David H. McIlroy
What's at stake in natural law?
McIlroy, David H.
Authors
Abstract
Something like natural law is required if Christians are to say that Jesus Christ is as relevant to human beings of every age and in every place that we have ever existed as a race. There must be something stable about the human condition which means that we are all alike in need of a Saviour. That something is the fact that we are created to love God and to love our neighbour. This much is revealed to all humankind. For the Apostle Paul and Thomas Aquinas the natural law was not given as an alternative method of salvation but rather to explain the justice of God’s judgment and the utter gratuity of divine grace. Similarly, natural theology is not an assertion that faith in Christ is optional but rather that all human beings are culpable if they do not recognise that there is a god who created them and rewards those who seek God. Natural theology is the minimum content of faith where Christ has not been proclaimed; it is no substitute for explicit faith in Christ when He has been revealed.
Citation
McIlroy, D. H. (2008). What's at stake in natural law?. New Blackfriars, 89(1023), 508-521. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2005.2007.00206.x
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Jan 1, 2008 |
Deposit Date | Sep 29, 2008 |
Journal | New Blackfriars |
Print ISSN | 0028-4289 |
Electronic ISSN | 1741-2005 |
Publisher | Wiley |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 89 |
Issue | 1023 |
Pages | 508-521 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2005.2007.00206.x |
Keywords | Natural Law Natural Theology Soteriology |
Downloadable Citations
About SOAS Research Online
Administrator e-mail: outputs@soas.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search