Module 2: Divine Command Theory

Euthyphro Dilemma

• A dialogue between Euthyphro and Socrates written by Plato

• “Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”

• “Does God command this particular action because it is morally right, or is it morally right because God commands it?”

St. Augustine of Hippo

• A philosopher and theologian who became a key figure in the rise of Christianity during the Medieval period.

• God is the “unique and perfect cause” that created all things.

Will

• The human capacity that endorses or approves what we love or not.

• The capability of humans to select among these desires, which to resist and which to follow.

Virtue

• “rightly ordered love”

• Consists of setting things in their order of priority and making choices according to their worth.

Material people

• Beings that desire material happiness and temporal peace.

Spiritual people

• Beings who love God, seek spiritual happiness and eternal peace.

St. Thomas Aquinas

• The greatest intellectual figure of the Medieval Age.

• Combined Aristotelian science and Augustinian theology into a comprehensive system of thought that later became the authoritative philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church.

Eternal Law

• The rational plan of God by which all creation is ordered.

• Because it is part of God’s “mind,” it has always existed.

• Everything has a purpose and follows a plan.

• Something is good as far as it fulfills its goal or end.

Natural Law

• Acting according to reason.

• Its origin is the eternal law

• If we act according to our reason, then we agree to some “overarching principle” that is absolute and binding.

• “primary precepts”

  • preservation of life, reproduction and education of offspring, knowledge and worship of God, and living well in society. 

Human Law

• “secondary precepts”

• Laws created by governments, communities, and societies.

• It is not always acceptable to follow these laws such as when governments fail to protect their people.

• Only if these laws are consistent with the Natural Law that we are to obey them.

Divine Law

• Laws revealed by God for us to follow such as the Ten Commandments.

• These laws are unattainable neither by human laws nor by the Natural Law.

• Only God could have revealed these laws that are found in the Bible and Christian Tradition.