Beyond Divine Command Theory: Moral realism in the Hebrew Bible

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Beyond Divine Command Theory: Moral realism in the Hebrew Bible
 
Creator Gericke, Jaco W.
 
Subject Biblical Studies Divine Command Theory; moral realism; Hebrew Bible; metaethical refl ection; moral epistemology
Description Philosophical approaches to ancient Israelite religion are rare, as is metaethical reflection on the Hebrew Bible. Nevertheless, many biblical scholars and philosophers of religion tend to take it for granted that the biblical metaethical assumptions about the relation between divinity and morality involve a pre-philosophical version of Divine Command Theory by default. In this paper the author challenges the popular consensus with several arguments demonstrating the presence of moral realism in the text. It is furthermore suggested that the popular consensus came about as a result of prima facie assessments informed by anachronistic metatheistic assumptions about what the Hebrew Bible assumed to be essential in the deity–morality relation. The study concludes with the observation that in the texts where Divine Command Theory is absent from the underlying moral epistemology the Euthyphro Dilemma disappears as a false dichotomy.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor North-West University (Vaal-Triangle)
Date 2009-09-10
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — descriptive; analytical; historical; philosophical
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v65i1.160
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 65, No 1 (2009); 5 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/160/237
 
Coverage Ancient Near East Iron age —
Rights Copyright (c) 2009 Jaco W. Gericke https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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