Christianity presumes morality is connected in important ways to God.

God & Morality in Christian Traditions explores a wide range of philosophical issues related to that connection, including the metaphysical foundations of morality, the Fall and its implications, and how faith can affect one’s ability to discern obligations. Also included is a robust treatment of how vice and virtue shape one’s ethical life, as well as a timely discussion of how people—both Christians and non-Christians—can address deep moral disagreement in a pluralistic society. Drawing on Catholic, Protestant, and free church traditions, this volume highlights perspectives drawn from the natural law tradition, divine command theory, and virtue ethics, among other theoretical frameworks. Along the way, the authors provide salient insights on metaethics, moral epistemology, character development, and applied ethics. Scholars and students in Christian ethics, philosophy, and theology will benefit from this carefully edited and rigorously argued collection of essays.

J. CALEB CLANTON is University Research Professor and professor of philosophy at Lipscomb University.

KRAIG MARTIN is associate professor of philosophy in the College of Bible and Ministry at Harding University.

Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as Affiliate Professor of Political Science and Resident Scholar in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He has held appointments also at University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Notre Dame; Princeton University; Trinity International University; Whittier College; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His most recent books include Never Doubt Thomas (2019); Taking Rights Seriously (2014); A Second Look at First Things (with Robert P. George and Susan McWilliams); Politics for Christians (2010); Return to Rome (2009); Defending Life (2007); To Every One an Answer (2004, with William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland); Law, Darwinism, and Public Education (2003).

Christopher Tollefsen is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He serves on the State Department Commission on Unalienable Human Rights and has held visiting appointments at Princeton University, Wake Forest University, and Spiritan Institute of Philosophy (Ghana). He is author or editor of several books, including: The Way of Medicine (2021); Natural Law Ethics in Theory and Practice (2019, with John Liptay); Lying and Christian Ethics (2014); Bioethics with Liberty and Justice (2011); Biomedical Research and Beyond (2008); Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (2008, with Robert P. George); Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (2008); and John Paul II’s Contribution to Catholic Bioethics (2004).

J. Caleb Clanton is University Research Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Lipscomb University. He has held appointments at Pepperdine University and Vanderbilt University. His books include Nature and Command: On the Metaphysical Foundations of Morality (2022, with Kraig Martin); Great Ideas in History, Politics, and Philosophy (2021, with Richard Goode); Restoration and Philosophy (2019); Philosophy of Religion in the Classical American Tradition (2016); The Philosophy of Religion of Alexander Campbell (2013); The Classical American Pragmatists & Religion (2011); The Ethics of Citizenship (2009); and Religion & Democratic Citizenship (2008). He is currently completing a book project on metaethics (with Kraig Martin) entitled Nature and Command: On the Metaphysical Foundations of Morality.

Kraig Martin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Harding University. His research focuses on questions in epistemology, metaethics, and philosophy of religion. His published work has appeared in such journals as Logos & Episteme, Erkenntnis, Studies in Christian Ethics, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Faith and the Academy, and Religions. He is author (with J. Caleb Clanton) of Nature and Command: On the Metaphysical Foundations of Morality (2022).

Janine Marie Idziak is Professor of Philosophy Emerita at Loras College, where she has served as the Director of the Bioethics Center and Consultant for Health Care Ethics for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Her books include Ethical Dilemmas in Allied Health (2009); Organizational Ethics in Senior Health Care Services (2008); Questions on an Ethics of Divine Commands (1997); and Divine Command Morality (1979).

C. Stephen Evans is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University, where he also directs the Center for Christian Philosophy and is a Senior Fellow for the Institute for Studies of Religion. He serves as Professorial Fellow at the Logos Institute for Exegetical and Analytic Theology at the University of St. Andrews. He has held appointments at Regent College, Western Kentucky University, Trinity College, Wheaton College, St. Olaf College, and Calvin College. His many books include, most recently: Kierkegaard and Spirituality (2019); A History of Western Philosophy (2017); Why Christian Faith Still Make Sense; God and Moral Obligation (2013); Natural Signs and Knowledge of God (2010); and Kierkegaard: An Introduction (2009).

Daniel Bonevac is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include An Introduction to World Philosophy (2009); Today’s Moral Issues (2009); Deduction (2002); Worldly Wisdom (2001); Simple Logic (1999); Understanding Non-Western Philosophy (1993); Beyond the Western Tradition (1992); The Art and Science of Logic (1990); and Reduction in the Abstract Sciences (1982).

Blake McAllister is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hillsdale College. His research centers on epistemology, early modern philosophy, and philosophy of religion, and his work has appeared in such journals as Synthese, Faith and Philosophy, Australasian Philosophical Review, Theoria, Religious Studies, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and History of Philosophy Quarterly.

Michael Beaty is Professor of Philosophy and the former Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Baylor University. He is the author of numerous articles and the editor of Christian Theism and Moral Philosophy (1998) and Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy (1990).

Mac S. Sandlin is Associate Professor in the College of Bible and Ministry at Harding University. His areas of expertise include theological ethics, theology and culture, and pneumatology.

J. Aaron Simmons is Professor of Philosophy at Furman University. He also held appointments at Hendrix College, the University of the South, and Vanderbilt University. He has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth-century European philosophy and philosophy of religion. Some of his most recent works include Christian Philosophy (2019); Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life (2017); Contemporary Debates in Negative Theology and Philosophy (2017); Phenomenology for the Twenty-First Century (2016); The New Phenomenology (2013); Reexamining Deconstruction and Determinate Religion (2012); God and the Other (2011); and Kierkegaard and Levinas (2008).

Brandon Dahm is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the MA Program in Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville. His published works have appeared in such journals as American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Analytic Theology, Faith and Philosophy, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Religions, and Quaestiones Disputatae, among others.

“A timely and useful collection on some of the deepest questions about the relationship between God and morality by an impressive group of scholars.”

“This volume aptly frames and attends to the crucial issues and questions regarding the relationship between God and morality. The essays rightly take their place at the intersection of theology and philosophy and wonderfully combine rigor and constructive suggestion. The volume also does not privilege one approach, nor does it form an artificial consensus among the contributors. No uniform philosophical approach is synonymous with the Christian tradition and its relationship with contemporary philosophy. We owe a great debt to the editors for putting together such a fine work of scholarship and bringing the world of contemporary philosophy into serious conversation with particular expressions of the Christian faith.”

—Frederick D. Aquino, professor of theology and philosophy, Abilene Christian University, Graduate School of Theology

ISBN 9781684261529

Page 304

Dimensions 6 x 9

Weight .5