has altered dramatically in the last several decades. The once dominant picture of Calvin as the prime mover of the Reformed tradition and sole index to its theological integrity has largely disappeared from view, as has the coordinate view of 'Calvinism' as a monolithic theology and the worry over whether later Reformed thought remained 'true' to Calvin. The relatively neglected field of seventeenth-century Reformed thought has expanded and developed both in the number of diverse thinkers examined and in the variety of approaches to the materials. (Given the number of recent published studies of early modern Reformed thought, the following essay makes no attempt to offer a full bibliography, but only to provide examples of various types of research. Readers are invited to explore the excellent bibliographies found in many of the recent works cited here.)There are several explanations for the development of this field. The positive study of late medieval backgrounds by scholars of the Reformation has altered assumptions about the nature and character of Protestant thought.

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“…5 5 For more on this topic, see McNeill 1946, 182, and Wendel 1987, 206–8. John Leith summarizes the issues in a most succinct and comprehensive way: “The law is not something which God has arbitrarily imposed on human existence.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Space and purpose do not allow a more complete investigation, however. For more on these concepts and their relation to Jesus's summary of the Law, see Calvin II.viii.11, IV.xx.14–16; McNeill 1946, 180–81; McNeill 1943, 158–59; and Leith 1989, 185–97.…”

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confidence: 99%

CALVINIST RESOURCES FOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: A Critique of Michael Walzer's Revolution of the Saints

Beach-Verhey¹

2009

Journal of Religious Ethics

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Inheriting the religious prejudices of the Enlightenment, many supporters of liberal democracy consider John Calvin's theology contrary to the norms and virtues necessary for productive public discourse in a religiously and culturally diverse society. In Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics, Michael Walzer makes a similar assumption, arguing that, despite its contribution to political modernization, the inherent fideism, absolutism, and intolerance of Calvinism constitutes a threat to public discourse in liberal society. In this paper, I contend that the prevailing understanding of Calvin's theology is incorrect. In actuality he is a nuanced natural law thinker, whose complex understanding of human nature and the state encourages the subtle balance of virtues that contemporary political life requires.

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Natural Law in the Teaching of the Reformers

Cited by 83 publications

References 0 publications

Between Hobbes and Locke

Between Hobbes and Locke

Directions in the Study of Early Modern Reformed Thought

CALVINIST RESOURCES FOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: A Critique of Michael Walzer's Revolution of the Saints

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