VanDrunen, David --- "Natural law and Reformed theology" [2019] ELECD 2212; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 204

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Natural law and Reformed theology

Author(s): VanDrunen, David

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

The chapter by David VanDrunen examines Reformed Christian approaches to natural law theory. Catholic perspectives have played a leading role in the recent revival of natural law ideas. Protestant approaches, meanwhile, have gained less attention. VanDrunen’s chapter explores some of the reasons for this neglect, while also highlighting the current renewal of Reformed natural law scholarship. VanDrunen argues that natural law ideas retained a significant role in Reformed theology throughout its history, as shown by the work of John Calvin, Girolamo Zanchi, Franciscus Junius, Johannes Althuisus, and Francis Turretin, as well as more recent Reformed theologians such as John Witherspoon and Charles Hodge. The idea that Reformed theology is inimical to natural law, VanDrunen contends, only really took hold during the 20th century, due to the influence of Karl Barth and Dutch neo-Calvinism. Recent years, by contrast, have seen a resurgence of Reformed natural law thinking. There are, VanDrunen suggests, sound theological reasons for this. However, it is necessary for Reformed scholars to address a range of biblical, philosophical, ecumenical, and political questions if they are to afford natural law the kind of reception it has long enjoyed in the Catholic tradition.