Resurrection and Moral Order is divided into three main sections along with an introductory chapter. This blog post deals with that first chapter.
To understand Resurrection and Moral Order, we need to understand three concepts that underlie O’Donovan’s ethical framework. As I understand it, these three principles are the big assumptions that will drive how O’Donovan will set up his system of Christian ethics (he calls it “Christian moral principles”) by which we can determine ethical action. They help us understand how O’Donovan will defend the thesis of this book, that "[t]he foundations of Christian ethics must be evangelical foundations; or, to put it more simply, Christian ethics must arise from the gospel of Jesus Christ" (11, emphasis added). Here is a quick blurb about these concepts. The first principle deals with the way things are (maybe like ontology, but I can’t say for sure yet). The second principle deals with how we know the first principle (epistemology[?]), and the third principle deals with how we should act in light of the first two principles (ethics proper).
- The Realist Principle—“[p]urposeful action is determined by what is true about the world into which we act ..." (ix). This principle means that whatever we do, we do it because the world exists in a certain way. For example, the scientific method works because the universe is predictable. If I drop an apple, it will always fall to the ground. I live my life based on the fact that the world operates in a certain, predictable way.
- The Evangelical Principle--"That truth [i.e., the realist principle] is constituted by what God has done for his world and for humankind in Jesus Christ …” (ix). Not only does the way that creation is ordered determine our action, but the way that God has entered into the world and acted as a man also determines Christian action. Specifically, God did something during the act of the death and resurrection of Christ that has lasting repercussions for the created order. I haven’t quite worked through this one yet, but hope to.
- The Easter Principle--"[t]he act of God which liberates our action is focused on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which restored and fulfilled the intelligible order of creation” (ix). The Easter principle refers to the resurrection (though we will find out later that the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost is included here). For the Christian, the resurrection of Christ frees us to truly live, and the Spirit allows us to enjoy a freedom that humanity had not experienced since the fall.
These three principles work together and build off of each other. According to the Realist Principle, the created order really exists. It was really ordered in a certain way by God. This matters because we live in the created order. Because God ordered creation, this order in some way reflects his character. Acting in accordance with how creation was ordered means that we are acting in accordance with God’s character. If we act contrary to the way that creation was ordered, then we are acting contrary to the character of God. As we’ll see later, this has interesting implications on how we treat creation.
Through the fall, not only was the created order confounded, but our ability to understand it correctly was also confounded, meaning that it became much harder to act in accordance with the way creation was ordered because we no longer understood it properly. Also, creation itself was somehow affected as well (e.g., the ground was cursed after the fall so that it no longer yielded fruit like it once did). The Evangelical Principle sets aright our ability to understand the created order properly—both as is now (fallen) and how it should be (pre-fall and post-redemption). The Evangelical Principle includes what is called the Christ event (that is, the second Person of the Trinity became flesh and entered the world as part of the created order while still being the Creator). Along with this, the Evangelical Principle also includes divine revelation (the Bible).
According to O’Donovan, the Evangelical principle allows us to see the created order as it really is and really should be. This includes the flow of history as well. People understand that there is a past and a future. They may have a sense that events are moving toward something, but have no sense of the big picture or the destination. The revelation through Christ and the rest of Scripture gives us that big picture. It allows us to see the created order as it really is. The Bible’s eschatology gives us unique insight into where the created order is headed in the end.
The Easter Principle gives us freedom to act in light of this knowledge. It is one thing to know the truth. It is another to do it. In part, the Easter Principle allows us to act freely in accordance with the moral principles laid out in the books of Moses. But it is more than that (Galatians tells us that the law was our schoolmaster when we were children—we have moved on through grace to something better). The Easter Principle—specifically the gift of the Holy Spirit—allows us to have a special kind of freedom. When Christ was raised, O’Donovan writes that the Father reversed Adam’s decision to choose death. The resurrection and the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost reinstated us to the pre-fall position of Adam as lord (in a stewardship sense) of creation and gives us the power to name things just as Adam named the animals. When he named them, he was making up entirely new categories of thought, since he had no prior framework of naming from which to work. His act of naming the animals was a thoroughly new kind of act. In the same way, we have—through the Spirit—the possibility to name new moral situations (based on the Realist, Evangelical, and Easter Principles working together in a seamless whole) in an equally thoroughly new way. A quick caveat here: this is not unbridled creativity. The law, inadequate though it was, is still a reflection of God’s character and is therefore still binding insofar as it deals with ethical principles (as opposed to strictly ceremonial or theocratic principles). What I believe O’Donovan is saying here is that as we are confronted by new situations that aren’t mentioned specifically in Scripture (e.g., cloning, stem cell research, etc.), we have the ability to make normative ethical decisions and can create new categories of thinking about it (within the confines of the revelation of God and the Holy Spirit). In short, according to O’Donovan, we have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).
While O’Donovan certainly goes into much, much more detail, this is the main gist of the first chapter. There is a lot to unpack here. This chapter is like a quick sketch of the blueprint of the rest of the book. Some of these concepts may still be unclear at this point. Hopefully, we’ll be able to sort them out and understand them better throughout the rest of the book.
