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Christian Ethics In Jewish Terms: A Response to David Novak
Author(s) -
Hauerwas Stanley
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0025.00128
Subject(s) - sanctification , judaism , philosophy , natural law , natural (archaeology) , reservation , sociology , epistemology , law , theology , environmental ethics , political science , history , archaeology
While appreciating the illuminating qualities of Novak's account of natural law, Hauerwas also regards it as problematic precisely because of the unhealthy tension that remains between Novak's claim regarding the inseparability of theology and ethics, on the one hand, and his contention that the Noachian laws may ‘be taken to be a universal requirement’of human reason, on the other. Hauerwas' central reservation is that Novak's account is the danger of abstracting from the law's sanctifying intent; i.e., its purpose to form a holy people. A consequence for Jewish‐Christian dialogue, then, is a misplaced concentration on the role of the law in these respective traditions rather than different understandings of sanctification between (and within) these respective traditions.