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Burnside, Jonathan --- "Natural law and biblical law" [2019] ELECD 2211; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 181

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Natural law and biblical law

Author(s): Burnside, Jonathan

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

Jonathan Burnside’s chapter considers the role of natural law in the Bible. He explores this topic through a close reading of a single text, namely Psalm 19. Burnside employs this text to draw out the nuanced biblical relationship between natural law and revelation. It is commonly (and erroneously) assumed that because the Bible is a revealed text, it has little or nothing to say about natural law in the sense of moral truths discerned by humans independently of revelation. However, Burnside’s reading of Psalm 19 shows this assumption to be false. The psalm emphasises what Burnside aptly calls ‘the very philosophical foundation of natural law theory, namely, a relationship of harmony between the natural and the ethical’. It shows that creation and Torah are inherently related, although not equivalent, and thereby undermines the assumed dichotomy between nature and revelation. In so doing, the Psalm shows biblical law and natural law to be mutually supporting concepts. Burnside concludes his chapter by examining a number of continuities between the divine and natural realms which help us understand how the Bible in general - and Psalm 19 in particular - bring the two forms of normativity into dialogue.