Title: "Theological Metaethics and the Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture"
Conference: Evangelical Philosophical Society (Southeast Regional)
Location: Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, AL
Abstract
Theological Metaethics is a topic seldom discussed by modern moral theologians who rest satisfied with conclusions in Normative and Applied Ethics. This is because moral theology tends to exhibit three fatal symptoms adopted from the Enlightenment: (1) the Historical-Grammatical method of interpretation, (2) an ad hominem critique and neglect of historical theology or philosophy due to their age, and (3) an aversion to philosophy as a discipline based on an aversion to philosophy as content. The historical-grammatical approach focuses on discovering a human author’s intent. The Theological Interpretation of Scripture movement seeks to understand God’s intent by focusing on theological intent and by considering historical theology. I propose a level of philosophical inquiry and questioning that inquires after God’s intent in prescribing moral precepts, including questions such as, “why be moral?”; “what is responsibility?”; “what is goodness?”; “how can we know right from wrong?”. Just as many in the TIS movement see themselves as returning to a traditional hermeneutic, so I call for a return to traditional philosophical theology in what I term the Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture. The Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture is an effort to ask the most abstract metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological questions of the Bible while maintaining a close tie to the exegesis of texts.