God and Moral Facts: A Trinitarian Realist Model of Christian Metaethics

Abstract

This dissertation is a model of Christian metaethics based on God's Triune nature. Chapter 1 discusses overall issues and problems in metaethics and how they relate to Christian theology, with emphasis on problems for Christian metaethics. Chapter 2 examines contemporary secular versions of moral realism in the academy. It also inquires into the various ways God may be related to moral obligations. Chapter 3 includes a broad survey of traditional Christian metaethics. Christian thinkers from both the natural law and divine command traditions are examined. Chapter 4 surveys metaethical models of writers from the revival of Christian metaethics in the twentieth century. Chapter 5 includes the dissertation's main argument for Trinitarian moral realism. God's Triune existence is posited as a fruitful way of founding moral obligations that dodges familiar conceptual difficulties. Chapter 6 seeks to show how Trinitarian realism can move from theory to practice. It first compares Trinitarian realism with Islamic metaethics. It then shows how the model can be applied to a particular moral case and, finally, to Christian apologetics.