Divine Covenants and Moral Order: A Biblical Theology of Natural Law. By David VanDrunen.

Abstract

This book comes from systematic theology but uses a strong biblical element to make its case. The second volume of three on natural law, it is an attempt to recover Reformed theology on natural law, guided by classic Reformed covenant theology. Van Drunen calls for ‘a theological-ethical exploration of natural law that is grounded in the thorough exegesis of Scripture, set in the context of the larger biblical story of creation, fall, preservation, redemption and consummation, and developed upon a distinctively Protestant theological foundation’ (p. 9), In good Reformed tradition he sees the biblical covenants as the main organizational principle for biblical theology. Unlike the Reformers, however, he places a particular focus on the covenant with Noah. He does not see that as a ‘covenant of grace’ (as those with Adam, Jesus, other Old Testament figures, and the New Testament church) but rather as a ‘covenant of works’, alongside other reflections on nature/creation/life in the biblical tradition. The Noachic covenant as a universal covenant links up with the natural order and human society. Therefore the contrast is not between covenantal and not, rather it is between different types of covenant. Whilst the original covenant was of creation, with Adam, after the Fall natural law was refracted through the covenant with Noah. The original goal of a ‘new creation’ was postponed into an ever more eschatological future, but the plan of salvation was enacted through Jesus Christ. VanDrunen explores how the natural law involves ethical obligations and their consequences—it is law not in the sense of rules but through general principles, nature, and the moral order. It is divinely revealed through the medium of wisdom. He adopts a canonical approach in that interpreting individual parts of Scripture needs to be done in the context of the whole.